A number of things run through my mind when I meet people. I can
be shallow and have a pair of shoes catch my eye or be struck by
a smile. Getting to know them better I might start to wonder about
their life. It never crosses my mind if a woman I'm speaking to has
suffered mutilation to the most intimate part of her body. But women
do have to think about it. Millions of women, girls and infants
cannot escape the reality that has been inflicted on them in this
country and abroad. They can only know a growing sense of being
different, of something being wrong.
genital mutilation, the harmful and medically unnecessary alteration
of a female's genital organs; this ranges from removal of the clitoris
to the creation of a seal to the vagina. This act can be committed
over a range of ages from a child's birth; in places like Eritrea,
groups of neonatal girls are taken to be cut together. The custom in
some areas is to 'cut' girls within the first few days. This is typically
carried out without anesthesia or adequate surgical instruments
though medicalisation of the procedure has been noted to be on
the increase.
Within some communities women are expected to have this
artificial seal opened for marriage consummation, before resealing
until childbirth, after which they are often re-sutured. The ramifications are unsurprisingly severe and far-reaching, both medically and psychologically for the 125 million
females to have experienced it in the focus points of Sub-Saharan Africa (the prevalence of FGM in Somalia is 98%) and the
Middle East.
There are 66000 females in the UK already living with FGM and a
believed 20,000 children at risk of it. In spite of this, we only saw the
first prosecutions relating to this crime earlier this year.
Though I'd read about FGM in the past, the talk I attended on this
topic over a month ago was my first. I wasn't surprised when the
girl next to me fainted and I feel no shame in saying I found it incredibly uncomfortable. The first few minutes were psychologically
stressful and I think they should have been. FGM is something
that cannot be just studied. FGM is an issue that people have to
live in fear of, as the recent campaign to help Afusat Saliu has
demonstrated.
For anyone that isn't among the 115,557 people to have signed the
petition on her case, she is a Nigerian mother whose asylum case
has been publicised to raise awareness of the risks she faces,
should be be deported back to Nigeria, where the FGM prevalence
is 27%. She would vulnerable to forced FGM on her two young
daughters and her own forced marriage.
It's all too easy to emotionally distance ourselves from the
struggles others face around the world, but this is an ongoing
struggle taking place right here in Leeds. Act now.
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