She was six years old.

Raised in Somalia. Our speaker, who would prefer to stay anonymous, will be identified as our survivor. During a hot-humid summer’s day, she woke up to the smell of malawax (small pancakes made in Somalia). Her mother didn’t always make malawax except for special occasions, so our speaker thought she was in for a treat. However a day that started with sweetness led to her demise.

FGM is performed by traditional practitioners, most have no medical experience. Our survivor remembers a few details from her traumatic experience- “I vividly remember walking into a room and seeing a woman wearing an apron with a black bag next to her. I didn’t know her but something about her shook my soul. My mother told me to sit between her legs and before I knew it, I was being held down. I called hooyo (mother) and she kept assuring me everything was fine.” Girls and women are taught that the procedure is essential for them to go through, thus making it a challenge to defy your mothers who have also gone through the process.

There are four types of female genital mutilation. The World Health Organisation referred type 1 as clitoridectomy, type 2 as excision, type 3 as infibulation and type 4 is described as “includes all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area.” Type 3 is the most common and severe form of procedure practised in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Djibouti. The UN regards the practice as a human right’s offence and violation of a female’s reproductive rights.

Type three- Infibulation is the most common practice, this is what our survivor went through. The procedure includes cutting part of the external genitalia (clitoris, labia minora, and labia majora). And then it gets stitched back on. This type causes serious harm and health complications and involves the women having to be cut open again to have sexual intercourse and childbirth. Nearly 80% of women in Somalia have gone through type 3. Our survivor states: “Before I had my first born I struggled to pee. My wound was burning and I dreaded everytime I needed to relieve myself. It came out in droplets and often took five minutes. However nothing felt as bad as giving birth to my first born. I had to be cut open again because of how stitched up I was.”

The consequences also include psychological effects. Often loss of trust, especially in caregivers. Our survivor stated she felt betrayed by her mother- “Part of me felt like a piece of me was forcibly taken and my dear mother who I trusted so much allowed this to happen to me. Right after it happened, everything went back to normal. Our days were the same and we didn’t speak about what I went through other than her saying it is my duty to go through this.” In Islam, mothers are the most respected individuals. So our survivor stated she didn’t question why her mother allowed that to happen to her because it's the standard in Somalia. Unfortunately many women, especially Somali women suppress their trauma. They are told the pain they feel is expected so they mask it as a normative.

Genital mutilation is the norm in Somalia. Each generation of girls and women are expected to go through the process. It is a never-ending cycle that is argued to have no connections to cultural and religious values. Because of this our survivor and many women in Somalia aren’t as aware. Most feel like they should continue the tradition because it runs in generations and it’s deeply rooted in societal expectations within those countries. Our survivor told me that social pressure is real- “Before I got genitally mutilated, young girls would pull up my diraac (dress) to see if I had been cut. When they saw I wasn’t, they would do baranbuur (singing and dancing) about how I am “dirty”. This tradition pressures girls and women to get cut at a young age to prove that you are a “pure” muslim or to embark a woman’s growth. Its sad.”

In Somalia there is no legislation that outright states that anyone who practises FGM will be criminalised and punished. In 2015, work towards introducing a bill that eradicates FGM was discussed by no efforts have been made and the 28toomany report states that “64.5% women aged 15-49 believe the procedure should continue”. Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, FGM offences are set out in the “Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003” which includes four offences. Despite it being illegal for 30 years, it has been extremely hard to prosecute individuals. Many people leave their homes to seek asylum or settle new homes within countries in Europe and this has allowed individuals to travel back to their home country during holidays to perform FGM on girls/women, making it hard to prosecute under the law.

I was able to get in contact with Lynne Towley who is a barrister and academic at City University of London and has worked on the topic of FGM since 2009 as a policy advisor. Her work focuses on the criminal aspects. Lynne shared with me that the reason(s) that it is difficult to prosecute under the law, and why she’s campaigning for the law to be scrapped is A) gathering evidence is tricky. B) Its family orientated and C) family members do not want to criminalise other family members. February 2019 sought the first successful prosecution under the law which puts into perspective that new research needs to be carried out to understand why this procedure is still being performed in this decade and as she stated “understanding the cultural aspects and not marginalising communities.”

Similarly, I also spoke to professor Hazel Barrett, an executive Director of the Centre for Communities and Social Justice at Coventry University, who has been doing research on FGM for 10 years now. Her research focuses more on the individuals (like Lynne) within the communities in the African diaspora in Europe such as Somalis and Sudanese in the United Kingdom and Holland. Just like Lynne, I asked Hazel why it is difficult to prosecute under this law and what can be done to make it easier. She stated- “There’s only one successful law because families are taking their daughters abroad for “medical reasons”, so we have to view from the individuals aspect.” Hazel’s research makes sure that FGM isn’t viewed as “Muslim or African problem” because that stigmatises communities and views everyone as “the same”. It is about expressing that this is a human rights violation that affects everyone including partners. It is also about educating professional health and medical workers on the issue, not responding in a culturally sensitive way, and giving psychological support to girls/women who are traumatised.

Hazel's research also sheds light on the patriarchy and how the role men are the key reason why this tradition is still being practiced. In her work, FGM is looked at as a social norm- “the governments and organisations in these countries are assumed to be all the same. There are differences between communities which is why we look at how we can get people to change their behaviour.” Key ways to tackle this is working with communities to understand them better and questioning why the practice is still relevant today. She added: “a key motive is gathering influential people from communities. They can be grouped as peer group champions. They can be political, a pastor, grandmothers, sportstars, young people. This would help in training them to work with their own communities” This is essential as our survivor told me that in Somalia, Imams and qabil (tribal) leaders are highly respected. Getting them involved in changing this around and stopping the practice is a good first step. I also asked Hazel why this decades-long tradition is still being imposed on girls and women, she stated “There are different reasons. One is religious. Another is female sexuality. Others are family honour and cosmetics.” In hindsight, Hazel’s work discusses fgm within the differences each communities have, and she researches amongst migrant communities as “identity markers to show differences between host community women.“

FGM is still heavily practiced and limiting its existence means examining social norms and understanding the harm in controlling the female reproductive system. As mentioned earlier, this practice is deeply rooted in cultural and religious values. And despite there not being any mention of it within religious scriptures in Islam, many influential men are using it a driving force to get girls and women to go through it. Predominantly, this is the patriarchal doing and girls/women do not have a choice. Just like our survivor who has to live with the trauma for the rest of her life, many women in the older generation are expected to be content with the practice for the rest of their lives.

Written by Asiyo Ali.