International NGO seeks to raise awareness on female genital mutilation as part of an international campaign

By Majid al-Kibsi Thirty refugee women were gathered in Sana’a to learn more about raising awareness on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) during a 3 day training which ended on Tuesday November 29th. The training course which was organized by the International Relief and Development (IRD) aimed at raising awareness in the field of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). It was organized on the occasion of the “16 Days of Activism Against Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV)” which seeks to raise awareness on sexual and gender based violence around the world. This year is the 21st anniversary of the 16 days campaign that seeks to raise awareness of SGBV, and the training course was carried by the IRD in collaboration with UNHCR and other NGOs. “It is a united call for an end to such violence in all its forms,” said Ameena al-Muflihi, the community based daycare coordinator of IRD. She added “Despite increased awareness and actions to combat SGBV, women continue to suffer from this practice in alarming numbers.” Andrew Knight, IRD’s Community Services Support Project Manager mentioned that this training was being held within the framework of “16 Days of Activism” adding that a second training would take place next week targeting men. Knight stressed that the training would benefit far more than just the 60 men and women present as the candidates would be taught outreach techniques and programs to implement within their communities. “From November 25th until December 10th, activities around the World will be carried out to fight violence against women (SGBV),” said Knight adding that FGM was just one of many forms of violence against women. According to Knight, ignorance and traditions are the biggest obstacles in this campaign. “Some people think that FGM is an Islamic practice but the Sheikh of Azhar in Egypt himself announced many years ago that FGM is NOT an Islamic practice.” The training course included 30 women in the first phase and 30 men in its second phase. “The reason why we are separating men from women is so t the participants feel free to speak their mind,” said Knight. “While FGM is primarily a women’s issue, it is often the men who are the decision-makers in the family and should also be targeted,” he added. The women who participated in this program are expected to raise awareness among their societies. Some of these women have themselves experienced and suffered greatly from this practice. Um Najeeb, a woman in the beginning of her thirties assured that she will not make her daughters go through the same suffering she went through. “I still remember when I was circumcised when I was a little girl,” said um Najeeb. “I was five years old when the woman in charge of the operation was circumcising the older girls in the age of 10 and older. She turned to me and said to my mother ‘why don’t I circumcise her on the way’ my mother didn’t agree at the beginning saying that I am still young, but the women encouraged her and said ‘It’s ok’. She continued telling her story “I was held down by the women in the house and I was circumcised by a knife with no anesthetization, I still remember this until today. I was shaking in pain and fair, and I couldn’t sleep. I was waking up in my sleep shouting as if I was feeling the pain of the knife. I had my period in the age of 13, but in the age of 16 my period stopped. I was having infections and it was etching and when I was in the hospital, I was told that I should remove the sewing of the circumcision but I did not accept that, I thought that it will be a shameful.” Um Najeeb gave birth at the age of 19, her baby’s eye was swollen and closed. “When I opened it with my hands I didn’t the eye, I saw flawing pus, it was due to the infections I had. The doctors treated me and my daughter, and I was intending to have my daughter circumcised, but now I am not.” Another Somali woman called Maymonah, she was having swollen leg, and according to her, the reason was the circumcision. “I was circumcised by the age of 6. The strings used for sewing the circumcision reached deep in the skin and it caused swelling in the place of the circumcision.” Maymonah mentioned that in her society, it is a shame not to be circumcised. “When I gave birth for my first baby, the doctor had to cut the sewing place with scissors for the baby to come out, and it was sewed after the birth. This also happened when I gave birth to the second and third child.” In her fourth baby Maymonah was in a coma and the pregnancy period was longer than a year and she had a high blood pressure that the fetus almost died. Maymonah thinks that the reason was that the woman who carried the circumcision operation did not used clean tools, therefore she was in pain after the circumcision and she did not married after her husband died. Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision, is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.” FGM is typically carried out on girls from a few days old to puberty. It may take place in a hospital, but is usually performed, without anesthesia, by a traditional circumciser using a knife, razor, or scissors. According to the WHO, it is practiced in 28 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, in parts of Asia and the Middle East, and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America, and Australasia.