In my earlier post "First thoughts on the topic" I wrote that when it comes to promoting things like human rights and Millennium development goals, it's not enough if we only think about it, It is also important to feel.

On 7 April, END FGM European Campaign observes World Health Day by addressing the right to health and the millennium development goals as they relate to women and girls affected by female genital mutilation.

If I could change just one thing in the world, it would without hesitating be FGM.

I watched the movie Desert Flower and I think movies are a very good way to make people feel and also give information about many things internationally. This movie really touched me as it tells a story about an african girl who describes her incredible journey from a nomadic life in the deserts of Somalia to the world’s most famous catwalks. In New York, at the peak of her career, she tells in an interview of the practice of female genital mutilation that she had to suffer when she was a child. The day when it happend was the day that changed her life. Now she's working for changing the lives of women, but for the better.

Waris Dirie decided to end her life as a model and dedicate her life to fighting this archaic ritual.

I must thank my luck not to be born in any place where the FGM is practiced.
I feel the practice of FGM is one of the most horrible things in the world.

What is FGM?

female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), or female circumcision, is any procedure involving the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs.
The term is almost exclusively used to describe traditional or religious procedures.
FGC is practiced throughout the world, with the practice concentrated most heavily in Asia and Africa.

Amnesty International estimates that over 130 million women worldwide have been affected by some form of FGM, with over 3 million girls at risk of undergoing FGM every year.

Though no religious scripts prescribe the practice, practitioners often believe the practice has religious support. In most societies, FGM is considered a cultural tradition, which is often used as an argument for its continuation.

I must say many times traditions or even religions can be really harmful. I wonder how mothers can accept that FGM is done to heir children, even if their child can die because of this. I guess the pressure of the society or the culture is so big, that they just can't do anything about it? Somehow I think they must hate this tradition themselves, but they are too weak to change it.

If you're interested, many videoclips about the topic can be found on youtube, they give information about the consequences and the attitudes also. For example this one.

Efforts against FGM

Since 1997, great efforts have been made to counteract FGM, through research, work within communities, and changes in public policy. Progress at both international and local levels includes:
    •    wider international involvement to stop FGM;
    •    the development of international monitoring bodies and resolutions that condemn the practice;
    •    revised legal frameworks and growing political support to end FGM; and
    •    in some countries, decreasing practice of FGM, and an increasing number of women and men in practising communities who declare their support to end it

In 2008, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution (WHA61.16) on the elimination of FGM, emphasizing the need for concerted action in all sectors - health, education, finance, justice and women's affairs.

WHO efforts to eliminate female genital mutilation focus on:
    •    advocacy: developing publications and advocacy tools for international, regional and local efforts to end FGM within a generation;
    •    research: generating knowledge about the causes and consequences of the practice, how to eliminate it, and how to care for those who have experienced FGM;
    •    guidance for health systems: developing training materials and guidelines for health professionals to help them treat and counsel women who have undergone procedures.

Like Waris Dirie said in the movie Desert Flower, it is important to change the conception about women. It's also important to make international effort to stop this horrible tradition.

She is demanding all governments:

A clear worldwide consent is required for effective measure against FGM: ‘Female Genital Mutilation is a crime! We do not tolerate it anywhere!’ The United Nations should pass such a resolution in the name of all of their member states - and ensure that the public will be informed about it. So that nobody can claim any longer that he/she did not know that FGM is a crime!

She continues: FGM is a crime against women, committed only because they are women. Those who are reluctant against this practice are put under pressure, threatened, prosecuted. Sometimes they are in danger even in the country they immigrated in. FGM is a political prosecution. And it must be recognised as such. Those who make it all the way to another country in order to escape from this practice have the right to be protected. What several politicians, women’s rights activist and NGOs have demanded for years must finally become reality: Female Genital Mutilation must be explicitly accepted as a reason for asylum all over the world.