A great deal of attention is placed on domestic violence (or violence within the family) and its effects on women and girls. At the same time, violence against women and girls extends into the public sphere (such as sexual harassment, rape, robbery) and a great deal of good work is happening in this areas well . I suggest that violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres are not separate issues and as such, should not be treated separately in our work to eliminate violence against women and girls.

Violence against women and girls in the public sphere directly influences and reinforces attitudes about the vulnerability and objectivity of women and girls within society as a whole. These attitudes are taken into the home and enacted in personal relationships in the private context.

Simultaneously, violence against women and girls in the private sphere creates a set of norms for male-female relations in public. Thus, women and girls are more afraid in public space due to their experiences of violence at home. Violence against women and girls in public is also perceived as normal and deserved when it is a continuation of violence in the home.

For these reasons, it is important to address violence against women and girls in both the public and private spheres. How do we bridge this gap? What kind of practices and policies approach violence against women in both spaces? How can we develop a dialogue and awareness-raising strategy that encompasses all forms of violence against women?

The Washington Post’s recent article, “For Women in America Equality is Still An Illusion” brought to light some chilling statistics, not simply because it detailed daily inequalities and atrocities born by and committed against women, but also because the horror stories described are taking place in our own neighborhoods. It discussed the rape, murder, poverty, and bias endured by women in the United States, as opposed to the far off lands with which we tend to associate such crimes— it charged us as sufferers of “mass delusion.”

And it’s true: as a working woman in America my focus rarely falls to my own backyard. Short of commentaries such as these, which remind us that “women are shot dead in the street here too,” the plight of women in this country has been given over to a few diligent national women’s groups and concealed behind the glitz of pop culture. It is a movement that has been outsourced to developing countries and branded as the problem of cultures that are not ours. In fact, we are almost required to believe our own hype in order to sell it, for how can we purport to set an example for women’s equality and human rights in other countries if we haven’t achieved it ourselves?

Statistics such as these leave us with a clear message:

More than 1,000 women were killed by their partners in 2005, and of all the women murdered in the United States, about a third are killed by a husband or boyfriend. A leading cause of death for pregnant women? Murder by a partner. In Iraq, women serving in the military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.

The rights, safety, and freedom of women is a movement that decisively needs to expand inward and globalized, not simply exported. And perhaps, casting away our “illusions” and openly recognizing our own struggles can spark a collective movement to advance the situation of women everywhere.

Violence against women has been recognized as a crucial issue in Indonesian within last fifteen years.

Since early the 1990s growing numbers of women’s crisis centers are appearing in provinces all over Indonesia to provide services to survivors of violence. These centers are provided not only grass roots activists but police and hospitals too.

Since 1984 when Indonesia ratified CEDAW, a Zero Tolerance Policy was introduced in 1999, the National Action Plan on Elimination of Violence Against Women was formulated in 2000 and finally, the Government of Indonesia passed the Anti-Domestic Violence Act in 2004.

These initiatives have had a real impact for women in Indonesia, such as a sharp increase in women reporting incidences of domestic violence which were once seen as a ‘family matter’ not to be discussed outside the home.

But what has been the impact of these measures on men?

Nur Hasyim of Rifka Annisa, a women’s crisis center in Yogyakarta, asked this question at the Regional Conference on Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Societies held in Jakarta, Indonesia, in March 2009.

Rifka Annisa identified the gaps in anti-violence initiatives and saw that working with men and boys was an essential next step. According to Hasyim, by changing men, the effort to build new relationship or non abusive relationship between men and women will be achieved.

Rifka Annisa has developed initiatives since 2007 including:

a. Researching men and masculinity
b. Promoting new concept of masculinity
c. Building space for men to talk about themselves
d. Mobilizing men and boys to engage in anti-violence activities
e. Initiating behavioral change counseling program.

Rifka Annisa is continuing to translate theory about working with men and boys to end violence against women into practice. Contact the organisation here.

Nur Hasyim’s paper from the Regional Conference mentioned above was drawn upon heavily for this short article. Read the full paper here.

This is a response to the blog-post, “A call to action: Your views on men and domestic abuse.”

Robert Dijksterhuis, Jac SM Kee, Monia Azzalini,Paula Fray, Thenjiwe Mtintso and Laila Al-Shaik. Credit:Miren Gutierrez/IPS

Violence against women was discussed at a conference held in Rome in November, where many talked about the importance of raising awareness of the issue through the media.

ROME, Nov 26 , 2009 (IPS) – “You don’t need to go far, it is all around us,” said Robert Dijksterhuis, head of the gender division in the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to a room mostly full of women. “Up to one in three women around the world has been abused in some way – most often by someone she knows,” he added, quoting UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) numbers.

The audience, a group of committed women – and men -, had gathered in Rome to discuss this widespread emergency and the role media have in relation to it in a conference organised by the IPS news agency and supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the city of Rome.

The U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) reports in the paper “Violence against women worldwide” that up to 70 percent of women experience physical or sexual violence from men in their lifetime – the majority from husbands, partners or someone they know. Among women aged 15–44, acts of violence cause more death and disability than cancer, malaria, traffic accidents and war combined.

And violence against women is pervasive.

In South Africa, a woman is killed every six hours by someone she knows; in Guatemala, two women are murdered, on average, each day. In São Paulo, Brazil, a woman is assaulted every 15 seconds. Rape of women is widespread in armed conflicts such as those of Colombia and Darfur, Sudan.

This phenomenon affects not only developing countries, but also the developed world. In the U.S., 83 percent of girls aged 12–16 experienced some form of sexual harassment in public schools, and one-third of women murdered each year are killed by partners; in the European Union between 40 and 50 percent of women experience unwanted sexual advancements, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment at their workplace.

However, according to UNFPA, civil society, media and politicians have begun only recently to join their efforts to change the perception of the phenomenon of violence against women, trying to knock down the wall of indifference and misconstruction that has always surrounded it.

And this is where the media comes in.

According to the Italian Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Vincenzo Scotti, “communication can be one of the most powerful tools” in the fight against this type of violence.

In “Changing cultural and social norms that support violence”, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirms that media – which have been successful in addressing a wide range of health issues – could play a bigger role in fighting violence.

Meanwhile papers like “The influence of media violence on youth”, published by the American Physiological Society, show how female victimisation in storylines reduces the perceptions of violence in the reality.

This problem is exacerbated by the under-representation of women in media and misrepresentation of their role. Media Monitoring Africa – a watchdog organisation that promotes fair journalism – denounces the scarcity of women working in the media and the marginalised way in which they are portrayed, often limited to victims or someone’s relative.

“The influence of women in journalism is one of the most central problem areas in feminist media research,” acknowledges a report entitled “The Gender of Journalism”, authored by Monika Djerf-Pierre.

Djerf-Pierre’s study shows that even in a female-friendly nation such as Sweden, “journalism as a field has remained male-dominated.” (Sweden ranks number four in the Global Gender Gap [GGG] published by the World Economic Forum.) Today, almost half of Swedish journalists are women, the study shows. However, three out of four leaders in the media industry are men. In other countries the situation is worse.

According to Dijksterhuis, some of the ways communication can be used in a changing landscape with new technologies are trying to set the agenda; forging stronger linkages with NGOs, media and other actors (an issue that was highlighted by many speakers in this conference); and monitoring the results, since “most information is biased towards men.”

Communications rights should be part of these efforts, said Jac SM Kee, coordinator of Women’s Rights Advocacy in the Association for Progressive Communications. Her organisation is involved in an effort to “reclaim ICTs” (Information Communication Technologies) to end violence and address the intersections between communication rights and women’s human rights, especially in relation to violence against women.

Meanwhile, Mona Azzalini, of the Global Media Monitoring Project in Italy, talked about the biggest global survey about women’s participation in the media, to be released in 2010.

The initiative “promotes a change in the way women are portrayed” and creates a “network of advocacy groups” fighting discrimination and stereotypes in the media. The last monitoring – done in 2005 – was focused on four issues: the representation of women as subjects of information, the journalists, the content of the news including cases of stereotypes and discrimination, and journalistic practices.

The results of the 2010 survey will be compared with the 2005 report, which showed that only 21 percent of the sources are women, and most experts quoted (83 percent) are men. The point of view of women is nowhere to be seen: in politics only 14 percent of the sources were women; while in economic issues, 20 percent were women. Even when the issue is violence against women, most of the voices (64 percent) are men’s.

And how do media talk about these issues?

“Victim means weakness; weakness means violence… Media love violence,” said Laila Al Shaikhli, anchorwoman of Al Jazeera, who spoke about the difficulty of getting the real story, when women are reluctant to speak out and carry on a social stigma, when they themselves participate in the cycle of discrimination, educating children with the same paradigms.

The result is that the image of women comes out distorted.

In Italy, for example, “80 percent of people form their opinions based on TV,” said Emma Bonino, vice president of the Italian Senate. “And I am not satisfied with how women’s images are transmitted in our media. It is a humiliating image… Working women do not exist. The role of media is an important part of whichever strategy you want in place when fighting against violence. It is not marginal or complementary, it is essential to forming the idea of women.”

In Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi controls about 90 percent of the TV audience through his private media empire Mediaset and the state television RAI.

Thenjiwe Mtintso, South Africa’s ambassador to Italy, spoke from the point of view of a gender activist and a former journalist during apartheid about the definition of what is news and its ownership, and who transmits it. Not women, she said. And this is something that has to change if violence against women is to end.

This blog post was originally published on ipsnews.net on November 26, 2009.

Greece has been embroiled in a row over abusive migrant detentions and the lip service paid so far by the new socialist government to honor its pledges to reform the police. Two days before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, an incident of police brutality against a migrant mother and her child in Athens caused an uproar that have triggered new government promises for police reform.

Photojournalist and blogger Craig Wherlock translated from reports in Greek media:

a 35 year old Armenian woman was beaten, handcuffed and detained in front of her two year old child [..] in Athens last Thursday [..] When she went to get the pushchair carrying her child they grabbed her, pushed her to the ground, kicking and punching her in the belief she was resisting arrest. The hapless mother was handcuffed and taken with her child to the Aghios Panteleimonos police department where she was kept for four hours.

Twitter documentation

The incident was promptly reported on Twitter by Cyberela:

Police “bullies” assaulted a 35 year old woman http://www.enet.gr/104685 (via @enetgr) @chrisochoidis what are you going to do about it?

Citizen Protection minister Michalis Chrisochoidis was harangued by demands to take action. On Twitter vivian_e said:

@chrisochoides Minister, it’s gone far enough with police violence. Exemplary punishments must be handed out. Immediately

Half an hour after the first tweet, the minister’s office responded directly to citizens for the first time through Twitter:

@Cyberela @diakoptis @teacherdude @asteris @magicasland after charges brought by the 36 year old, police HQ ordered a juried investigation to be made

… to which vivian_e responded

@chrisochoidis we’ll be querying you every day on the progress of the investigation

Results

Later, the minister announced that the officers responsible for the incident would be permanently dismissed, and initiated a public consultation for the creation of a special office to monitor incidents of police abuse.

This blog-post was originally published at Global Voices Online on November 25, 2009.

A moving report titled Gender Violence in India by Prajnya shows that violence against women is on the rise in India.

An underreported problem

One important issue that the report discusses are flaws in the annual reports produced by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) about violence against women. For example, the NCRB often reports honor killings as torture or caste violence rather than gender violence because of the existing legal system. For this reason, the rate of violence against women may seem much lower than they actually are.

Prajnya’s report, however, uses new methodology and a variety of reports to provide a more accurate depiction of the crimes being committed against women in India. It draws attention to six kinds of violence: pre‐natal sex selection, child marriage and forced marriage, honor killings, dowry death, domestic violence, and rape.

Pre-natal sex selection

The report finds that pre-natal sex selection practices have resulted in at least 10 million missing girls, since ultrasounds and other sex‐selection tests became available two decades ago-‐a striking example of modern technology facilitating age‐old prejudices.

Child and forced marriage

According to the report, South Asia has the highest rate of marriages involving girls under the age of eighteen. Girls and women are often forced into marriage for a variety of reasons. Some include bringng families together for business reasons. Others involve family honor.

Honor killing

Honor killings or crime is committed in India (particularly in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) in order to salvage the “honor” of a clan, community or family that has somehow been “violated.” Usually the violation occurs through the actions of a woman in the community choosing a husband, lover or boyfriend, against her family’s wishes. Breach of caste rules also lead to violence.

Dowry deaths

Dowry deaths occur when a woman is either murdered or driven to suicide because the family that she has married into demands a higher dowry (or money given by a woman’s family to her husband and in-laws). Since 2006, there has been an increase of 6.2 percent in dowry deaths in India. Nearly 25.7 percent of total such cases reported in the country were reported from Uttar Pradesh (2,076) and Bihar followed next with 14.5 percent (1,172).

Domestic abuse

Indian women are equally vulnerable to domestic violence. A total of 75,930 cases were reported in the country in 2007 with an increase of 20.3% over 2006 and 35.8% over the average of the previous 5 years (2002-2006).

Rape

Madhya Pradesh has reported the highest number of rape cases (3,010) accounting for 14.5% of total such cases reported in the country. Nearly 9.5% (1,972) of the total victims of rape were girls under 15 years of age, while 15.2% (3,152) were teenage girls (15-18 years). Nearly two-third were women in the age-group 18-30 years. Rapists were known to the victims in as many as 19,188 (92.5%) cases according to NCRB statistics for 2007. Neighbors figured as the most common of perpetrators: in 36 percent of the cases a neighbor was involved.

Further readings

Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender Violence Facebook Notes

Prajnya 16 Days Campaign Against Gender Violence

An anniversary of violence by Kalpana Sharma, The Hindu, 13 December, 2009

Photo by Rudy Girón of Antigue Daily Photo and used under a Creative Commons license.

In Guatemala, the Multi-Annual Campaign (extended from 2008 to 2015) of the Regional Chapter, “JOIN together to put an End to Violence against Women” was recently launched, and Radio Feminista is reporting on the event at the collaborative space Fin a la Violencia (End to Violence). In addition, the organization Take Back the Tech is promoting a 16-day blogathon by taking over the blogosphere to discuss topics related to violence against women and ways to prevent it through the use of technology. Anyone can join the network and blog about the subject, from any place, in any language.

Honduras

When a crisis arises across the world, it often leaves women more vulnerable as a target for violence. For example, the blog Género con Clase [in Spanish] from Honduras republishes an article written by Tacuazina Morales, who writes that there was an increase of violence and brutality against women just after the coup. This was due in part to the “state of non-protection that victims found themselves and the weakening of the institutions responsible for the protection of the human rights of the women.” According to Feministas en Resistencia, there were approximately 400 cases of violence against women during the demostrations against the coup, including 23 sexual assaults, some of which had the involvement of state security forces.

Guatemala

In neighboring Guatemala, impunity, which is the non-prosecution or punishment of perpetrators, is the most serious consequence of this phenomenon. Up to 97% of the cases of violence against Guatemalan women are not prosecuted according to the blog Género con Clase [in Spanish]. Journalist Montserrat Boix features several organizations working on the issue in the country, and also highlights the recent Law Against Femicide passed in 2009 [in Spanish].

Guatemalan blogger Ixmucane of Cine Sobre Todo writes about migrant women, who are especially vulnerable to violence [in Spanish]:

One of the situations in which women are the most defenseless is migration, because they are far from the family circle that protects them, they do not know the laws, and many times they do not know the language. When I write about migration, I mean migration within the country, as well as abroad. What even worse, is that they do not want to let down the family that were left behind, because many of the family members depend economically on the women.

Rejection of violence

In the Catholic Church, a novena is a devotion consisting of prayer typically said on nine successive days, asking to obtain special graces, so Julio Serrano of the blog Fellinada [in Spanish] wrote a series of nine articles or “a novena” to unveil the complexities of violence against women. He also asks for the grace to replace violence with words of love: he used as his prayers, nine real stories of different kinds of violence against women and he ends with these thoughts:

Finally, it is not a low blow to talk about love these days, it is a radical and political position, to love is a social act. From my masculinity and vindicating the woman in me and the woman in others, and to those women close and far away from me, my mother, my girlfriend, my friends, my brothers, my father, my friends, and for those three sisters and what they mean for us today, for all of you, my words full of love

Photo by Rudy Girón of Antigua Daily Photo and used under a Creative Commons license

Rudy Girón of the blog Antigua Daily Photo made a statement about why we should reject violence as something normal, and why we should take that as a starting point to be part of the solution to solve the problem of violence against women:

I do not want to hear gun shots as normal. I refuse to take violent acts as normal. I do not want to be desensitized towards all the manifestations of violence. I do not want to see naked guns on the streets; at the entrance of banks; with every delivery truck; at shops and every tiendita (store) in the country. I do not want to be part of the problem. I will not yield to words that belittle women or other people. I will not. I want to be part of the solution.

The world has changed again, bringing more complex problems to the forefront to be solved, but because of the internet there are also more voices to join the conversation who add their ideas for solutions. Even the most marginalized in society, poor, indigenous women are fighting for their rights as described by the blog of Guatemala Solidarity so it is time to say no to violence and say yes to a more equal society.

This blog-post was originally published at Global Voices Online on November 26, 2009.

They are more than numbers. They are faces, lives, dreams, and hopes. They are mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, aunts, nieces, friends, workers, politicians, lawyers, academics, activists, students, straight, gay. Violence crosses class, race, ethnicity, national boundaries, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

In Puerto Rico, according to official statistics collected by the Office of the Women’s Advocate [in Spanish], 178 women have been murdered by their partners or ex partners between 2001-2008. This year, already 16 women [in Spanish] have been murdered in cases of domestic violence in an Island with a population of roughly 4 million people. There is an average of 20,000 domestic violence incidents reported to the police every year. Those are only the ones that are reported. In their latest study (2007), the government’s Center for Victims of Rape [in Spanish] calculated that 18,000 people, mostly women and girls, are victims of sexual violence every year.

There are many other forms of violence embodied in unequal wages, lack of access to health care and education, homophobia, and racism.

Poster of march against violence at the University of Puerto Rico. Republished with permission of the organizers.

Resistance and experience

There are also many women, and men, resisting violence in creative and innovative ways. Today, November 25, on occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, that marks the first day of the world-wide annual campaign 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, feminist bloggers in Puerto Rico have written posts on how violence affects their lives, their families, and their communities.

They have written poetry, in-depth analyses, and intimate reflections. They have written about structural, discursive, domestic, and sexual violence. They have written about unequal power relationships, public policies, laws, poverty, democracy, the economy, and even about violence against women in film. Let’s see their faces, read their texts, and listen to their voices.

In her blog Mujeres en Puerto Rico [in Spanish], feminist lawyer Verónica remembers how violence against women she knew, or was separated from by degrees, has touched her life since she was a child:

In my early adolescence, I convinced my mother to let me have my first manicure. As soon as she gave me permission, I ran to the beauty parlor where I met Ada, the owner. She was nice and kind. She was always smiling and working. Her business associate was also her husband, so I also remember him entering and leaving the parlor while Ada worked on my hands. One day, suddenly, the beauty parlor closed. Ada had been murdered by her husband. For me, Pandora’s box was opened. For the first time in my life, I learned how a twisted sense of love can end in death. I lost my innocence.

Activism

Feminist activist Amárilis Pagán denounced in Brujas y Rebeldes [in Spanish] the multi-dimensional aspects of violence perpetrated by the State.

We are resisting a governmental system that has become the primary aggressor against women in Puerto Rico. We are resisting in order to defend ourselves and other vulnerable sectors of society. The same way in which domestic violence is an issue of power and control, state violence against women is also about power and control. In this case, it is framed by a limited vision of who women are, and are supposed to be, according to the Judeo-Christian fundamentalism that has invaded the government. This November 25, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, it is necessary to talk about the varied and profound ways in which violence is committed against us. This violence is not limited to violence perpetrated in intimate relationships (domestic violence). Other forms of violence have seeped through other facets of women’s lives. To believe that domestic violence is the only kind of violence inflicted on women in this Island is to simplify an issue that is much more complex.

Performance denouncing violence against women in Puerto Rico. Video by Insula TV.

Feminist activist Nahomi Galindo-Malavé analyzes the multiple manifestations of gender violence in Poder, Cuerpo y Género [in Spanish]:

During the month of No More Violence Against Women it is important to remember that every act of violence embodies a network of power relationships. In this case, gender relations. This is why the object or “victim” of gender violence is not necessarily always a woman. A recent example is the violent murder of the gay 19 year-old Jorge Steven López. To be able to understand this murder as a hate crime and as gender violence, its important to understand how power relationships and the construction of masculinities work… Violence against women is the product of power relationships in our societies. Therefore, it is one of the manifestations of gender violence directed to everything intelligible, that breaks with and does not bend to masculine and feminine norms. Domestic, economic, femicides and hate crimes are different forms of gender violence.

In El rincón de la cinefilia [in Spanish], RDLC, who describes himself as a feminist man, does a critique of the films “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” and “North Country”. He concludes that:

Violence against women is wrong, be it in the intimacy of the home or in the workplace. We would like to think that after so many years of consciousness raising, this disease should have been eliminated. But, here we are, in the year 2009, and the statistics of violence against women are still much higher than expected. This is why I recommend both of these movies based on true events in which women, famous and not famous, transcended from being “victims” to become heroes. They deliver a clear message: no more violence against women. PERIOD.

Violence against women: Looking at next steps

Feminist law student Mariana Iriarte discusses discursive and symbolic violence in Con otro y otras en el mundo [in Spanish]:

It is important, therefore, to be aware and make other women aware that physical violence is always preceded by symbolic violence. That before you are beaten physically or sexually, the ground has been discursively prepared in order for you to feel surrounded, and without an exit. That before the blow he will make you feel inhuman, worthless, and that your are his appendage and his property. It is important to recognize that this is not normal, and that these roles assigned to you were constructed by men to guarantee women’s submission. This is why, today, always say no to violence against women and feel free to reinvent your identity as you please.

Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres de Puerto Rico.

In Poder, espacio y ambiente [in Spanish] environmentalist and feminist law professor Erika Fontánez analyzes different forms of institutional violence against women:

We demand that violence be addressed: all forms of violence against women, direct and indirect, the obvious and the structural. We demand the elimination of policies that promote exclusion and perpetuate violence: all forms of violence. ‘Men’s promises and pledges’ (an imported campaign promoted by the government of Puerto Rico) are not enough. We do not want them. We want equality in power relationships and living conditions. Let’s demand different power relationships that break with the cycles of violence. No more institutional violence against women.

In El diario de El Curio [in Spanish] [ES], Yolanda Velázquez has posted poetry. The blog of the coalition Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres [in Spanish] has information on the feminist movement in Puerto Rico.

This blog-post was originally published at Global Voices Online on November 25, 2009.

The international community has just finished Violence Against Women Awareness month (October). It is crucial that the topic stays on the international agenda. This is why the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is teaming up with WomenWatch, a project of the United Nations Inter-agency Network on Women and Gender Equality to host a dialogue for those affected, interested or working on violence against women issues.

‘Conversation starters’ answered the question: “What role does culture play in perpetuating the prevalence of female genital mutilation, cutting and fistula?” Below is a brief summary of the thoughts shared at Conversations for a Better World.

A small number of participants wrote in from Africa, Europe and North America, and 33% were male, 66% female. By joining the conversation, contributors hope to engage others. Click here to read some of the contributions.

Culture

Every contributor to this week’s question agrees that culture is the primary or only reason why female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C/C) is practiced.

A woman from Norway feels the culture(s) at which FGM/C/C is prevalent are predominantly oppressive to women and girls. Another contributor felt strongly that these cultures are not any more oppressive to women than Western cultures.

Only one participant thinks that religion is a more accurate reason for FGM/C/C. Another contributor feels that religion is blamed for why it is observed despite evidence to the contrary.

A woman from Gambia describes the influence as something that takes place because women and girls want to be a part of the mainstream culture. Young women and girls do not want to be left out of the community circle. The pain of the procedure and the consequences of trauma and health problems are better than being an outcast.

Eliminating FGM/C

Several contributors speak about how to eradicate FGM/C/C.  In order to eradicate FGM/C, a contributor said, a connection with community members would help access leaders. Educators from outside of the community will have little because they will be seen as irrelevant.

A man from the USA argues that the approach of Positive Deviance, or “social change model” where practitioners are engaging with those members of the community who are marginalized by rejecting FGM/C, would help attract others to those making social. Practitioners such as local community leaders, NGOs and multilateral organizations would have to engage with those members who are already deviating from the norm, or not participating in FGM/C practices, within the community. Positive Deviance helped create FGM/C-free communities in Egypt.

A man from the USA also feels that change could come from within the community. In this case there is the option for people working against FGM/C to use religious language to explain why FGM/C would not be in agreement with the faith. Another participant agrees that the community itself should take part, and in this case, communicate about the disadvantages of FGM/C.

One participant from Switzerland asserted that there is another way to approach FGM/C as a problem where it is difficult to change behaviors. We do not need to do away with FGM/C. Instead, actors could provide medical supplies for a safe FGM/C/C.

Genital Cosmetic Surgery

It is important also to bring attention to genital cosmetic surgery. FGM/C is an issue that attracts a lot of opposition from groups that do not pay attention to genital cosmetic surgery as a form of mutilation. According to the World Health Organization, FGM/C includes “procedures that intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons.” Genital cosmetic surgery could qualify and complicate matters for activists.

A special thank you to those of you who have contributed with your blog-posts and comments for the last four weeks of violence against women themed conversation. Please click here for previous posts pertaining to this conversation.