Stop FGM in the UK

*This Post contains graphic images*

FGM.

Three letters that are separately distinctive to most people on the planet. But together they make very little sense to the majority of the same people- and this worries me. It's actually rather tragic that in the twenty first century a form of  barbaric child abuse can be so easily carried out whilst a nation sits in blissful ignorance.

The letters 'F' 'G' & 'M' stand for Female Genital Mutilation, otherwise known as female castration:"procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons." The practice originated in the African cotenant in around 500BC but due to migration, this is now taking place all over the world. And may I heavily stress that not only is this procedure carried out on children as young as four, but they receive absolutely no anaesthetic throughout; every cut and every stitch is felt. 

It's happening here in the UK despite it having been illegal since 1985; and what's worse, there have been no prosecutions whatsoever since this date.

I write about this off the back of 'The Cruel Cut' which aired on Channel 4 on the 8th November (watch in full here). The programme aimed to raise awareness of exactly what FGM is and to inform people that it's happening on our door step; Over 66,000 women in the UK have already undergone female genital mutilation and more than 24,000 girls are at risk. It revealed the stories of victims and gave graphic accounts of what their own families put them through, including descriptions of being pinned to the ground and having to listen to their sister's screams whilst they wait to be operated on... all to make a girl 'pure'.
 
There are several variations of FGM;
 
-Type 1 involves the removal of the clitoral hood which is rarely, if ever, performed alone. More common is Type Ib (clitoridectomy), the partial or total removal of the clitoris, along with the prepuce. In this procedure, the clitoris is pulled upwards between the thumb and index finger, pulled out, and amputated- bleeding is stopped with stitching.
 
- Type 2 involves the total removal of the clitoris along with the partial of total removal of the inner labia.
 
- Type 3 is the removal of all external genitalia and the fusing of the wound, leaving a small hole just 2mm wide for the passage of urine and menstrual blood. One of the women involved in the documentary described the terror of her first period as she realised that the blood was actually unable to escape from her body as a result of this procedure. Following this, the inner and outer labia are cut away, with or without excision of the clitoris. A pinhole is created by inserting something into the wound before it closes, such as a twig or rock salt. The wound may be sutured with surgical thread- sometimes thorns are used- to hold the sides together. The girl's legs are then tied from hip to ankle for 2–6 weeks until the tissue has bonded.

The descriptions above are enough to prove that this is torture and it completely baffles me as to why it is simply not acted on.

As expected, there are many complications involved with FGM, both long-term and immediate, including fatal bleeding, septicaemia, and the transmission of HIV if the surgical apparatus is not sterile. Long term complications include incontinence and infertility as well as painful periods and intercourse. Neonatal fertility is also severely effected as a direct result of FGM; an additional 10–20 babies die per 1,000 deliveries as a result. The chances of a babies death during birth is increased by: 15 percent for Type I, 32 percent for Type II and 55 percent for Type III.

The death rates are unknown as few records are kept, complications may not be recognised, and fatalities are rarely reported.

The fact is, FGM effectively deprives women of their sexuality. Their natural genitalia is manipulated to the extent where natural behaviours, such as intercourse are too painful to endure, and their periods cause huge problems. Women are stopped from being women because of an operation that is illegally taking place.

I'm really struggling to get my head around any justification for this huge government let down over the past three decades.
 
Before watching the programme, I was aware what 'FGM' was but I didn't know what 'FGM' meant.... I knew that female castration took place in order to try and stop girls from enjoying sex but I wasn't aware of the extent of the practice and reasonings, nor was I aware of the term FGM. I don't really think I realised that this goes ahead without anaesthetic and I completely separated it from British culture, as though it had nothing to do with me, and there was nothing I could do about it. My partial ignorance made me feel slightly disgusted.

However, I was more shocked by the amount of people who were willing to sign a phony petition that would legalise FGM in this country, with many people agreeing to the words "Its only mutilation" as though castrating a woman was no big deal. I don't necessarily blame the people who signed it, I blame their lack of education surrounding the issue- the public simply didn't know enough about the abuse that Layla Hussein was pretending to defend.

 Out of the many people she asked to sign, only one refused. 
 
So why does female genital mutilation happen? 

There are many reasons for it's existence, it stems from purity and is rooted in gender inequality. Although many mothers of the children who are forced to have the procedure support FGM, it all stems from a males pleasure- FGM happens for men. It is cantered upon controlling a woman's sexuality, preventing her enjoyment of intercourse, and enhancing his through the tightening of the vagina. I truly believe that mothers support it through fear rather than having a genuine defence for the 'cut', as their is a huge stigma associated with not having it, an un-mutilated vagina is deemed as being 'unclean' and they're concerned about their daughters prospects of having a male suitor. It is said that FGM is an ethnic marker, and it is this factor which I think is making the pivotal difference between action and the whole thing going unnoticed....

..... Lets face it, if blonde haired blue-eyed girls were victims of this barbaric torture, it'd be all over the news and there'd certainly be 'FGM criminals' in prison. This is as much about racial inequality as it is gender inequality.

I also think that if it were white girls at the centre of this problem, Theresa May would have spared time to discuss FGM with those who were involved with 'The Cruel Cut' programme instead of refusing to come out of her surgery and having someone else write a letter on her behalf. The fact is that she's embarrassed nothing has been done to protect children who are vulnerable to circumcision DESPITE it being illegal. She is embarrassed, as is the government as a whole, that grave inequalities under the protection of the law still exist.

 If the government won't face the problem, we're going to have to force them to.

You can sign a petition by clicking here. "The aim is to get the Home Department- one of the five that FGM currently falls under- to take responsibility for and effective leadership against FGM as it falls under the Violence Against Woman and Girls (VAWG) portfolio. We want them to take the lead in drawing up and enforcing the implementation of a National Strategy and Action Plan to eliminate FGM in the UK."

We need 100,000 signatures for this to be debated in the House of Commons, and as I write this, we're on 73,508. Please help to make this happen. A debate is the first step forward in protecting young children. This has the potential to initiate a string of events aimed directly towards raising the profile of FGM and finally acting upon the law that was passed decades ago.

I truly think that FGM is yet another issue that should be on the National Curriculum- there is nothing more important than educating the masses.
 
As tragic as the story within the documentary was, 'The Cruel Cut' was the best thing I've seen on TV for a very long time; it fills you with the urge to be proactive, and I for one want to be an active part of the campaign. Leyla, Efua, if you're reading, please get in touch.

Hannah Riley
@hannahtheduck

(#StopFGM)

"Hashtag" Twitter Silence.

Since having watched this a while ago I've decided that, on a good day, I am a young Caitlin Moran. I love the woman. She and I have a lot of similarities and as she started the whole '#twittersilence' thing, I thought that publishing this post at midnight on the 5th August 2013, would be the perfect way for me to mark the ending of an all important 24 hour silent protest.

This all started with Caroline Criado-Perez's campaign which ran to ensure that at least one British woman would feature as the face of our five, ten, twenty, fifty pound notes and alas!... the Bank of England announced that the wonderful Jane Austen would feature on the new tenners. But of course this all turned sour.

It was shocking enough to hear that some grotesque individuals hurled abuse at Perez- threats to rape and murder her- that eventually reached fifty an hour. But what was more shocking, as Caitlin Moran outlined in her blog post last night (well actually two nights ago as we are technically now into the 5th August), was that the number of threats by these twitter trolls increased AFTER an arrest was made.

And to give a few examples, here are the list of abusive tweets, put together by Moran for her article, that were sent non-stop to Caroline Criado-Perez: 

“I love it when the hate machine swarms.” 
“Rape rape rape rape rape rape.”
“Everyone report @CriadoPerez for rape and murder threats and also being a cunt #malemasterrace.” 
“Wouldn’t mind tying this bitch to my stove. Hey sweetheart – give me a shout when you’re ready to be put in your place.”
“HEY GIRL – WANNA THROW THAT PUSSY TOWARDS THE BLACK MESSIAH?”
“Rape threats? Don’t flatter yourself. Call the cops. We’ll rape them too. YOU BITCH! YO PUSSY STANK!”

The threats quickly expanded to include MP Stella Creasy, who backed Perez's campaign, along with TV critic Grace Dent and Guardian fashion columnist Hadley Freeman- all three women were sent bomb threats and Creasy was sent a disturbing image of a white-mask-wearing-man brandishing a large knife as a death threat. As Moran explained, these women have been told to "“block” the abusers, and get on with their lives."

And that's going to make them feel all warm and fuzzy inside again is it? Of course not. 

The fact that the ugly trend escalated AFTER an arrest was made, goes to show that the steps made towards protecting twitter users- who use it for the right reasons- have been far and few between, and all of them too late. Many people shun social networking sites because "this kind of thing happens".... that doesn't mean we should let it happen. A very small minority of twitter users have set up accounts to terrorise women and unfortunately their laptops and keyboards are acting as shields protecting them from the law; these twitter trolls are the modern day 'untouchables'.  

Not enough has been done and that's why the protest took place today. 

In fact, today saw Mary Beard being the latest target of twitter trolls as she was sent tweets telling her that her house was going to blow up. Prior to this, Beard was sent the following: "Retweet this you filthy old slut. I bet your vagina is disgusting."  This one was sent a few days ago, when it was more difficult to report abuse, but today Mary Beard tweeted the fact that she attempted to fill in the report form and it failed to work; this is AFTER twitter has promised the new "report abuse" button with every tweet that is published on the site.

I accept that twitter cannot be held responsible for what people publish on their site, however, they are more than responsible for the difficulties in reporting abuse and their slow speed in reacting to what has been reported. An official apology from the networking site is all well and good but it HAS to materialise. This is serious, and yet to me, it seems that twitter is trying to distance itself from the problem. The targeted women have simply been left to manually block users that are sending abuse, and at 50 tweets an hour, it can all be too soul destroying to face.      

So why silence over throwing out masses of joyous and feminist tweets?

As a feminist and a gob on a stick myself, I made, perhaps the more surprising decision (certainly in the eyes of my mother) to join in with the 24 hour silence, backing up the rather more influential types such as Clare Balding, Alice Arnold, and  Martina Navratilova. 

I saw silence to be the perfect protest to the tragic bombardment of disgusting, confidence-destroying messages that took control of twitter- the otherwise brilliant online tool for communicating and networking. I think Moran summed it up perfectly in saying that the walk-out would "focus minds at Twitter to come up with their own solution to the abusers of their private company." And I really hope it did. 

Moran went onto outline the fact that popular social networking sites can become looservilles within the space of a couple of months. Twitter could easily become the next Bebo rather than the next 'Big Thing'... there's always something new around the corner waiting to be the next online craze. And so with there having been a mass of people- including and endless list of celebrities- not tweeting a thing for the last 24 hours, the heads at twitter HQ will have been knocked together- with force- to come up with the best solution possible in monitoring the evil minority and, in turn, protecting twitter at large. No more sweeping under the carpet.

As much as I understand the other side of the argument, that we should be shouting and screaming, instead of, what is argued to be, sitting and doing nothing- I think a lack of tweets will have turned more of the right heads than a surge of tweets would have done. 

As long as there are people tweeting, the twitter people are happy; if we stop- they're fucked.

And to the lovely lady who posted this for the world to see:

Caitlin Moran did not tell, or force anyone to do anything; she just threw an idea out there and that idea became popular. She simply adopted a technique that twitter was made for- promoting, connecting, and inspiring.



“Seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound.” 
- Jodi Picoult


Hannah Riley
@hannahtheduck