The 6th February 2008 is International Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation(also known as Female Circumcision)For more information as to what this means in reality to many women worldwide visit:
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) are three words not heard of to many and a silent subject few talk about . Highly sensitive and extremely complex ,this is one topic that must be brought to the publics attention.This photograph placed here on International Zero Tolerance day of FGM, is one attempt to raise awareness of a ritualistic practice which should have no place in C21st century society.
Female Circumcision is performed mostly without anaesthesia and un-sterilised instruments are used in the majority of cases.Here the knives, broken glass and razor blades represent the commonest instruments used.The earth represents the crude environment in which mutilation can take place. Some FGM is performed in clinics and sterile environments: most are not.
Women themselves are the circumcisers, a practice passed down the generations.FGM effects women and young girls in as many as 28 countries and 2 million women are at risk of mutilation each year.Age range is between 4 years to young womanhood. Some Mutilation is performed just before marriage.Marriage is the key word as to why Mutilation takes place. It is an essential requirement for marriage, female honour and fidelity. Considered necessary to secure a husband and any kind of financial security when 70% of the world poorest people are women.
The physical, sexual and psychological damage, both immediate and long-term, to women who have undergone this cutting is serious and can be fatal. This also effects the maternal health and future of women in pregnancy and childbirth.
We hear of news reports covering topics such as AIDS, famine, terror and human rights atrocities, but no-one hardly ever talks about FGM.As a member of Forward ( Foundation for Women’s Health Research and Development) I am passionate about this subject and its eradication. Considering up to 74 million women are effected worldwide we need to be shouting loud and clear of ZERO TOLERANCE.
The horror has to STOP!
(See my fellow friend and blogger athinkingman who has written his own blog to highlight this cause.)
[...] February 6 is the International Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation Day. I am grateful to Onethoughtfulwoman to bringing this to my attention. I wanted to use this blog to draw attention to the issue and felt [...]
Thanks for highlighting the issue. I personally found this almost unbearable to read (because of the content). Let’s hope that the day brings the issue to the attention of more people so that in the long-term, the practice can be eliminated.
[...] been subject to such a procedure. If you want to know more about the subject, then visit my blog, Zero Tolerance for Women. To date, this is the most active site visited, whether for morbid curiousity, perversion or [...]
[...] I can not bear to write the details here even, all I can ask is that you go to the link to read for yourselves. Not being too melodramatic, but that event, so heinous and so terrible, was a defining moment for me. Something inside me just clicked, changed, moved, happened. I can not begin to explain it but it was after reading this report, that I vowed; yes it was that strong, vowed that I would move with an hardened commitment in my aim to work with women who suffer violence and abuse. This includes women’s health, human rights and my passion concerning the eradication of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). See Zero Tolerance for Women. [...]
And as bad are NHS doctors ( in the UK) who are complicit in this practice by agreeing to sew up women’s episotomies to their pre-birth mutilated size.
A interesting comment about this point and one which is very important I am glad you have raised it.
As far as I understand, I thought this practice was now illegal in the UK. I know there is pressure to sew women into their infibulated state after a delivery by the very women themselves who have had this procedure done.
I thought though it was now against the law.
Thanks for passing by here. I am grateful for you input into this heinous practice.