Welcome to the People Opposing Female Genital Mutilation Reference and Information Library.

This is a collection of information resources that you can use to get more information about FMG topics.

Please feel free to update the Library with links that you have come across. If you have any questions regarding the content, please feel free to contact me or one of the moderators.

For more information you can download the following PDF document (10 Pages) SPECIAL REPORT

UNICEF REPORT PDF 5 PAGES

FMG in African Countries Information by Country

CIRP ORG LIBRARY

Movements and Moral Panics - A Human Rights Watch Publication

The last fifteen years have seen great growth worldwide in the visibility of people gathering, organizing, and campaigning around sexuality—and around sexual rights, sexual orientation, and gender identity. There are many causes. One lies simply in the spread of democratic governments in the 1980s and 1990s. As dictatorial regimes receded—in Latin America, in Eastern Europe, in Africa—and civil society asserted itself, activists for sexual rights and sexual orientation also claimed freedom to join that self-assertion. Models for organizing thus proliferated as well. Emerging groups across Africa that identify as lesbian, gay, or transgender may look to, and learn from, the work courageous people have performed in achieving equal protection in South Africa (where many activists in turn got their education in the anti-apartheid movement) or answering a dictator’s vilification in Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, movements around women’s health issues—whether female-genital mutilation or access to reproductive health services—increasingly approached their work through a rights-based framework. Women’s sexuality, when viewed through the prism of human rights, could be seen as an empowering capacity, not a source of vulnerability (as movements opposing violence against women had long tended to portray it)—as something to be prized and defended. 6 READ MORE AT HRW

Anatomy of a Backlash: Sexuality and the “Cultural” War on Human Rights - A Human Rights Watch Publication

by Scott Long1
What is at issue in cultural terms is a conflict of interest between the whole body, which is the Zimbabwean community, and part of that body represented by individuals or groups of individuals. The whole body is more important than any single dispensable part. When your finger starts festering and becomes a danger to the body, you cut it off—the homosexuals are the festering finger.
-Statement in a parliamentary debate in Zimbabwe, 19952
A tale of one city: Cairo, in 1994, hosted the U.N. World Conference on Population and Development. The meeting marked a major advance in recognizing women’s sexual autonomy. Its final declaration linked sexuality, health, and human rights, affirming that reproductive health “implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life”—in effect, that control over the enjoyment of one’s own sexuality was essential to the well-being of both women and men.

READ MORE AT HRW

II. Background
The Egyptian government’s obstruction of a woman’s right to divorce exemplifies its unwillingness to grant women legal equality. Profoundly discriminatory family, penal, and civil laws reinforce the unequal status of women in the family and in Egyptian society. Laws condoning domestic violence and policies that exclude women from the judicial bench foster and perpetuate women’s second-class status.

Contents

Women’s Status in Egypt
The State shall guarantee coordination between a woman’s duties toward her family and her work in the society, considering her equal to man in the political, social, cultural and economic spheres without detriment to the rules of Islamic jurisprudence (Shari’a).

The Egyptian Women’s Rights Movement
Egypt’s Discriminatory Personal Status Laws
Domestic Violence in Egypt
Absence of Female Criminal Prosecutors and Judges

Read the article at HRW

IS FEMALE CIRCUMCISION REQUIRED


One of the common misconceptions is to connect female circumcision with the teachings of Islam. This appendix addresses the following three questions:


1. WAS FEMALE CIRCUMCISION INTRODUCED BY ISLAM?

2. IS THERE ANY AUTHENTIC TEXT IN THE PRIMARY SOURCES OF ISLAM WHICH REQUIRES FEMALE CIRCUMCISION FOR RELIGIOUS REASONS?

3. SHOULD FEMALE CIRCUMCISION BE BANNED OR RESTRICTED?

Read the article at Jannah.org

Theologians Battle Female Circumcision
By Amira El Ahl in Cairo

In Cairo, a small revolution has been launched: A conference of high-ranking Muslim theologians has agreed that the practice of female genital mutilation is irreconcilable with Islam. The painful and often deadly practice of female circumcision affects millions of women in Africa.

The Grand Mufti of Egypt signed the resolution the next day. Ali Jumaa declared that he firmly believed that the fight against this terrible custom would succeed. Muslims base much of their behavior on legal opinions issued by religious scholars.

Read the article at Spiegel.de

TitleHow experiences and attitudes relating to female circumcision vary according to age on arrival in Britain: a study among young Somalis in London

Aims

The aim of this journal article is to examine the association between age on arrival in Britain and experiences and attitudes relating to female circumcision among young, single Somalis living in London.

Conclusions

Young single Somalis living in Britain from a younger age were more likely to experience social assimilation; had a lower risk of being circumcised [for women]; and had a lower demand for a circumcised wife and less intention of circumcising daughters [for men]. Males, older generations and new arrivals are most likely to be in favour of female circumcision. Accordingly, the increased rate of immigration since this study was conducted in 1996 may have changed the tendency for abandonment of the practice over time and warrants further research.

Read the entire article at Researching Asylum London

An older article from New Scientist, but very informative about the strong cultural links that ensure the ongoing practicing of FMG in Africa as well as immigrant communities in other parts of the world.

'Because I was very young I didn't know what was happening. I had ladies holding every part of my body, even my mouth so that I couldn't scream. I remember the pain to this day,' said Joanna, now 18.

Her own operation was the first she knew of female circumcision, a traditional practice that affects an estimated 80 million women in the world today. The practice is most widespread in Africa where it occurs in 28 countries. The custom is also found among groups in the Middle East, Far East and, according to some reports, the descendants of West African slaves in Brazil. As wars and poverty scatter people around the world, female circumcision is becoming an issue wherever practising groups have settled, including Europe, America and Australia.

Read the article at New Scientist