BASNEWS | 04.06.2017
Female Circumcisions or Female Genital Mutilation in Kurdistan
Circumcision is defined as cutting of female external genitalia which is carried out by traditional...
WEEKLY STANDARD | 17.06.2015
Confronting FGM in Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan
Female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) exists in the Islamic Republic of Iran even...
stopfgmmideast | 20.05.2015
Campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan: Paying a visit to a Mullah who promoted FGM
The shock was great when the Iraqi Kurdish Xelk Media Network reported about a Kurdish Mullah...
THE TELEGRAPH | 04.03.2015
"If they mutilate my granddaughter? I’ll kill them’. Meet Iraqi village ending FGM
Amirah vividly recalls the day she was taken into a bathroom by the village midwife and forced to...
biomedcentral | 06.02.2015
The diversity of Kurdish women’s perspectives of female genital mutilation
The 6th February is marked by the United Nations sponsored awareness day, International...
WADI | 10.02.2015
International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM in the Kurdistan Parliament
Wadi, UNICEF and the High Council of Women Affairs launched an event about how...
stopfgmmideast | 05.02.2015
Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM: We need more campaigns in Asia
On the fifth official International Day of Zero Tolerance to female genital mutilation (FGM)...
WADI | 02.02.2015
Four new TV-spots Wadi has produced supported by UNICEF
as part of the ongoing campaign to eliminate FGM in Iraqi-Kurdistan. These spots will be aired by different TV stations...
WEEKLYSTANDARD | 20.01.2015
Female Genital Mutilation a Growing Problem in Iran
The hideous practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is neither an exclusively Muslim nor a...
ORCHIDPROJECT | 17.12.2014
KMEWO Event on FGC
On November 13th 2014, the Kurdish and Middle Eastern Women Organisation (KMEWO)...
WADI | 09.12.2014
Radio feature on WADI’s efforts to improve the situation of Free FGM Villages in Iraqi-Kurdistan
“Fichar” program at Radio Deng, an independent Radio station in Kalar, did a feature on WADI as...
WADI | 03.12.2014
Kurdish FGM-Free Village invited to Talkshow
Kurdistan's first FGM-free village as talk show guests on 'Binewshe" (KurdSat TV) to...
ekurd.net | 18.10.2014
A Kurdish girl's story of Female genital mutilation FGM in Iraqi Kurdistan
As we all know from news reports from the region, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan have been...
TRUST.ORG | 09.09.2014
Iraqi Kurdistan could end FGM in a generation - expert
Female genital mutilation could be eradicated in Iraqi Kurdistan within a generation, a U.N...
The Guardian | 08.09.2014
Majority in Iraqi Kurdistan oppose female genital mutilation
Survey reveals widespread knowledge of FGM's dangers, with 68% of people saying it...
stop fgm mideast | 29.07.2014
FGM in Iraq: The hoax of a hoax?
Last week a statement by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was circulating in Arab...
WADI BLOG | 22.07.2014
Islamic caliphate labels female genital mutilation obligatory
Recently the Islamic state issued a fatwa which called female genital mutilation a religious...
WADI | 14.07.2014
One in four women in Central and Southern Iraq is affected by Female Genital Mutilation, new study suggests
A first independent study on female genital mutilation in central/southern Iraq finds that...
HIVOS | 13.06.2014
Kurdish villages declare themselves FGM-free
For ten years, Hivos partner WADI has been campaigning against female genital...
wadi | 05.06.2014
Cooperation agreement between UNICEF and WADI to combat FGM in Northern Iraq
UNICEF and WADI just signed a contract to boost the ongoing...
Gatestone Inst. | 07.05.2014
Solidarity Against Female Genital Mutilation
"No victim files charges against her own parents." — Rayeyeh Mozafarian, University of Shiraz...
stopfgmmideast | 30.04.2014
Second Middle East Conference on FGM to tackle myths
The Second Middle East & Asia Conference on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by WADI and...
opendemocracy | 14.02.2014
Embracing shame: turning honour on its head
The challenge that embracing shame poses to the longstanding perversion of honour, is the...
ekurd.net | 10.02.2014
Continues battle against Female Genital Mutilation FGM in Iraqi Kurdistan
For many years, people have believed that practicing of female genital mutilation (FGM) is...
wadi | 05.02.2014
Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation; Action in Asia is needed
On the fourth official International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female genital mutilation (FGM), the...
RUDAW.NET | 27.01.2014
A Slow Fight for Kurdistan’s Women
“It is like digging a well with a fingernail. Our work is very slow. But we did make progress.”
DEUTSCHE WELLE | 09.12.2013
Iraqi Kurdistan fights female circumcision
Female circumcision is slowly declining in Iraqi Kurdistan. Years of campaigning and a law...
RUDAW.NET | 29.11.2013
Kurdistan Premier: Stronger Policies Needed to Combat Gender Violence
Two years ago the KRG passed a law banning violence against women including genital...
BBC | 07.11.2013
BBC-Documentary: Dropping the Knife; The Fight against FGM
A BBC-Documentary: Dropping the knife; the fight against FGM...
CPT | 04.11.2013
IRAQI KURDISTAN: WADI shifts attitudes toward Female Genital Mutilation
On 30 October 2013, CPT’s partner organization, WADI Iraq office, organized a press...
AL-MONITOR | 02.11.2013
Female Circumcision Continues in Iraqi Kurdistan
Despite the efforts of Kurdish civil society organizations and the media to shed light on the...
HIVOS | 27.10.2013
WADI’s ground-breaking campaign against FGM: interview
Falah Moradhkin is WADI’s project coordinator in Iraq. He was one of the few who survived a...
BBC RADIO | 25.10.2013
Kurdistan's success in stemming Female Genital Mutilation
Kurdistan is one of Iraq's rare success stories, the region has enjoyed an oil boom and...
GULFNEWS.COM | 24.10.2013
How Kurdistan ended female genital mutilation
Two years ago, FGM was banned as part of a wide-ranging law to improve women’s rights...
the guardian | 24.10.2013
FGM: the film that changed the law in Kurdistan
Two filmmakers spent almost a decade reporting the greatest taboo subject in Kurdish society...
BIOMED CENTRAL | 08.09.2013
Female genital mutilation among Iraqi Kurdish women: a cross-sectional study from Erbil city
Iraqi Kurdistan region is one of the areas where female genital...
wadi | 14.08.2013
Rate of FGM decreases in some regions of Iraqi Kurdistan
The British MP Gary Kent has traveled again to Iraqi-Kurdistan and recently wrote an article...
The Independent | 31.05.2013
Fighting against Female Genital Mutilation in Iraq
It is a misguided belief that Islam requires young women be circumcised...
CIP | 22.03.2013
The Global Campaign Against Female Genital Mutilation Continues
A global campaign to eradicate female genital mutilation [FGM], often misnamed "female...
Kurdistantribune | 04.03.2013
Tackling Female Genital Mutilation in the Kurdistan Region
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is defined by the Word Health Organization (WHO) as...
UN Special | 06.02.2013
The long road to the first FGM-free villages in Iraq
According to a large survey conducted in 2009, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is...

 

 

 





THE IRISH TIMES | 25.10.2005

Study provides proof of female genital mutilation in Middle East

by Nicholas Birch

IRAQ: In a Kurdish area of Iraq, 60 per cent of women had been circumcised, writes Nicholas Birch in Germian.

Set on a pebble-strewn plain southeast of Kirkuk, Hasira looks like a place forsaken by time.

Fat-tailed sheep amble past mudbrick houses and brushwood pens. The odd sickly palm tree provides shade for children's games. There is no electricity.

Yet, along with 39 other villages in this area Iraq's Kurds call Germian - hot place - Hasira and its people have carved out their small place in history.

Surveyed by WADI, a German NGO based in Iraq for more than a decade, it has provided the first statistical proof of the existence of female genital mutilation in the Middle East.

"The results were shocking," says WADI director Thomas von der Osten-Sacken. Of 1,554 women interviewed by his local medical team, more than 60 per cent said they had undergone the operation. WADI is currently raising funds for a survey of the entire Iraqi Kurdish region.

Look up the operation on the web and you'll almost certainly find yourself reading about northeast Africa, where the majority of women are circumcised.

However, female genital mutilation is also known to exist throughout the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq. If it is less well-known here, one United Nations official in Egypt says it's largely due to "the attitude of the region's governments".

Osten-Sacken couldn't agree more. When WADI presented its results in Vienna this spring, he recalls, Austrian Arab groups accused the NGO of being an agent of the Israelis.

Even the Iraqi Kurdish authorities, which have backed efforts to stop female genital mutilation since the 1990s, were rattled.

"The [ Kurdish] Ministry of Human Rights hauled us in for questioning," says Assi Frooz Aziz, of WADI's medical team. "They accused us of publicising the country's secrets."

It is not just officialdom that has held up awareness of the phenomenon. If it is practised relatively openly in parts of Africa, in the Middle East it is veiled in secrecy.

"You can't just walk into a village and ask people if they circumcise their daughters," says Germian social worker Hero Umar. "These people only talked because we've been bringing them medical help for over a year."

A farmer's wife, Trifa Rashid Abdulkerim, says she learned circumcision techniques from her neighbour and took over when she stopped. "June is the best time of year," she says, "and the best age for patients is anywhere between three and eight."

The operation she describes is identical to descriptions heard throughout the Iraqi Kurdish area. Charcoal is applied before as a painkiller. After, the child is sat in a bowl of water and antiseptic solution. Asked about the specifics of the procedure, she falters. "I just cut off the top," she says, embarrassed.

It's a reference to what is sometimes termed the "Sunna" circumcision, the partial removal of prepuce and sometimes clitoris that some Muslims attribute to a tradition taught by the prophet Mohammed.

Campaigners opposed to female genital mutilation point out that it crosses religious and ethnic boundaries, but Iraqi Kurdistan's chief cleric acknowledges that Islam holds contradictory views on the practice.

"According to the Shafi'i school, which we Kurds belong to, circumcision is obligatory for men and women," Mohamed Ahmed Gaznei explains. "The Hanbali [ law] say it is obligatory only for men."

Personally opposed to the practice, Gaznei in 2002 issued a religious edict, or fatwa, calling for imitation of Hanbali practice. He regularly appears on television to preach against female genital mutilation.

In Germian, where electricity, let alone access to TV, is in short supply, the message is taking time to get through. "They say the food an uncircumcised woman cooks is unclean," says Hasira villager Shirin Ali, "and that a circumcised girl has more affection for her family."

This summer in a village an hour north of Hasira, WADI workers say, a newly married woman was so victimised by her in-laws for not being circumcised that she did the operation herself. They had to take her to hospital.

Hero Umar, the social worker, nonetheless thinks attitudes are beginning to change.

"Most imams are co-operative," she notes. "The biggest obstacle remaining is the older generation of women." Since early October, she and her colleagues travel armed with a new tool -- a 20-minute documentary on male genital mutilation. They say reactions have been overwhelmingly positive.

Judging by remarks made by this reporter's translator on the dirt track leading out of Hasira, though, there is still plenty of work to be done.

"I see nothing wrong with the operation, as long as it is done under anaesthetic," says this educated urbanite. "Because they are unable to control their sexual urges, uncircumcised women are more likely to be deflowered before marriage. That, in our society, is a shameful thing."