Female Genital Mutilation:
It's a crime not culture
FGM stands for »Female Genital Mutilation«, sometimes called female circumcision or female genital cutting.
FGM as practiced in Kurdistan is the cutting of the clitoris of girls in order to curb their sexual desire and preserve their so called sexual honor before marriage.
The practice has dreadful costs: some girls bleed to death or die of infection. Most are traumatized. Those who survive can suffer adverse health effects during marriage and pregnancy. Women and girls are enclosed by a wall of silence.
The painful mutilation is usually done to young girls aged between 4 and 12 years. The operation is done in secret. For the girl, it is a traumatizing experience to be handed out by her own mother to the mid-wife for this operation.
FGM can Kill
Usually, a female member of the family, a neighbor or a mid-wife operates the girl. The operation is done without anesthetics. Instruments are usually not sterile. The mid-wife cuts the clitoris, and sometimes parts of the labia, with a razor or a knife.
Then, she covers the bleeding wound with ash. To stop the bleeding, girls are sometimes forced to sit onto a bucket filled with icy water. Many girls die afterwards, or suffer their whole life from the psychological and medical consequences of the operation.
FGM is widespread in Iraqi Kurdistan
In 2004, members of female-lead Mobile Teams run by the relief organization WADI, reported the existence of FGM in several villages of the Germian area, South of Suleymaniah. A subsequent study resulted in a horrible discovery: a very large proportion of the women had been mutilated. Members of the Mobile Teams interviewed around 1,500 women and young girls. 907 of them were victims of FGM. A similar study in the Arbil region came to the same results: of 440 women 380 were circumcised.
Interactive map: FGM rates in kurdish regions of Iraq
In 2007, WADI began a wide scale research in all three Governorates of Iraqi Kurdistan, interviewing more than 1,800 women from various areas and social backgrounds to collect data on the base of a profile of Kurdish women.
Preliminary findings show, that FGM is widespread among women and girls (60 % up to virtually 100 % affected in some regions) and exists in nearly all parts of the Kurdish region of Iraq (with the only exception of Dohuk governorate where FGM-rates are down to 10 %).
The latest findings from the Pishder region and Raniyah paints a dramatic picture of the situation: From March to end of August 2008 the mobile team paid 115 regular visits to 50 Villages and 25 Girls schools in the Raniya region and as a result they met with 2,952 women and girls. From these a total of 2,810 were mutilated, which amounts to 95 %.
Lack of information assists FGM.
Like everything related to sexuality, FGM is a taboo. Women suffer silently from the operation and local communities usually do not regard FGM as a harmful practice. Raising the awareness inside the communities and especially among the women themselves is crucial.
Lack of information is one of many reasons for women to go on with FGM. Many believe it to be an inevitable operation for the sake of hygienic; others have been told that FGM is obligatory for Muslims.
One reason for the persistence of FGM is that women and girls are widely regarded as objects and property that their male relatives possess. Self-conscious women and girls, who know their rights and regard themselves as subjects with individual needs and feelings are not as easy victims for mutilation and violence.
