1. AFTER Against FGM/C Through Empowerment and Rejection
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2. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
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3. Forms of Gender Based Violence
Domestic violence (IPV, family violence)
Cultural Violence (Female genital mutilation/cutting, - FGM/C, early/forced marriages, son preference, wife inheritance, polygamy)
Conflict-based violence (rape, abductions, early/forced marriages)
State sponsored violence
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4. Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs)
Tend to reflect unequal power relation between women and men in a society.
Female Genital Mutilation (also known as Female Genital Cutting; Female Circumcision), Early marriage, Forced marriage, Early pregnancy, Unhealthy birth delivery practices, Breast Ironing, Son preference to a girl-child, Female infanticide, Honour killings, Nutritional taboos, Foot Binding, etc.
Initiation rites for boys and men too.
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What is FGM?
Female genital mutilation comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. (Source WHO, 2008)
World Health Organization Classification (2007)
Type I — Partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce (clitoridectomy).
Type II — Partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora (excision).
Type III — Narrowing of the vaginal orifice with creation of a covering seal by cutting and repositioning the labia minora and/or the labia majora, with or without excision of the clitoris (infibulation).
Type IV — All other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, for example: pricking, stretching, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization.
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Where Does FGM Happen?
FGM documented in 28 African countries and in Asia and the Middle East including Iraq and Yemen. Also in Kurdish populations.
Demographic data on FGM/C is typically collected every five years through Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys- nationally representative samples of households interviewed.
Nearly all of the surveys ask women of reproductive age about their own FGM status, at what age they were cut and by whom.
If a woman has living daughters, the same questions are repeated for her daughters.
Data dates back about 21 years to 1995 so we have longitudinal data for FGM increase/decline trend analysis.
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FGM Facts and Figures
WHO estimate 125 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM.
6,000 girls per day undergo FGM.
3 million girls are at risk annually in Africa.
Peak age for FGM 4-12, although varies with tribe/culture/region.
Most girls are subjected to FGM before age 5.
British estimates suggest over 137,000 women and girls who have undergone FGM are living in England and Wales, in Belgium 13,000, in France 61,000 and in the Netherlands 30,000.
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11. Prevalence – Unicef definition
National prevalence = The percentage of girls and women of reproductive age (15 to 49) who have experienced any form of FGM/C is the first indicator used to show how widespread the practice is in a particular country” (UNICEF 2013)
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Irish FGM data
Used “extrapolation of FGM countries prevalence data method” an indirect methodology.
Used Central Statistics Office Irish national census and Reception and Integration Agency data.
Irish FGM prevalence figures estimate that 3,780 women living in Ireland in 2011 aged between 15 and 44 (representing final cut status) had undergone FGM.
This is an increase from extrapolations performed on census 2006 figures estimating 2,585 women that were published in 2008.
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Limitations using the ‘extrapolation-of-FGM-prevalence-data-method’ from census figures to calculate FGM prevalence in EU MS:
Census data sometimes lack disaggregation by country of origin, by country of birth, length of stay in a country;
Ethnicity is often a more useful indicator of FGM and it is not routinely included in census data figures; for example estimations on the Kurdish population are hard to collate since they belong to different nationalities (Iraq, Turkey, etc.).
In some Member States accessing and utilising data on the basis of ethnicity is not possible for legal and ethical reasons.
Only 8 EU countries currently have FGM prevalence studies.
It is a blunt prevalence estimation instrument but often “good enough”.
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FGM and girls at risk
In 2014 Ireland was selected as one of the pilot countries in the EIGE (European Institute for Gender Equality) study Estimation of girls at risk of FGM in the European Union. Portugal and Sweden also selected.
This study defined FGM risk estimation in an EU Member State as: “the number of minor girls (either born in or born to mothers from FGM risk countries) living in an EU Member State who might be at risk of female genital mutilation, expressed as a proportion of the total number of girls aged 0–18 living in an EU country who originate from or are born to a mother from FGM risk countries
The EIGE study used a mixed methods approach with quantitative and qualitative phases in order to avoid under and over estimations of risk. Looked at first and second generations.
Focus group discussions with men and women from FGM practicing countries and regions now living in Ireland took place in order to assess migration and acculturation factors on FGM continuance.
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The pilot study findings indicate that in Ireland in 2011, the number of girls at risk of female genital mutilation varied between 158 (low risk estimation) and 1,632 (high risk estimation) from a population of 14,577 girls originating from FGM practicing countries (both born in the country of origin or in Ireland to a mother from an FGM practicing country).
Proportionally, between 1% and 11 % of girls aged 0-18 originating from FGM practicing countries (born in the country of origin or in Ireland) were at risk of FGM.
However, these results should be interpreted with caution.
FGM could become “opportunistic” and therefore deviate from age norms and occur mainly during trips to parents’ country of origin.
Trends: increase in number of births to mothers coming from FGM practicing countries, decrease in asylum seekers from FGM practicing countries.
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17. MDE, CEMACH, MBRRACE Reports
MBRRACE report “Four women who died between 2009 and 2013 during or up to six week after pregnancy were reported to have had female genital mutilation; this was not considered to be a contributory factor in the death of any of these women…” (2015) covers period
Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH). Saving Mothers’ Lives: reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer
“This Report considered the deaths of at least four women known to have been cut in this way, three of whom did not disclose their condition until very late in pregnancy or in early labour. For one woman, her late disclosure may have directly contributed to her death following an unnecessary caesarean section because staff were not aware that a corrective procedure could have been performed during her antenatal period. For another, her condition was not apparent until she was first examined in established labour yet the obstetrician was not informed until her labour stalled some hours later.”
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Confidential Maternal Death Enquiry in Ireland, Report for Cork: MDE Ireland, February 2015.
“Significantly, 38.7 % of maternal deaths (includes direct and indirect causes) occurred in women born outside Ireland, who represented 24.2% of all maternities in Ireland for that time period. Thus, such women were over-represented in Irish maternal deaths, reflecting findings from successive UK CEMD reports which found an increased risk of maternal death among migrant ethnic minorities.”
No FGM links- yet.
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No Time to Lose
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