Meeting of the Parliament 10 February 2016
I thank all members who have supported the motion and allowed me to bring the issue of female genital mutilation to the chamber. I also thank all the organisations and activists who have committed so much of their time to raising awareness of FGM not just among the wider public and in front-line services, but among members, ministers, researchers and staff in the Parliament. I am pleased that some of those people have joined us in the public gallery.
This might be the last opportunity that we have to debate FGM in a plenary session, but it is certainly not the first time that the Parliament has addressed the issue. Through members’ business debates, Government debates, parliamentary questions and committee sessions, a number of members from across the Parliament—Kenny Gibson, Christina McKelvie, Jenny Marra and Patricia Ferguson, to name but a few—have taken an interest in the important issue of FGM.
In this session in particular, there has been a renewed focus on the issues that surround FGM and welcome progress towards the prevention and elimination of that appalling form of discrimination. In the past few days, people throughout the country and around the world—from policy makers in Assemblies and Parliaments such as the Scottish Parliament to those who work on the front line in countries in which there is a practising population to activists and agitators worldwide who are campaigning for change—have observed the international day of zero tolerance for female genital mutilation.
The international day of zero tolerance for FGM was a day for reflection, to think of victims, and to commemorate those who have been excluded, injured or even killed due to the ignorance and inequality that lie behind FGM. It was a day for education to raise awareness so that the world can know what that injustice is and why it must be stopped. Most important, it was a day for action, to say “No more”, to put forward solutions and to galvanise the work of charities, activists, non-governmental organisations and Governments in a drive to end that form of abuse.
FGM is an extreme form of gender-based discrimination. It is an act of violence against women and girls, a violation of their bodies and a violation of their human rights. UNICEF has estimated that more than 120 million women and girls worldwide live with the consequences of FGM. They are mainly in 29 African countries, where the practising populations are high, and in areas such as Kurdistan, Iraq and Egypt. The World Health Organization places that figure at around 140 million, and the most recent United Nations figures suggest that it could even be as high as 200 million.
Mass migration and cross-border travel bring opportunities to our society, but they also mean that policy makers here must confront unfamiliar challenges from other cultures, such as FGM.
For clarity, FGM is a form of abuse in which women’s and girls’ genitals are injured and altered for non-medical reasons. That is an important point. There is no medical justification for it, and nor does it have any basis in religion. It is a cultural practice that is rooted in patriarchy and gender inequality.
In some cultures, FGM is seen as a prerequisite for marriage. It is seen as a way of preserving a girl’s chastity before marriage and a woman’s faithfulness afterwards. The pressure to undergo FGM in societies in which marriage is a means of finding social acceptance and economic security can be severe. The stigma of not having undergone it can be overwhelming. In meetings that I have held in my capacity as convener of the Equal Opportunities Committee, I have heard about young girls who had resisted being cut being forced into the most extreme and disturbing forms of FGM by those who were closest to them. That is another important point.
There are different forms of FGM. The World Health Organization recognises four categories. Type 1 mainly involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris. Type 2 involves excision, and again involves partial or total removal of the clitoris as well as the partial or total removal of the labia. Type 3 is infibulation, which involves narrowing the orifice and creating a seal by cutting and repositioning the labia with or without cutting the clitoris. Type 4 covers all other procedures, including pricking and burning, and some of the most extreme and disturbing forms of FGM.
Needless to say, there are no health benefits in any of those procedures; they serve only to injure and to harm. Victims can experience pain, bleeding, shock, infection and, in the longer term, abscesses, cysts, adhesions and neuromas. Type 3 FGM can cause further complications such as reproductive tract infections and incontinence. Many women who are cut experience chronic pain, recurring infections for the rest of their lives, depression and post-traumatic stress. The death rate among babies during and immediately after childbirth is higher for those born to mothers who undergo some kind of FGM.
Three million women and girls are cut every year. It has to stop. The Scottish Government has launched a national action plan for FGM, which sets out the steps that the Government, its agencies and its partners can take to prevent and, we hope, eradicate this form of abuse. It comes in the wake of “Equally Safe”, which is the joint strategy of the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on the prevention and elimination of violence against women.
Doing more to raise awareness, to support the organisations that work with victims and to train health and social work professionals to spot the signs of FGM could be transformative for those who are at risk or who have undergone FGM and need support. We also need to reach out to those who are suffering and those who are at risk in other countries. The challenge of FGM is global. We must rise to the challenge not as one nation but as part of an international community.
Nobody should have to endure this abuse. We must do all that we can to close the gap between the world that we have, in which millions are cut every year, and the world that we want, in which FGM is a thing of the past. No injustice can last forever. As pernicious as this inequality is, I believe that when words become deeds and ideas lead to action, change will come. This generation can—and must—end FGM.
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