Action time on FGM
Cairo will host a conference next week on the eradication of female genital mutilation. Samia Nkrumah speaks to Emma Bonino, a European MP from Italy who will be participating in the event
Bonino
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On Saturday, Cairo's Conrad Hotel will host a three-day conference evaluating existing or nonexistent legal tools that could help eradicate female circumcision and female genital mutilation (FC/FGM) worldwide. This practice refers to the partial or total removal of the clitoris and labia minora, and in its most serious form, the stitching or narrowing of the vagina to form a tiny opening to allow discharge of urine or menstruation.
Twenty-eight African countries, where FC/FGM is practised, will be represented at the conference, in addition to a delegation from Yemen. Significantly, a government official as well as a representative from civil society will represent each of the participating countries. UN agencies and concerned European NGOs are also attending. Mrs Suzanne Mubarak will give the keynote speech, followed by other high profile speakers like the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, who will address the conference on its first day.
The decision to hold the conference in Egypt was a result of multinational efforts by activists from Europe and Africa, including Moushira Khattab from Egypt and Emma Bonino, a European MP from Italy, both of whom will be conference speakers. FC/FGM was put in the spotlight at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo where governments committed to take action against the practice. It is no coincidence that most existing legislation in concerned countries was introduced after 1994.
In an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly in Rome on the eve of the conference, Bonino said that the organisers did not want yet another conference discussing all the different aspects of FGM. "After over 20 years of anti-FGM activism, it is now time to move forward. We have already touched on the social component, on poverty and women's empowerment. We wanted an expert consultation on the legal issues of banning FGM. This conference will address questions like what kind of laws are needed, what the basic elements required in a law are, and how laws can be more effective," Bonino said.
Saturday's conference is part of the two-year-old Stop FGM campaign financed by the European Union as a result of efforts by activists like Bonino, who secured an EU budget provision to eradicate FGM, which remains an element of EU human rights initiatives between the EU and associated countries.
The conference's basic document is a background paper examining the nuts and bolts of anti-FGM laws to help policy makers form more effective legislation.
One suggestion is that laws prohibiting FGM stand a better chance of working if they are linked to improving human rights, including fighting discrimination against women. Bonino believes that FGM originated as a means of social control over women, and an attempt to subdue what is perceived as their more uncontrollable side -- their sexuality. From that point on, the practice became associated with culture, tradition and even, in some cases, religion. "To help women reject FC/FGM, we must improve their social standing. Laws must also be part of a broader bill addressing women's equality, health and reproductive laws," she added.
Bonino refers to a study by Nahid Toubia, president of RAINBOW (Research, Action and Information Network for Bodily Integrity of Women), whose research partly forms the basis of the conference document. After wondering for years why some women themselves defend the practice -- flying in the face of health risks, prohibitive laws, and even religious leaders' advice -- she came to the conclusion that women who insist on practicing FGM, do so because it is their only means of obtaining acceptability and material gain through marriage, in a patriarchal social setting. According to Toubia, while adopting prohibitive laws, women in FGM practicing communities must be given benefits that will compensate for not complying with social norms. If FGM is practised by women to gain acceptability in society, then in addition to imposing laws we must give them education, improve their chances of working, and equip them with means to reject the practice, she says.
Another related concern is the need to protect rather than punish women. Who must be penalised for breaking the law? If a parent is imprisoned upon conviction, the daughter/victim will pay a heavy price. "Legislation that ignores the crucial needs of women will result in making them criminals and end up punishing the same victims that we aim to protect," advises Toubia, who cautions that "an isolated act of criminalising FGM without empowering women or involving the community could easily create an environment that is hostile to women."
Drawing on her broad experience in campaigning for women's rights, including legalising divorce and abortion in Italy in the seventies, Bonino came up with two important lessons. First, laws cannot be effective unless there is collaboration between civil society and national government, and second, laws are not enough without an awareness-raising campaign to disseminate information and explain to people why such laws were passed.
"In many African countries, civil society does not work in conjunction with governments. The same [dynamic existed in] Italy in the past when many feminists thought we could solve problems alone on a self-help basis -- but we eventually came to the conclusion that we need a legal framework. With the enactment of laws, activists were no longer marginalised but legalised," Bonino recalls. In addition to the benefit of involving the government and citizens, laws help citizens in the sense that they give a clear framework on how to behave.
Going from village to village will take decades and decades, but an anti-FGM awareness campaign via radio, which reaches villages, is quicker. Field- oriented activity must be complemented by public awareness activity. In Tanzania for example, with the help of the government, activists embarked on an effective radio campaign calling for a clear law that prohibits the practice of FC/FGM.
On the question of internationalising the campaign, Bonino again recalled her past experience here in Italy. Even though it was mostly an Italian fight, the support of the French and others in northern Europe, which had already legalised divorce, gave the Italian activists added and very much needed international support. "In the anti-FGM campaign, we can provide major support from Europe. I strongly believe that human rights have no borders. You say everybody has to take care of his or her own problem. I believe exactly the opposite," Bonino asserts.
She views her role as that of bringing international connectedness to support the work of local activists. "We are not substituting the work of local activists, but complementing it, by bringing an international pressure to bear on the issue," she added. In this regard, Egypt has begun a project -- financed by the UNDP and partly run by UNICEF -- to stop FGM in 60 villages in Upper Egypt.
