'It's The Most Cynical Form Of Child Abuse'

Supermodel Waris Dirie is a vigorous campaigner against FGM after suffering the procedure as a young girl in Somalia

The practice is more often than not carried out using unhygienic tools like razor blades and even broken glass

London, July 18, 2007 – THE issue of Female Genital Mutilation has been brought home to Haringey after it emerged that 27 women living in the borough have sought medical treatment for health problems caused by their wounds.

The figure has been revealed as the Metropolitan Police launch a clampdown on the practice, mainly endured by African women, which has been timed to coincide with the school summer holidays when it is thought that most procedures are carried out.

In Britain, FGM is now categorized as child abuse, and a £20,000 reward has been given for information leading to the arrest of the circumcisers, who are mainly older women.

Jennifer Bourne, a nurse with the African Well Woman Service, has treated those Haringey women suffering from the after-shocks of the procedure.

She said: "There are medical issues such as infection, incontinence and back pain and, of course, it causes a lot of emotional distress for some - for those who do acknowledge what has happened. Many of the women don't talk about it, but you can see that it causes upset.

"I work with a lot of women who are very angry about what they have been put through."

Pain
In the Somali community, to which the majority of Haringey patients belong, the procedure is carried out when the child is between five and eight years old, but the patients who come to the clinic are aged 20-50 - testimony that the pain caused by the mutilation never really goes away for some.

Mrs. Bourne said: "In Somalia we are looking at a largely nomadic community and it is the young girls who go out and shepherd the animals. The FGM is carried out as it is thought it will stop them being raped, but of course it ends up causing them a lot of trauma."

She said that she had seen only a handful of young girls who had gone through the mutilation, and that most of her patients were woman who had been "cut" in Africa before coming to Britain.

There are three levels of FGM noted by medics and academics. Mrs. Bourne said Somali women endure usually endure level three - called infibulation - where the clitoris is removed and the outer vaginal lips sewn up to leave a small hole for menstrual bleeding and urine. Unbelievably, the vagina is secured shut using thorns - a practice which Mrs. Bourne is familiar with.

It is hard to understand why, in 2007, such mutilation still goes on.

FGM is carried out in the name of tradition and social acceptance, with such stories generated in communities that a man will die if his penis touches a clitoris. It is often seen as a protection of a woman's purity, with the clitoris removed to reduce feelings of sexual arousal and therefore sex before marriage.

There is one theory that a man will reverse infibulation on his wedding night by using a double edged sword.

Such tales may sound like the stuff of medieval folk tales, but for some women living in Haringey the issue of FGM carries a very real and long lasting pain.

Distressing
Mrs. Bourne said she had met a circumciser while on a research trip to Somaliland.

She said: "She was an old lady, in her 60s, and she couldn't see much. She didn't have any glasses, and I couldn't help think to myself ,'How does she know what she is doing?'.

"She came to a conference and put all her tools out which included these big thorns which they use to cut the tissue, but they also use them to pin the skin together again. The girls also have their legs bound together while it was going on. It was all very distressing to see."

She said she had heard anecdotally that the circumcisions were being carried out in Waltham Forest, where Mrs. Bourne works with the Primary Care Trust, but that there was no hard evidence to prove it. Half of the £20,000 reward for information leading to prosecution has been put up by the Waris Dirie Foundation, set up by the Somali supermodel who herself was subjected to FGM when she was just four years old.

Ms Dirie said she "wholeheartedly supported" the work being done by the Metropolitan Police on FGM. She said: "Female Genital Mutilation has nothing to do with tradition, culture or religion. It is the most cynical form of child abuse. All countries are obliged to take serious and consequent actions against those who practice this crime."

Mrs. Bourne said that the law against FGM was proving to be an effective deterrent.

She said: "The law is a very powerful thing, it sends a very strong message that the practice is not tolerated.

"We tell the women about the law, most of them did not realize that it was there. Most women think it is a religious requirement to have it done. You can see a change of thought taking place among some of the Somali women we see at the clinic.

"They are now telling us that they have chosen that their daughters will not go through the same things that they have."

Anyone with information about FGM, or who knows anyone who is at risk from it, should contact Project Azure on 020 7230 8392 or Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555111.

Source: Tottenham, Wood Green and Edmonton Journal