THE M-WORD

Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning:  I am not in favour of decriminalising or in any way sanctioning the practice known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and want to see it ended as much as anyone.  My problem is with the use of the term used to describe it which I also think should be stopped.

Why?  By any stretch of the imagination cutting off a piece of the body which nature endowed us with, often using an unsterilized razor blade in an unsanitised environment, is a pretty unpleasant and dangerous operation particularly when inflicted on a girl of thirteen, typically the age when it occurs.  Yet an estimated 60-70,000 women have had their clitoris removed illegally and without their informed adult consent in Britain and a whopping 200 million worldwide.  This is not a small problem.

And how many successful prosecutions have there been for FGM in Britain?  A big fat zero.  One doctor was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service for performing a surgical procedure which took place during an operation.  He said that what he had done was necessary for the woman’s well-being and the jury took around half an hour to acquit him, which is just about the amount of time they needed to leave the room and take a vote.  We are making a lot of noise about this problem but not preventing it from happening.  It shows no sign of going away even if The Daughters of Eve are doing a lot to combat it and support victims.

I notice from their website that Daughters of Eve still use the word ‘mutilation’ and this is what is exercising me.  They do not realise – or acknowledge - how strong peer group pressure can be on peoples’ behaviour.  Imagine you are a mother who is being pressured to give up your daughter for, Ok let’s call it FGM.  You are certainly female, Moslem and almost certainly from an African or Asian background which means you are already suffering from three types of discrimination and marginalisation in a predominantly secular/partly Christian society where men still make most decisions and white men have more power than those with darker skins and women less than men.  Your community might frown on you going to work or driving a car and pressure you into wearing clothing that covers at least part of your head and face. 

Then you hear some light-skinned well-meaning car-driver come along and use the word ‘mutilation’ to describe a practice which has been carried out in your community for centuries and which is being proposed for your sexually immature daughter.   You hear tales about women being groomed and exploited by predatory males and are naturally anxious to keep her as far as possible from this fate.  You are assured that the operation will help to keep her away from bad influences and that it is your duty to submit her to it.  Who you gonna listen to?  The people you are surrounded by every day or those who breeze in and tell you how to lead your life before disappearing back to their own distant communities. 

This is why I think these same light-skinned well-meaning people are so wrong in using the M-word.  Talk to a lawyer and he or she will tell you just how difficult it is to get a conviction in a British court even when the evidence against the accused is strong because one of their colleagues is so smart at undermining such evidence.   You are hardly likely to have a video of an operation taking place, no witnesses will come forward because they would be ostracised by their community and so a wall of silence ensures that we continue to disapprove of a crime which we seem to be completely unable to prevent.  

Moreover, it cannot be a crime to be the parent or guardian a girl who has had her clitoris removed.  You are prosecuted for what you have done not for who you are in a free society.  The thought of police officers inspecting the genitalia of girls at school to ensure that their sexual equipment is complete does not bear thinking about, having shades of Nazis getting suspected Jews to drop their trousers to see if they have been circumcised. 

This is an area where feminism and multi-culturalism are in conflict and it is interesting that feminism has won hands down.  If it was a form of tattoo or hairstyle that was being practiced no-one would be getting exercised about it but try to barge into a woman’s sex life and you are asking for trouble.  And surely his is a woman-on-woman issue.  Most modern men are so desperate to show how good they are in the sack that they want above all else to preserve the evidence.  I am quite certain that removing the instrument of female sexual delight would not be possible without the complicity of the mothers, grandmothers and aunts of the girls affected.   They have got it into their heads that this is the way to preserve and protect their daughters and we have to convince them otherwise.

This will not be easy but neither is it a completely hopeless cause.  The sledgehammer of the law, however, is probably not the best instrument to use.  We need education, education, education to quote a phrase.  Any teacher will tell you that you have to be careful what language you use if you want to get through to people and the M-word is surely standing in the way of us making progress.   Forget for a moment what we think about clitoris removal.  We need to get through to that triple-discriminated against black Moslem mother and she will switch off the moment she hears someone using the word mutilation.  Let’s cut it out.  

Edwin Lerner

Go to http://www.dofeve.org/ for more on 'FGM' (until we find a better name).

My other blog is:  diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com