Female Genital Mutilation & Economics

FGM AND ECONOMICS By Hillary Burage

The writer, Hilary Burrage as part of the Oxford Against Cutting Seminar series spoke about a theme that is extremely widespread and serious. This theme is the economic and other factors of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) which does not only have an impact on the victims, the girls but on their loved ones as well as on the community that they are part of. Her seminar started by introducing the shocking data of the brutality and assault against women. 35% of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. 200 million women have experiences female genital mutilation. She explained that ’this issue is not only devastating for survivors of violence and their families, but also entails significant social and economic costs. In some countries, violence against women is estimated to cost countries up to 3.7% of their GDP – more than double what most governments spend on education’. Burrage said that if it is our aim to stop FGM then it is a must to acknowledge that economics is also what underlies the long history of FGM itself. It’s money which have always driven the practice. And thus, the girl or woman who undergoes FGM becomes an economic commodity. Therefore, we need to look at this practice as something that is influenced by the economic benefits, rather than something that is in favour of the girls and their relationships. In communities where FGM is practised, it is usually an expected precursor at some stage in the girl’s life to early marriage, as a first or subsequent wife. It is believed to guarantee so-called ‘purity’ – i.e. virginity. This is why by many it is believed to be a traditional practice, but in reality it is a violent crime against girls and women, and a very serious human rights violation. Many locations where FGM is prevalent do not have adequate health provision; they do not maintain full medical records – and the clinical priority when FGM demands acute care will not be long-term impact record-keeping and there may be reluctance to equate FGM with harm, let alone economic cost, etc. Among the indicators of why FGM costs so much there is that FGM results in early marriage, loss of education, personal opportunities, increase the likelihood of infant mortality, increase the likelihood of physical and mental health problems, shorter life expectancy and many more. But as everything FGM practice has a small circle which benefits from this practice. This is the family of the girl, the husband, the local community and the operator of the practice. Contrary, it does not benefit the young girls, her future children, the local economy and the nation who has thousands of women who are not in good health. Therefore, what can we do to stop this practice? We need to educate the families to know that educating their daughters actually have a lot of benefits. We need to educate the husband to see that without FGM their wife would be a person in good health and someone who is happier. And we need to educate the local community to see that this practice is wrong and that women die because of it and families got destroyed because of it.

Burrage’s eye-opening seminar showed why we cannot ignore or neglect the process of FGM. This is not something that only affect a tiny layer of our societies but something that affects millions of lives across the globe which we need to acknowledge and stop. Original article: https://rb.gy/vhfwy4