Female Genital Mutilation - Research Paper Example

?Female Genital Mutilation War on our Daughters in Africa: Laws Unenforced, Practices Unchanged, Female Genital Mutilation Continues Introduction Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as genital cutting for female circumcision, refers to any surgical procedure involving the removal of part or all of the female genitalia, usually ostensibly carried out for religious or cultural reasons. FGM is not only significant as a traditional cultural practice which negatively affects the lives of millions of girls and women worldwide, but also because it has become something of a case-study of a harmful cultural practice and attempts to eradicate it. Hernlund and Shell-Duncan noted that the ‘global movement to “eradicate FGM” has currently reached a point of increased critical reflection, involving the reassessment of intervention approaches, the reappraisal of priorities, and the resetting of goals’ (1). This paper will seek to establish the present state of the debate, examine approaches which have, in the past, been adopted in attempts to eradicate FGM, and evaluate the effectiveness of these practices in order to provide recommendations on what should be done to move forward on this pressing issue. Four major types of FGM have been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO). Type 1 involves the removal, or excision, of the clitoral hood; type 2 involves the removal of the clitoris and of part or all of the labia minora, and is the most widely practiced form. Type 3 generally involves the removal of part or all of the external genitalia, together with the stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening, and type 4 refers to other procedures, including the cauterization of the clitoris and the stretching of the clitoris and labia. Type 1 and 2 together are thought to account for about 85% of FGM procedures (IRIN). Today, this practice is practiced mostly in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Southeast Asia, but there has also been increasing documentation of FGM taking place in immigrant communities in the West. It is estimated that around the world, about 2 million girls a year are subjected to FGM, joining the perhaps 130 million women worldwide who have already been cut, and the practice continues in about 25-30 Sub-Saharan African countries, and in more than half of communities. In recent years, there has generally been a downward trend in the percentage of women being cut in some countries, but in others, there seems to have been little or no change (Feldman-Jacobs and Clifton, 3). Source: Feldman-Jacobs, C. & Clifton, D., Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Data and Trends. Washington D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 2008, p.2. Web. http://www.prb.org/pdf10/fgm-wallchart2010.pdf. Accessed 20 February 2011. 2) Consequences of FGM The procedure is often carried out in an unsanitary environment by practitioners without sufficient medical training, without sterilization, and without the use of any regular anesthetic. As a result, the procedure itself can immediately lead to death by shock or by profuse bleeding. Furthermore, due to the lack of sanitation, the operation can result in the infection of wounds. The same knife is sometimes used to perform several operations at the same time, and so can lead to the spread of disease among the girls. The impact on the health of circumcised girls does not stop after the procedure. Many suffer long-term and recurrent urinary tract infections and cysts, and sexual intercourse can be extremely painful, especially for those whose vaginas were narrowed and stitched up as part of the FGM operation. This can also increase the likelihood of complications encountered during childbirth. It can also necessitate further surgery later on, including more stitching. As the procedure involves the removal of some of the key female erogenous zones, it can lead to desensitization, and the likelihood of sexual satisfaction in women who underwent FGM can be reduced, while others suffer from psychiatric and relationship problems which can be linked to FGM. There is some debate over a possible relationship between FGM and the rate of HIV infection. Some studies have found that women who have been cut are more likely to become infected with HIV, while others have found that the virus is transmitted less easily to those who have been cut. Source: Feldman-Jacobs, C. & Clifton, D., Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Data and Trends. Washington D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 2008, p.3 Web. http://www.prb.org/pdf10/fgm-wallchart2010.pdf. Accessed 20 February 2011. 3) Why FGM Continues For a long time, FGM was an aspect of women’s lives which was not openly discussed, and was largely hidden from public view. When outside forces tried to intervene in communities to bring about the end of the practice, it could be viewed as cultural imperialism. European reformers have tried to eliminate it since the early 20th century. Notably, Christian missionaries working among the Kikuyu people of modern Kenya announced in 1929 that all those sending their children to missionary schools had to promise not to have their daughters circumcised. Kikuyu nationalists reacted against this, and saw the practice of FGM as part of their loyalty to their nation, with Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of independent Kenya, arguing that the practice was fundamental to the law, religion and morality of tribal groups (Murray, 135). Despite laws formally prohibiting FGM, it remains a prominent practice in many African societies. As Horsbrugh-Porter puts it, there is a ‘thin dividing line between consent and having no realistic choice’ (72). Where FGM is a social convention, parents raising girls in the community can be under enormous pressure to conform to the prevailing trend. They risk becoming outcasts if they do not conform. The practice is also linked to religion, with some religious leaders teaching their followers that the provisions of Islam, Christianity, or traditional religions, sanction FGM as maintaining ideals of femininity. The fact that Type 1 FGM is often called the ‘Sunna’ procedure is used as evidence for this. FGM is commonly considered a necessary rite in a girl’s upbringing, and a key part of protecting female purity and modesty. In some societies, the clitoris is considered unclean and a symbol of masculinity, while in others, cutting it is believed to enhance female fertility. This is linked to traditional ideas about female sexuality. In much of Africa, a girl will only be considered a suitable marriage partner if she has not engaged in premarital sexual intercourse, and FGM is widely believed to discourage this. Therefore, if a girl is not circumcised, she will be unlikely to find a husband, and therefore faces a lifetime of destitution due to the lack of economic independence for women in most communities which practice FGM. Of course, the continuance of the practice in the face of widespread opposition is also a matter of time. As the village chief in Bougoni, Mali, said: we must ‘Give the spirit the time to ripen’ (Skaine, 149). Communities which are increasingly being confronted with challenges to entrenched beliefs about FGM must be given time to consider all of the information, and to decide for themselves. The abandonment of FGM will not be immediate in all places, but will rely on patient campaigns tailored to local conditions. 4) Broad Approaches Approaches to tackle the FGM issue have varied over the decades. Most anti-FGM campaigns initially worked from a health viewpoint. The health-based campaigns largely failed to bring about major change. People were often aware of the health risks of FGM, and the information used by campaigners was usually sourced from relatively rare and extreme cases, thus raising the question of whether they weren’t exaggerating, and producing a lack of credibility. Since the early 1990s, an approach which stresses human rights, and the violation of a girl’s human rights constituted by FGM, has been the most prevalent form of campaign. The UN World Conference on Human Rights, held in Vienna in 1993, made it into a human rights issue, stating: ‘It is unacceptable that the international community remains passive in the name of a distorted vision of multiculturalism…People will change their behavior when they understand the hazards and indignity of harmful practices’ (Horsbrugh-Porter, 73). Along with this human rights approach, there was an emphasis on FGM as a method of female oppression, and campaigns against it increased along with the rise of the women’s movement in the 1970s. However, there have been criticisms of the approach taken by women’s liberation activists to the issue of FGM. Murray took the case of Efua Graham, a Ghanaian living in Britain, who had been campaigning against it since the latr-1970s, and has found that feminist arguments have little influence at the village grassroots (143). Graham UNICEF has reported that the most successful anti-FGM campaigns take the human rights approach (23). However, as we will see below, whatever approach is taken, what is most important is that it is made relevant to the lives of ordinary villagers, and they are presented with the plain facts, so that they can have a discussion, and make their own decision for what they perceive to be the good of the community. 5) International Action In recent decades, there has been concerted international action to stop FGM. The WHO held the first international conference on it in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, in 1979, and recommended that it should be totally eradicated. The International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994, recognized FGM as a harmful practice against women girls, as did the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995 (IRIN). The Inter-African Committee on Tribal Practices Affecting Women and Children (IAC) consists of delegates from a total of 26 African countries. At a meeting in 1997, they passed a Declaration on the Importance of Adopting Legislation Against Female Genital Mutilation. Furthermore, in late 2000, the IAC reported that it had been in dialogue with religious leaders, and were working through religious misconceptions related to FGM. As a result, religious leaders from Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Gambia, among other countries, confirmed that FGM was opposed by the doctrines of Christianity and Islam. This could be a key development, and should be extended, given that religious sanction of the practice has often been cited as a reason for its continuance (Skaine, 144). The United Nations declared February 6 the ‘International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation’. In July 2003, the African Union adopted the so-called ‘Maputo Protocol’, or the ‘Protocol To The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights On The Rights Of Women In Africa’, a document promoting women’s rights, which included, in article 5, an explicit provision to end FGM. This protocol went into force in late 2005, and by the end of 2008, some 25 African countries had signed it. This provisions calls upon signatory states to raise awareness of the dangers of FGM in their respective countries, and to introduce national legislation prohibiting it. Further impetus was given to such international action in February 2008, as the UN issued a new statement indicating its renewed support for advocacy for the abandonment of FGM. In the same year, the WHO passed a resolution calling for the elimination of the practice, and emphasized the need for concerted action. This call was composed of three main elements. These were advocacy – developing publications and tools for efforts to end FGM, research – generating greater knowledge about its causes and consequences, and guidance for health workers to treat and advise those who have already undergone FGM (WHO). 6) National Action Legislation is just one part of the solution, but it is important for national governments to make their opposition to FGM clear. UNICEF stated clearly that governments ‘must create a protective environment for women and children and support abandonment of the practice’ (29). It seems that legislation is more effective when a change in attitudes about FGM is already being brought about by education programs and greater dialogue at the grassroots. Once citizens have already begun to debate FGM, a national government can help to inform local decisions by making clear its own opposition to the practice, thus supporting those on the ground who have already decided to abandon the procedure. Legislation is also effective when accompanied by media campaigns to raise awareness. The media can play a crucial part in ‘breaking the silence’ on FGM, which is still considered a taboo topic by many. For example, the Tanzanian Media Women Association found that when they provided the media with up-to-date information regarding the state of FGM campaigns in that country, they could reach a far wider audience (UNICEF, 31). Political leaders have found it difficult to make their laws apply on the ground in diverse territories with limited resources, and inefficient communications and governance networks. It is possible that some governments have passed anti-FGM legislation as part of a liberal, human-rights based package, designed to boost their credentials for eligibility for foreign aid. In most countries, actually enforcing prohibitions against FGM is a low government priority. As Feldman-Jacobs and Clifton found, ‘political will and implementation remains an issue’ (2). In others, the general opinion still seems to work against legalization. In 2003, the Sudanese government suggested that it was planning to explicitly legalize the practice – a declaration that came just a few months before FGM was rejected by a world summit attended by delegates of 190 countries (Skaine 128). It is already officially forbidden in a large number of African countries, and in Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea and Uganda, it is actually prohibited under the constitution, while in Chad, Mali and Niger, it can be treated as an injury under the criminal law. However, a report published in 2000 found that of the 28 African and Middle Eastern countries which had by then banned the practice by law, only in 4 – Egypt, Senegal, Ghana and Burkina Faso – had prosecutions been brought against individuals who had been found to continue performing the procedure (UNICEF, 29). A 2004 report found that even then, only 5 countries had enforced legislation in the past year – Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire,, Ghana and Tanzania, and this was patchy. Nevertheless, some governments have made its enforcement a serious issue. In Burkina Faso, since the law was enacted in 1996, some 300 have been arrested under it, and 15 have received jail terms. Some of the anti-FGM legislation has also suffered from serious defects. In Egypt, for example, in 1996, the Ministry of Health issued a decree banning the procedure except where it was required for medical reasons. Given that there are no medical benefits to female genital circumcision, this decree just acted as a loophole, allowing for the medicalization of the procedure. However, in June 2007, Egypt was forced to action by the public outcry following the FGM-related death of a 12-year old girl Upper Egypt, with the then First Lady Suzanne Mubarak dedicating a minute’s silence to the girl. In response, a ministerial decree fully criminalized FGM, while the country’s highest Islamic institution – the Al-Azhar Supreme Council of Islamic Research, issued a statement confirming that the practice has no foundation in Islamic law (UNICEF Egypt). The involvement of religious leaders, like the Egyptian Islamic scholars mentioned above, can be effective. Indeed, Tina Rosenberg, from whose 2004 newspaper article the title of this paper has been adopted, claims that ‘One strategy that has proven effective is persuading religious leaders to dispel the widespread belief that Islam calls for circumcision’ (A14). In early 2010, 34 Islamic scholars gathered in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, and signed a fatwa stating that the procedure has been shown to cause harm. This decision was welcomed by many Mauritanian women, but ‘others have cautioned that a publicity campaign will now be needed if the fatwa’s message is to be spread into outlying areas where genital mutilation is most common’ (BBC News). The same is true of government-enacted legislation – it is all very well for African governments to pass laws in the capital, but with patchy governance and enforcement, they can have little impact. Nationwide awareness-raising publicity and education campaigns, working down to the community level, are crucial if FGM is to be abandoned. The role of political and religious leaders must be far broader than just the issuing of fatwas and the enactment of legislation. Dorkenoo rightly stresses the current gaps in child care monitoring in many African countries (87). This makes it extremely difficult to effectively look after children and protect them from abuse. As noted above, governments should also put in place nationwide awareness campaigns, targeted at every level of society. They should also focus more on the education of poorer women, in order to allow them to take control of their own physical and reproductive health. Education would help to break down entrenched myths, including misconceptions about religion sanctioning FGM, and ideas such as that if the clitoris touches a foetus, the baby will die. An area in which much of Africa is woefully lacking, and development in which would be crucial to the effective abandonment of FGM, is the lack of economic power enjoyed by women. Governments should consider measures to produce a more balanced economic situation between men and women. As noted above, it will take a lot more than just polices and laws to bring about real change on the ground. We have seen decades of international conferences and agreements, and of national legislation prohibiting FGM, and yet the available figures show, for the most part, only small reductions in the prevalence of FGM. Therefore, we should look to community-based action for further recommendations. 7) Community Action It is clear that international agreements and declarations, and even national laws, are not enough to bring about the eradication of FGM on the ground. From the experience of successful anti-FGM projects, it seems clear that community-based action has been the most effective means of stopping the practice. UNICEF reported that the most successful programs are those which ‘guide communities to define the problems and solutions themselves’ (23), and encourage people to discuss FGM, and to spread the message to neighboring villages. This reflects Murray’s assertion that local activists ‘tend to take a more nuanced and sensitive approach’ (142). It is clear that African women need to take community leadership in opposing the practice, but the men in FGM-practicing communities must also be convinced of the benefits of banning the procedure. For example, studies in Burkina Faso have suggested that it is the father who plays the most decisive role in deciding whether or not a girl will be cut. Health Risk Approach As the debate was, in the past, largely focused on the health risks of FGM, earlier community-based approaches were mostly concerned with lecturing communities on the health risks of the procedure. This approach did not have great success in persuading communities to give up the practice altogether. Instead, it led to a transition in some places from circumcision in the village to circumcision by medical workers in health facilities. The WHO is completely opposed to the medicalization of FGM. Having classified the practice as a deliberate and unnecessary mutilation of female organs for no good medical reason, they maintain that whether performed in the village or the hospital, FGM is a human rights violation. In some countries, this is done to continue performing FGM without the risk of disastrous side-effects, while in others, as noted above in Egypt, it is done to continue the practice despite an official ban. A 2010 statement from the WHO made their position clear: ‘WHO is particularly concerned about the increasing trend for medically trained personnel to perform FGM. WHO strongly urges health professionals not to perform such procedures’ (WHO). While there is little evidence that the health risk approach helped to reduce the prevalence of FGM, it may have contributed to the process by which FGM is no longer a taboo topic, and people are willing to talk about it more freely. Alternative Rites Approach The Director-General of the WHO said in 1994 that ‘People will change their behaviour only when they themselves perceive the new practices proposed as meaningful and functional as the old ones’ (Skaine, 198). In communities where FGM is practiced as part of coming-of-rites for young women, efforts have been made to develop alternative rites of passage which exclude the FGM procedure. These projects have been implemented in Gambia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. In Kenya, this approach was pioneered by the local organization, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (MYWO), targeting girls and parents, with a public celebration of rites of passage, excluding the cutting procedure (Rogo et al., 11). The approach generally involves retaining the positive aspects of existing rites, and just removing the FGM procedure. This is underpinned by a hope that anti-FGM campaigners will be able to separate what is positive in traditional rituals from what is harmful, so as to respect communities’ heritage, but also dissociate FGM from that heritage, and show that its abandonment does not have to negatively impact on the cultural life of the community. This approach is limited by its applicability only to societies where FGM functions as a coming of age ritual, and by the fact that organizations who use it have no guarantee that the women involved will not be cut at a later date. In some communities, to attempt to bring about change through alternative rites had been bitterly resisted on the ground, with the Maasai in Kenya responding by cutting girls at the age of 4 rather than as teenagers. Strident campaigns launched by outsiders clearly do not work. Whether or not it is encouraged by outsiders, the will for change has to come from within. Alternative Employment Approach Some projects have also sought to provide traditional excisers, or cutters, with alternative employment, funding or skills, in order to dissuade them from carrying out excisions, and to publicly denounce the practice. The traditional practitioners are usually educated on the harmful health effects of cutting, and of the human rights issues involved, as well as being helped to develop new skills for employment in another sector, or being given a loan to set up a new business. Their public denunciation of the practice can involve an oath not to continue the procedure, which takes a different form depending on local cultural factors. For example, in a predominantly Islamic area, it might involve taking a verbal oath on the Koran, while in some Kenyan communities, it might involve the symbolic act of throwing their cutting knife into a basket. However, attempting to find alternative employment for traditional practitioners is not of itself enough in an effective anti-FGM campaign. Indeed, as an isolated strategy it can be even less effective than the alternative rites approach. This strategy works on the supply side of the problem only, by aiming to eliminate those who willingly carry out the physical procedure. An effective strategy should work primarily on the demand side. After all, if all one does is find alternative employment for some existing cutters, the attitude of local families to FGM is likely to remain unchanged. They are at liberty to seek out other individuals who, for payment, will no doubt perform the procedure, and other practitioners will emerge. A case study from Ethiopia, described by Rogo et al., serves to illustrate the shortcomings of this approach. A project there involved some 25-30 traditional cutters, who pledged to ‘lay down the blade’, and were therefore eligible to participate in a program to seek alternative employment (11). However, it was later found that several of these ‘practitioners’ had never actually performed any operations, and may have just been taking part in the program for economic advantage. Tostan Approach Perhaps the most successful approach to date, prominent in the literature in the subject, is that pioneered by Tostan, a Senegal-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) which focuses on informal education. Tostan has been working in Senegalese villages since 1997, encouraging locals to start talking openly about the practice. The organization states that it ‘takes a respectful approach that allowed villagers to make their own conclusions about FGC and lead their own movements for change’ (tostan.org). As we have seen above, this approach is crucial to success. Tostan begins by helping a community to establish its own management committee, so that all action is directed by locals, and to ensure the sustainability of the project – when Tostan representatives leave, there are villagers left behind who have learnt much about the FGM debate, and are able to educate their neighbors and future generations of villagers. The committees usually set up classes – one of adolescents, and one of adults, which discuss various issues, including human rights, hygiene, health and literacy. Learning does not remain abstract, but creative styles such as drama and poetry are incorporated into the programs. Ben-Ari reported on one of Tostan’s major successes in 2003 as the residents of 10 Senegalese villages gathered to discuss openly the issue of FGM. They were joined by representatives of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Senegalese parliamentary deputies, and publicly shared the experiences of their year-long education program, and publicly announced their intention to abandon FGM collectively as communities. The collective abandonment is particularly important, given that FGM is so closely linked to marriage prospects. When a whole intermarrying group gives it up at the same time, the social tension caused will be minimal. As a result of these programs, local knowledge of reproductive health and of violence and human rights was greatly increased, and approval of the practice, among both men and women, had declined. At the beginning of the project, 70% of women said they would have their daughters cut, but by the end, this figure had been reduced to around 10% (UNICEF, 24). By 2005, Tostan’s education program had been implemented in some 1500 communities, spread across 11 regions of Senegal (UNICEF, 23). The movement to abandon FGM has now spread across most of the Senegalese districts in which the procedure was once practiced. By December 2004, in the course of 18 public declarations, 30% of the population which had previously practiced FGM had abandoned it (UNICEF, 24). Efforts have since been made to extent Tostan’s success to communities in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Somalia, Mauritania, and Sudan. By February 2011, having benefited from Tostan’s programs, some 5221 communities across 6 African countries had joined the original Senegalese villagers in abandoning FGM and child marriage and forced marriage, and over 90% of the communities originally practicing it in Senegal have abandoned it (tostan.org). 8) Conclusions and Recommendations There has been some success in bringing about anti-FGM change in many African communities. We have seen this above in the work of Tostan in Senegal. In Burkina Faso, also, in 2003, some 23 villages stated their abandonment of the practice at Bere, and prevalence is believed to have dropped from around 66% in 1996 to between 16% and 43% in 2003 (Skaine 215). Of course, a key issue is how we are to define ‘success’ in this issue. Toubia and Sharief made the problematic suggestion that ‘The only acceptable success or ‘outcome’ indicator is irrefutable proof of irreversible abandonment of the practice in a family or a community’ (256-7). Hernlund and Shell-Duncan sensibly dismissed this ‘impossibly high standard of success’ (34), but the question remains difficult. Even if a woman reaches the end of her teenage years without being cut, there is some evidence that it occurs later, sometimes after marriage, and even after she has given birth to several children. In simple terms, in nearly every country where FGM is still practiced, one can usually see a profusion of anti-FGM groups. This is an indication of the open debate that is now occurring in many societies, and which would have been unthinkable when it was still as strictly taboo topic a generation ago. Dorkenoo supports this point, stating that ‘the ice has been broken on the subject’ (83). This is surely a major step forward, as it allows campaign groups to address it at the grassroots in a straightforward way. Ben-Ari confidently stated that ‘villagers in hundreds of locations across Africa are now openly discussing and debating FGM, once a taboo topic’. The failure of national legislation to effectively deal with FGM is obvious. At the most extreme, there are cases of legislation leading to a temporary increase in the procedure. For example, in Sudan, on the eve of legislation being enacted, many parents rushed to have their daughters cut before it became officially illegal (Hernlund and Shell-Duncan, 36). This is a clear indication that government legislation is limited if it is not aligned with the current state of public awareness and public opinion. Therefore, what should come first is an awareness-raising campaign, so that issues related to female health are openly discussed, and an approach which targets the practice at the community level, as this is a campaign which will be won or lost at the grassroots. However, the political will to enforce national legislation, rather than enact it as a hollow gesture, must be present. National governments have a responsibility to show that they are serious in their opposition to FGM, and that they regard it as a grave human rights violation. Furthermore, the government has a role in providing care and support for those who have suffered from FGM in the past, and in working for greater education about health issues among men and women. What is clear is that an integrated, community-based approach, on the model of Tostan’s pioneering work in Senegal, is the most effective means of dealing with FGM. We should recognize that there is no blueprint for a method of eradicating FGM from a community, district, region or country. The approach taken should be tailored to each community approach, and should take account of the reasons why that community practices FGM, including religious and cultural reasons, so that they can be fully addressed. What should not be denied is that considerable progress towards the eradication of FGM has been made in recent decades. There is now an open, global debate on the issue. Governments and intergovernmental organizations across the world have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the practice. Community-based approaches which are truly effective are gradually being developed and deployed across Africa, and there is now a real opportunity that, with sufficient political will and concerted action on several fronts, FGM could become a thing of the past. References Ben-Ari, N. ‘Changing tradition to safeguard women’. Africa Recovery 17.1, 2005. Web. 20 February 2011. Dorkenoo, E. Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation: The Practice and its Prevention. London: Minority Rights Publications, 1994. Print. Feldman-Jacobs, C. & Clifton, D. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Data and Trends. Washington D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, 2008. Web. 20 February 2011. Hernlund, Y. & Shell-Duncan, B. ‘Transcultural Positions: Negotiating Rights and Culture’ in their Transcultural Bodies: Female Genital Cutting in Global Context. New Brunswick: Rutgens University Press, 2007. Print. Horsbrugh-Porter, A. Created Equal: Voices on Women’s Rights. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print. IRIN, ‘In-depth: Razor’s Edge – The Controversy of Female Genital Mutilation’. IRIN, UN, 2005. Web. 20 February 2011. Murray, S.E. Gender Violence: A Cultural Perspective. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Print. Rogo, K., Subayi, T. & Toubia, N. Female Genital Cutting, Women’s Health and Development: The Role of the World Bank. Washington D.C.: World Bank, 2007. Print. Rosenberg, T. ‘utilating Africa’s Daughters: Laws Unenforced, Practices Unchanged’. New York Times, 2004. Web. 20 February 2011. Skaine, R. Female Genital Mutilation: Legal, Cultural and Medical Issues. Jefferson: McFarland, 2005. Print. ‘Abandoning Female Genital Cutting (FGC)’, Tostan, tostan.org, 2011. Web. 20 February 2011. Toubia, N.F. & Sharief, E.H. ‘Female Genital Mutilation: Have we made progress yet?’, International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 82, 2007, 251-261. Print. Trevelyan, B. ‘Mauritania fatwa bans female genital mutilation’. BBC News, 2010. Web. 20 February 2011. UNICEF Innocenti, Changing A Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting. Florence: UNICEF Innocenti, 2005. Web. 20 February 2011. UNICEF Egypt, ‘Fresh progress towards the elimination of female genital mutilation and cutting in Egypt’. UNICEF Egypt, 2007. Web. 20 February 2011. World Health Organization, ‘Female Genital Mutilation’. WHO, 2010. Web. 20 February 2011. Read More