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Iraqi Kurdistan: Free yourself from FGM –
A new approach
9.11.2011
By Suaad Abdulrahman and Arvid Vormann |
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November 9, 2011
In a remote village called Toutakhel, hidden amidst
the endless hills of Kurdish northern Iraq, all the
women had gathered. They said they were not aware of
the dangers of female genital mutilation (FGM),
which is still widely practiced throughout large
parts of the region. Now they were willing to stop
all violence and declare this in public, if only
their children could attend secondary school in the
next village, about 7 miles a stony, dusty pathway
down to the riverside. “Without education”, they
said, “we are nothing. We would rather die than
leave our kids without education. We do not have
much and we do not need much, but the children are
our future.”
Every village is different. Toutachel people are
very concerned with the future and well-being of
their kids. There, like in many places, elderly men
married young women, and some of the men had been
married before and had several kids whom they all
lost during Saddam’s genocidal poison gas attacks in
the course of the so-called Anfal campaign of 1988.
However, when they are talking about these
horrifying experiences, it is as if it occurred last
week and not decades ago. Now their new children
have become very precious to them.
When they heard about Wadi’s new “FGM-free village”
program the village chief and the people immediately
agreed to join. The initiative was launched to
increase public acceptance of abandoning the
purported “tradition”. Several committed villages
publicly swear to stop the mutilations in exchange
for small community projects.
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Photo: eyeseeonline.com
Photo: eyeseeonline.com |
Media coverage is expected to spread the news,
thereby promoting the idea that stopping FGM must
not be seen as contrary to the prevailing honor
code.
The people from Toutakhel said they were very firm
about their decision, and they wanted to be the
first village to declare an official stop of FGM.
The German-Iraqi relief organization Wadi has now
organized school transport for one year while trying
to find a permanent solution in cooperation with the
government.
Working with those who are willing to cooperate has
proven an excellent strategy in the fight against
FGM. It includes supporting progress in the name of
human rights and denouncing consequently those
backward forces that prefer silence over awareness
and physical integrity.
The “FGM-free villages”, following an approved
concept from Egypt, are designed to empower the
people. Just a few courageous villages with a
positive attitude like Toutakhel can already make a
huge difference. Their example is as precious as
gold and will hopefully encourage others to follow.
A change of behavior cannot be imposed. FGM is a
social disease which will not be cured through
equally distributed awareness alone. Without the
grass roots commitment of the local communities,
realities on the ground would only change very
gradually. It is more a battle for the hearts and
minds – comparable to a political movement, but
strictly non-partisan. Accordingly, in order to
combine forces, many organizations, human rights
activists, artists, journalists and other committed
individuals initiated the “Stop FGM in Kurdistan”
campaign in 2007. It proved to be very successful in
raising public awareness about the harms of FGM and
increasing public pressure on the government. This
activism finally contributed to this summer’s
declaration of the new Family Violence Bill. The
government made a huge step when, after years of
relentless campaigning and lobbying, the regional
parliament adopted a comprehensive law against many
forms of gender-based violence and violence against
children, including female genital mutilation. It
came as a perfect surprise to many; however politics
in Iraqi Kurdistan is often made behind closed
doors.
FGM will not disappear once it is forbidden. But
while a law is not the only solution, it may well
serve as another powerful argument against the
practice. In the Kurdish region, most ordinary
people welcome the “Family Violence Bill”. Islamic
clerics and conservatives, however, immediately
started a furious campaign against it, asserting
that beating women and children is required by Islam
and indispensable to preserve men’s honor. President
Barzani was urged not to ratify it,www.ekurd.net
the government however found another way: They
ratified it through publishing in the official
governmental bulletin. Shying away from further
confrontation with the Mullahs and conservatives,
they subsequently tried to hide any information
about the existence of this law. Till this day, it
has not been announced on the governmental website,
and its implementation, although promised by the
Prime Minister, has not been discussed in any way so
far. It was Wadi which provided an English
translation because the government failed to do so.
Wadi also printed the law in a booklet and
distributed it widely since it is a milestone in
women’s and children’s rights and everybody should
know about it.
The law is not more, but also not less than a
necessary step in the fight against the systematic
mutilation of girls. In recent years, media coverage
and awareness activities on the ground have already
done a lot to decrease the acceptance of FGM,
especially in certain areas. Wadi just received
impressive confirmation about the effectiveness of
their work, when in Garmyan region, where seven
years ago rates exceeded 60% and mobile teams since
then have been very active in spreading awareness on
the dangers and aversive health effects of FGM, from
698 questioned girls up to 14 years of age, only 23
had been cut.
Other areas have received much less attention, and
although most people even in the remote villages
noticed that nowadays some controversial discussions
about FGM are going on, this violent act is still
widely practiced. Wadi cannot visit every village
and talk to everyone individually, but the FGM-free
villages and the Family Violence bill are tools
suitable to convince people even from the distance.
More and more people start to make up their own
mind, and when they have not yet, they are at least
used to follow the example and to obey the
authorities – facts that can be used to pave the way
for the acceptance of new values.
For more information see
http://stopfgmkurdistan.org/
and
www.wadi-online.de
This article first appeared on Eye See Media
http://www.eyeseeonline.com/
Submitted to ekurd.net by Wadi-online.de
Copyright ©, respective
author or news agency,
eyeseeonline.com
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