The issue of FGM seems to be drowning amongst other serious issues in this region. However, it is important to resurface an important disaster that is still prominent in our region.
Most would agree that Female Genital Mutation needs to be stopped, but there is always a minority that will defend this act. The Human Rights Watch spoke with Kurdistan's government on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010, to persuade them to ban the genital cutting of women and young girls. The response from the KRG was very defensive and vague.
Many misunderstand and assume that this is an archaic strategy that isn't practiced anymore. However, in 2009, the Human Rights Watch conducted interviews throughout the region and found that at least 40 percent of girls and women in Iraq's Kurdistan region had undergone genital mutation.
As expected, the Kurdish MInistry of Endowment and Religious Affairs denies any accusations and dismisses the case study as being distorted and exaggerated. With a simple "Kurdistan has issues far more important to confront," they justified their dismissal.
They also move to say that circumcision only occurs in certain areas, and that it is not a phenomenon. Even so, why should the practice remain even in isolated and remote areas such as Peshgrotal (a small village in Kurdistan)? Don't those girls have just as much right as those of us that live in more urban settings?
Many of you aren't aware of how FGM even occurs. So how is it done? They cut off the external genitalia with a dirty razor blade.
In 2007 and 2008, 73% of women over the age of 14 said that at least a portion of their genitals had been removed.
It's risks can include an increased rate of stillbirths and premature births.
Now I am from Erbil, and amongst the 1.5 million+ people living here, I am aware that this is not a common practice in my city. Therefore, to claim that this is a widespread practice would be misleading.
However, with the political instability, we find that most people living in the villages among the mountainous areas still carry very anachronistic approaches to clitoridectomy. Therefore, it is important to still approach this matter more seriously and effectively.
We may have honor killings as an issue, the lack of education in rural areas, animal cruelty, human rights issues, political prisons, and four dictatorial states as neighbors that would love more than anything the ethnic cleansing of the Kurdish people. I understand that we have some 'bigger' issues, depending on the perspective you're look at this from.
However, for the sake of female progression in our area, we need to remember that even the smaller issues build over time to create absolute disasters. That being said, we need to prohibit this practice.
Thank you to the Human Rights Watch in New York for the research they have conducted.
Respects,
Mina Saad Meman
