#fgm

[madwoman5150]

Here's an FGM survivor's response to that girl on TikTok who claimed "people focus on FGM so much because they want to tie women's oppression to genitalia so they can exclude transwomen."

[no-passaran]

Very important and heartbreaking news.

(Organizations to support at the end of the post)

March 19th, 2024

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/19/gambia-female-genital-mutilation-cutting/

Gambia moves towards ending ban on female genital mutilation

Gambia’s National Assembly has voted to advance a bill that would overturn a ban on female genital cutting, putting this tiny West African country on a path to being the first nation in the world to roll back such a protection.

Many of the women who filed into the National Assembly building on Monday to witness the proceedings had experienced the horror that comes with cutting, which has been practiced for generations here. One woman said she was taken by her family at age 8 to a ceremony in which she was pinned down and cut. Another learned on her wedding night that her vaginal opening had been sealed. A third experienced years of infections and later infertility after being cut without her parents’ permission.

The women listened stoically as members of parliament — the vast majority of them men — pounded their gavels in support as Almameh Gibba, the lawmaker who introduced the bill, described it as intended to “uphold religious rights and safeguard cultural norms and values.” (...)

Already, the United Nations says that about 75 percent of girls and women in Gambia between the ages of 15 and 49 have been subjected to genital cutting, which is often described by opponents as female genital mutilation, or FGM. Globally, more than 200 million women and girls are estimated to be survivors of female genital cutting, which can involve removing part of the clitoris and labia minora and, in the most extreme cases, a sealing of the vaginal opening. Medical experts say the procedures, which do not have medical benefits, can cause a range of short- and long-term harms, including infections, severe pain, scarring, infertility and loss of pleasure.

An activist cries and gets support during a debate among Gambian lawmakers on lifting the ban on FGM. (Carmen Yasmine Abd Ali for The Washington Post)

“It is a rollback on women’s rights and bodily autonomy,” said Jaha Dukureh, a Gambian activist whose little sister died as a result of a botched procedure and who found out on her wedding night, at 15, that she had been sealed as a baby. “It is a rollback in terms of telling women what to do with their own bodies. This is all this is.” (...)

Outside the National Assembly on Monday, women and men holding signs that read, “Girls need love, not knives” squared off against Muslim clerics who were preaching to dozens of veiled girls from Islamic schools. They cheered as one cleric told them [female genital mutilation] was justified by religion.

Inside the building, where only five of Gambia’s 58 lawmakers are women, the discussion Monday was dominated by men. Among the survivors in the audience was Sainey Ceesay, the founder of a nonprofit focused on destigmatizing infertility, who said she only recently decided to start talking about what she experienced at 8 years old. At that time, women had gathered her and a group of other girls at a house in Banjul, the capital, and used a razor to cut off her clitoris.

Ceesay, who said she suffered for years from trauma and infections and was unable to conceive, is still holding out hope that the ban will not be repealed. “At least as of today, FGM is still illegal in Gambia,” she said with a quiet sigh.

Fatty, the cleric whose support helped push the bill forward, (...) explained that it was about following the teachings of the prophet, about purity and about reducing the likelihood of cancer. (Doctors say there is no basis for this claim.)

“It is something not to reduce feeling, but to control, to balance the feelings of a woman,” he said in an interview.

When asked to clarify whether he meant women have too much desire in the absence of cutting, he nodded his head and wagged a finger.

“Too much,” Fatty said. “Too much. We can say in sex, women’s power is more than men’s power. … Women can do sex longer than men. So that is why Islam came to balance. They can be together and their desire can be balanced.” (...) [Many Islamic countries do not have FGM.]

(...) Many women note that because cutting often happens when girls are no older than in elementary school, they are never given a choice in the matter. (...)

Fatou Baldeh, an activist and FGM survivor (...), said she tries to “hold grace” for the women who continue to advocate for the practice, knowing many have not been educated and have only their own experience to go by.

But sitting in the parliamentary chambers Monday as she listened to the men debate, Baldeh said she was seething.

When one activist started wiping tears from her eyes with tissues, a lawmaker demanded that women who were crying leave the chambers, and the speaker agreed, asking them not to make a scene.

Baldeh said she wanted to scream listening to the men trivialize the pain women had experienced. But she resolved to stay in the chambers, knowing the importance of the women being present, forcing the men to look at them as they cast their votes.

“We have a right to cry,” she said. “But we knew the importance of staying. So we kept our tears in.”

An activist cries during the parliamentary debate on FGM. (Carmen Yasmine Abd Ali for The Washington Post)

Full support and encouragement to the brave Gambian activists fighting to end FGM.

Support organizations and activists:

Safe Hands For Girls (survivor-led organization focused on ending female genital mutilation and child marriage, and helping women and girls who have gone through or are going through these experiences): website, X/Twitter, Instagram, YouTube.

Jaha Marie Dukureh (activist, founder of Safe Hands For Girls): X/Twitter.

Women in Liberation and Leadership (Gambian NGO): website, X/Twitter.

Fatou Baldeh (activist, in WILL) on X/Twitter.

Network Against Gender-Based Violence Gambia: X/Twitter, Facebook.

(Racists, transphobes, and other hate groups do not interact)

[lecruee]

i cant help but see the links between the fgm that is practiced in my home country and on my mum and attitudes to female pleasure here in the west where i grew up.

one of the main reasons why fgm is a thing is because women feeling pleasure (or an “itch” sometimes they call it) is seen as repulsive and masculine. amongst other reasons.

idk if im being extra but whenever i hear “cant find the clitoris” jokes it really strikes me. obvs ik that a male who is so clueless about female pleasure that he doesnt even know where the clitoris is even when its Right There isnt the same as an elder taking a rusty blade to one and cutting it off but its like on the same spectrum of disdain for female sexuality if that makes sense. like also the way people cringe when you even say the word “clitoris”.

ok another example: when i look at Chinese foot binding i also see parallels to high heel wearing? obvs this sounds massively offensive because one of those things is literally debilitating but im NOT saying that theyre the same thing, merely that theyre on the same spectrum of the idea that women must hurt themselves to be attractive. and sure high heels look nice but there was a time where the “lotus” shaped mutilated feet of Chinese women whose feet had been bound was also seen as attractive, now any sane person would look at that and feel sick.

[transfemme-shelterdog]

if a trans guys clit grows like a psuedodick when he's transitioning can it be circumcised idk why i said that I'm sorry

----TW: FGM----

Yep. Actually that's a form or FGM that they do in some places, the removal of the clitoral hood.

That's all the foreskin is, is the clitoral hood.

They can do it to cis women, so they can totally do it for a trans dude.

I imagine it would be incredibly uncomfortable, but it's possible.

[redrockgal]

Choice feminism and anti trans discourse have led some libfems into this weird conclusion that all surgery is indeed affirming and good actually. I'm sorry that youre super wrong but you can support people getting top surgery and acknowledge that labiaplasty is an insane and normalized form of porn fueled FGM. There is no reason you need to cut the skin of your vulva off to look like a little girls or a porn star who has had the same surgery. It's not "empowering" even if you were empowered to pay for it and I'm not "policing what people do with their bodies" but can you be critical for one second and ask yourself when exactly did you get the idea to cut your lips off and how exactly it has Nothing to do with the expectation somebody else had on your body.

I'm sorry to pull the "close ur legs" card too but genuinely why are you even allowing people who can't handle seeing a vulva see and god forbid have sex with yours.

If we want to talk about empowering choice empower yourself with the choice to stop fucking pedophiles omg

[rapeculturerealities]

‘Over my dead body’, say Gambian mothers amid efforts to lift FGM ban | FGM | Al Jazeera

In  2015, the Gambian parliament took the historic step to pass the Women’s (Amendment) Act of 2015, which criminalised FGM and made it punishable by up to three years in prison – a significant shift after years of advocacy.

But recently, on March 18, politicians voted 42 to 4 to advance a controversial new bill which would repeal the landmark FGM ban if it passes following further consultation and expert opinion from specialised government ministries.

[lets-talk-spirituality]

Let’s talk about: The Sacral Chakra

The sacral chakra, the second chakra located between the root and solar plexus, governs the reproductive system, pelvic floor and gluteus muscles, deep lower abdominals, and lower stomach area.

When people say they have a deep knowing, they are referring to the seat of sacral chakra energy. The sacral chakra is what houses our energy of creation, our legacy. It is the portal through which we materialize things we sense in other dimensions. It is where the kundalini awakening begins. It is where life begins. The only place where beings from other dimensions can translate into our dimension.

The sacral chakra is tied to the color orange, so consider eating oranges or surrounding yourself with orange to help feed some energy back into this chakra system.

Womb Trauma: Anatomically Female Body Karma

From histories of forcible impregnation, rape, forced abortion, miscarriage, stillborn, death in childbirth, death for not producing the right gender child, forced incest, incestual impregnation, and more horrors, the female body holds karma that male bodies do not.

There is something that happens when your DNA and another’s mix within you. Female bodies must integrate the DNA of the one who’s child she carries. Being forced to hold children from traumatic circumstances has created vast gendered karma that a lot of us women and modern aware men are attempting to work through as a team.

Women’s bodies have been used to bring evil into this world, have been used as a portal of the worst kind. It has brought a depravity and savagery to the human race. Men fear this power we hold, the power of the portal. And that fear is the basis of patriarchy and its need to protect women. It is why they subjugate us and hate us, something I’ve been thinking so deeply about recently. That is why male bodies have always protected female bodies. It’s not only about children, it’s what those children can become, can do.

For some women, choosing not to have children in pursuit of other passions is their own desired way of clearing the karma. For some, choosing to be a stay at home mom is their way of clearing the karma. That is why it’s not fair to judge women for their reproductive capabilities or decisions. Having the physical ability to give birth or not does not take away the creative power of the womb, even if it doesn’t “work” the way the patriarchy thinks it should.

Prostate Trauma: Anatomically Male Body Karma

Biologically male bodies do not have wombs, but they do have a prostate which is an important part of their reproductive system. This prostate holds the male seed of power and pleasure. It is no mistake that homophobic fears have been instilled within the human consciousness as a way to divorce men from ownership of their own pleasure in sex. It allows them to put all their sexual desires onto women. But what is lost is a core piece of their humanity.

I think it’s important for men to practice learning sexually about themselves with exploration on their own, without the crutch of porn or a partner. I believe men who may try prostate milking for themselves would allow a well of pleasure to free them from sexual addictions and other desires that are really a desire to connect more deeply to their own sexual center. It may result in crying. A lot of healing I’ve done through sexuality and orgasming has led to a breaking down of my defenses and I cry like a baby, so I can imagine many men who try to connect to themselves this way will at first feel grief for the self abandonment. The goal would be to hopefully reconnect yourself enough to where that outpouring of self love is ecstatic and not shameful or heartbreaking.

One of the cruelest parts of patriarchy is the way it shames men for sexual urges and completely disconnects them from their own agency as owners of sexual desires for purely their own exploration and pleasure, not tied to the masculine pursuit of fucking/subordinating sexually women (I have anew feminist theory I’m working on where I’m starting to think all sex is subjugation for women in a patriarchal structure, but I haven’t fledged it out, anyway, even in a female dominant sexual position I’d argue it’s still female subjugation because the change in power dynamics is the exact thing that makes it erotic, which therefore upholds the power imbalance) or procreation.

Circumcision Trauma: Horrors for all genitals

I remember asking my grandmother about female circumcision as a child because a model on America’s Next Top Model was mutilated as a child. She told me it was the removal of the clitoris in women. Female circumcisions are performed in the Middle East, and other places as a way to control female sexual pleasure. Because many Abrahamic religions teach that women are the root cause of male sexual desire, it is thought to be “clean” and “pure” to make sex literally only about procreation and not about pleasure.

Male circumcisions also reduce male pleasure by desensitizing the head of the penis. Male circumcisions are no longer medically necessary but are upheld for aesthetic or religious purposes. They are extremely common in America and it is a huge first trauma to a male child.

Both of these traumas are unnecessary and cruel in my opinion and there is healing to be had around genital mutilation for all circumcised women and men and for those who had their genitalia altered, such as those with ambiguous genitalia.

**I have heard my females friends talk negatively about uncircumcised penises and how they are gross, look weird, etc. If you are someone who has negative feelings towards the natural male penis, I urge you to heal this. Do not uphold the idea that child genital mutilation is okay because of your own ingrained concept of what a male penis should look like. If you reproduce, consider what it means as a human to believe you have the right to make choices about someone else’s body in such a profound way. It’s a violation of boundaries and personal rights**

Signs of a blocked sacral chakra:

- reproductive issues, menstruation issues, hormonal imbalances

- sexual performance issues, such as low libido (low for your normal, I know some people are asexual), inability to orgasm, pain during penetration and dryness for women, inability to stay hard for men

- fear around being seen or sharing yourself with someone

- literally blocked when it comes to writers block or some other block in your creative process,

- in men specifically, homophobia which was used to keep men away from the power of their prostate

- fear or disgust with sex or genitals

Ways to heal the sacral chakra:

- hip opening stretches/yoga

- orgasming to sacral chakra solfeggio sounds, for male bodies, prostate milking and orgasming can help clear held trauma

- strengthening your pelvic floor, lower abdominals, glutes, hip flexors through exercise

- twerking and somatic dance, belly dancing, pole fitness, any exercise that makes you feel sexy, is sensuous and can help you allow yourself to be in the sexual power of your body

- painting or engaging in some other form of art that requires you to transform immaterial matter into material, such as turning a thought into a painting or a song, creating a business, taking something and transforming it into something else

- for those with wombs, womb healing is a big thing that can help you heal very deep ancestral karma we carry in our sacral chakra.

- look into ways to heal your cycle, become more intune with your menstrual cycle and its rhythms, consider getting off birth control or approaching hormonal and reproductive health more holistically (if it works for you! Stay on birth control if it works for you! Get off if it doesn’t)

- working through any sexual trauma you may have, it’s very challenging but it’s rewarding, but follow what feels good and right for you in the moment, don’t push through something if it feels wrong, don’t override your system to give into sexual requests of partners

-connect to your body through exercise, begin to really feel your muscles and your material form, learn how to use breath to engage muscles and how to move your body, learn your body deeply, become the expert on yourself

- drink a glass of orange juice a day and imagine it cleansing your sacral chakra

-kegle exercises!

- being naked, or learning to embrace your body in its rawest forms

- massage and other forms of self love that involve touching yourself, so like a face mask, putting on lotion, painting nails, hair masks, hair brushing, things that make you connect with your body

- sweat! I love sitting in dry saunas to just sweat, it helps to cleanse your body including your sacral chakra and other more grounded chakras like root and solar plexus too.

[milaisreading]

Whoever let's their daughters go through FGM should be punished by a life sentence. Idc if someone says it's culture or religion, it's still disgusting.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

The right to bodily integrity, like all human rights, is non negotiable.

It cannot be applied just in-part, or in some areas, or to only certain members of society.

It cannot be superseded by any religious faith, nor by the wish of a parent, women’s preferences, or by cultural expectations.

The right to one’s body, belongs to the individual.

No “ifs” or “buts”, no asterisks, and no compromises.

Much of the modern world has come to understand this when it comes to girls’ bodies, as FGM continues to be criminalised and rightly punished, falling out of favour, and slowly into the history books.

In most countries FGM is universally illegal, no matter the extent, or context.

Even just a prick is forbidden, because really, the extent of violation needn’t matter, if that procedure is being done on an unconsenting baby.

But not for boy babies.

And I don’t care what people say about circumcision’s so-called “medical or hygienic benefits”, because the medical benefits are virtually non-existent, and we don’t cut off body parts to avoid cleaning them.

Do we cut off our head to stop us getting dandruff?

What about lopping off our feet to rid the world of athletes’ foot?

I mean, why not go the whole way, and cut off the whole penis, if you’re not a fan of cleaning it?

The fact is, there are very few good enough reasons to remove half the nerve endings of a baby boy’s penis, as well as its most sensitive parts.

There is no reason to subject a boy to the risk of erectile dysfunction, desensitisation, PTSD, sexually transmitted disease, or even death…

No reason to tie a baby boy’s limbs down, and as he screams, slice away at his penis, without anaesthesia.

Nobody’s first few days of life should be welcomed by that, and no journey of parenthood should begin with child abuse.

So when will we treat circumcision with the same universality as FGM, where we say “no”, regardless of the severity, scale, or context?

When will a boys bodily integrity supersede religious faith?

When will we give our boys the same rights as girls?

When will we ban infant male circumcision?

-

National medical organisations against circumcision: https://circumcision.org/circumcision-policies-of-international-organizations/

--

https://sci-hub.scrongyao.com/10.3149/thy.0401.71

Baby boys can and do succumb as a result of having their foreskin removed. Circumcision-related mortality rates are not known with certainty; this study estimates the scale of this problem. This study finds that approximately 117 neonatal circumcision-related deaths (9.01/100,000) occur annually in the United States, about 1.3% of male neonatal deaths from all causes. Because infant circumcision is elective, all of these deaths are avoidable. This study also identifies reasons why accurate data on these deaths are not available, some of the obstacles to preventing these deaths, and some solutions to overcome them.

[earhartsease]

full props to Angel right in the middle of their first season doing an FGM story, okay yes women from another dimension and it was on their spines but still absolutely that's what it was about

[radfemsiren]

can girls who gone through fgm get what evil people took front them back? or it's not possibile?

When it comes to the physical recovery, there are surgeries available (and developing) to help aid in the healing, such as deinfibulation, which can open up the vagina more to alleviate pain, infections, cysts, and other symptoms. Unfortunately replacing what was lost is impossible, so regaining a sensation back is harder, especially since nerves grow extremely slow over a long period of time, but it depends on the individual situation.

If you would like more info from a survivor, Shamsa Araweeloo has a TikTok where she helps women recover and documents her story of recovering herself! Her account is

@ gardenof.peace and you can submit specialized questions here to here: sssharawe@yahoo.com

I’m here if you want to talk about it love ❤️

[reekyteekicha]

TW: discussion of FGM

(For context: I am a white woman who grew up middle class in a major metropolitan city in North America)

When I was in high school I read an article about FGM for the first time.

For anyone not familiar with the acronym, it stands for female genital mutilation. Essentially, parts of a girl’s genitals are removed for societal reasons, many relating to controlling a woman’s sexuality.

As a teen I had not imagined that such a horrifying thing existed in the world, let alone that it was such a widespread phenomenon.

I was so freaked out about it that I brought the article to school. I wanted to inform my classmates that it existed and try to do whatever some teens could do to help make it stop.

I turned to one friendly acquaintance to tell her and was shocked that she had already heard of it, I turned to the classmate beside her and learned that not only had Alia (not her real name) heard of it, she had very nearly experienced it.

I will never forget her words.

“Mum took me out of town that day.”

Her mum had gotten wind that the group who performed FGM was going to come to town and do all the girls in Alia’s age group. So she took Alia to visit a relative in another community for a visit.

That was the day I realized that I have no idea what a friend, classmate, or co-worker’s life experience is. I, as I suspect many people do, had grown up thinking that my own life experience was relatively standard. It had not crossed my mind that someone who I hung out with at school might have had such a different experience.

Now as an adult I worry about what Alia’s experience of that conversation was. Did it bring up unpleasant memories? What if Alia’s mum hadn’t taken her out of town that day, and then I had brought it up in class? Did I accidentally say offensive stuff about communities where this happens etc?

I will never know if in my emotional flailing caused by learning FGM exists if I hurt Alia.

[oxiiiii]

The "cis-female" privilege :

[magnetothemagnificent]

fgm: done when the child is old enough to remember and feel pain in unsafe and unsanitary conditions so afab people cannot feel sexual pleasure later in life

circumcision: a specialized procedure in safe and sanitary conditions done by a professional when it will hurt less and the child is too young do remember it, has no effect on sexual function and literally just one of many mitzvot jews are required to keep

ah yes totally the same thing... 🙄

Yep, exactly. Like no one educated about what circumcision and what FGM are would ever make an equivalence between the two.

[majchic]