Over three articles, we hope to inform and instruct Christ’s Church about a practice that harms girls and women throughout Africa. This practice is Female Genital Cutting (FGC). In this first article, we walk through how, where, and why FGC is practiced. In the second article, we consider how churches can respond to FGC within their local communities. Finally, Kalkidan has written an open letter to husbands whose wives have experienced FGC.
Female Genital Cutting functions as a marker of womanhood in many parts of Africa
Female Genital Cutting Is A Cultural Practice
Broadly speaking, Female Genital Cutting functions as a marker of womanhood. The practice pivots around matters of marriageability, femininity, and modesty and is a normalised social convention in many parts of Africa.
As a rite of passage, FGC fosters social inclusion and many consider it to be a necessary part of raising a girl; it is a means of preparing her for adulthood along with marriage. Linked to this, the practice often revolves around concerns of hygiene, aesthetic appeal, virginity, and marital fidelity.
Why FGC Not FGM?
Understanding FGC as a cultural practice—a rite with deep social significance within a value system—helps us see the social goals of Female Genital Cutting as meaningful. For this reason we’ve decided to use FGC (Female Genital Cutting) and not the more common FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) throughout these articles. Not only does the term Female Genital Mutilation come with baggage, it can prove a stumbling block before any real engagement begins.
The term Female Genital Mutilation comes with baggage; it can prove a stumbling block before any real engagement begins.
That being said, God mandated humans to foster culture to his glory (Genesis 1:28). This glory is uniquely expressed in humanity. Therefore, influencing communities under Christ as Lord is a Christian prerogative. This is true whether engaging with FGC in Africa or other markers of womanhood in the West. For as Christians we bear witness to Christ as Lord.
We must be salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16), loving our neighbours (Matthew 22:36-40). Furthermore, we should desire justice wherever we are (Isaiah 1:17; Proverbs 29:7).
What Exactly Is Female Genital Cutting?
FGC is mostly carried out on young girls between infancy and adolescence (from just days old to 14 years). Although occasionally it is also carried out on adult women. According to available data, over 200 million girls and women alive today have been exposed to the practice. In the current year alone, over 4 million girls around the world are at risk of undergoing FGC. To put that in perspective, this is about half the population of Togo.
FGC includes procedures that partially or totally remove the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
The practice includes procedures that partially or totally remove the external female genitalia, or make other injury to the female genital organs. This is done for non-medical reasons and it includes four official “types”. These vary in the extent and method of removing genitalia.
For various reasons a range of instruments is used to perform FGC. Sometimes, seemingly more ruthless tools are employed simply due to the lack of access to alternatives. The tools range from special knives, scissors, razors, or pieces of glass, to rarer objects like sharp stones or cauterisation.
Typically, Female Genital Cutting is performed by elderly people – usually women, or traditional birth attendants. Yet in some areas, health care providers perform FGC due to the belief that the procedure is safer when medicalised. Although there is no medical justification for FGC, medicalisation is common in some countries. For example, in Egypt today almost 80% of girls who have undergone Female Genital Cutting were cut by medical personnel. This is a marked development. 30 years ago only 20% of women were cut by a medical practitioner.
A Historical & Global Practice
Female Genital Cutting has been around for a very long time. Reports vary, but accounts by Aetios, Strabo, and Ambrose, plus other historical evidence, refer to female excision in Egypt as far back as the 2nd century BC, while archaeological evidence points to even earlier instances. Historically, women in Europe and the USA were treated medically with forms of FGC for promiscuity, masturbation, epilepsy, hysteria, and insanity. It’s also worth considering that some cosmetic surgeries in Western cultures today are equivalent to FGC. All these cultures promise supreme ‘womanhood’, despite physical, sexual and psychological risk.
Historical sources refer to female excision in Egypt as far back as the 2nd century BC
Female Genital Cutting is reported in almost every region of the world. Yet surveys collected by UNICEF show that FGC is concentrated primarily in 29 countries in Africa in the western, eastern, and north-eastern regions. Within these 29 countries, FGC is almost universal in Somalia, Guinea and Djibouti, with levels around 90 per cent. On the other hand, it affects no more than 1 per cent of adolescent girls in Cameroon and Uganda.
Understanding The ‘Why’ Is Critical
All too often, as Christians, we strike out at cultural practice without grasping its social value or understanding how meaningful it is to a community. Being salt and light, loving our neighbour well, and wisely pursuing social change, demands caution and consideration. The social goals of FGC have deep personal and communal value. Failing to recognise this can exacerbate harm and alienate people.
FGC has both deep personal and communal value. Failing to recognise this can exacerbate harm and alienate people.
Case studies show that early Christian missionary initiatives to eradicate the practice by refusing church membership or condemning the practice failed. These initiatives forced the practice underground and did little to transform the culture. For if a value-system is not understood and addressed, little changes. This is even true when extreme physical harm is demonstrable.
To understand why a practice happens we must understand the social goals and communal ideas involved. For culture is the outworking of cultivating an ideal. And an ideal can have biblical or unbiblical values.
To understand why a practice happens we must understand the social goals and communal ideas involved.
So, while the reasons for FGC vary, the place of Female Genital Cutting as a rite of passage is foundational for Africans who practise it. This foundational place is evident in the fact that some church leaders commend the practice; other church leaders even perform FGC on religious grounds.
Female Genital Cutting Has Cultural & Societal Significance
FGC garners social status and promises to deliver on a chaste life and cleanliness. It’s associated with marital readiness – creating a social divide between women who are desirable for marriage and those who are not. In some communities it affords women the chance to display courage and strength. Indeed, through this practice social recognition is often earned in societies where it is rarely enjoyed by women.
It is the underlying story that must be reworked by the horizons Scripture gives
As a rite of passage, FGC is a hallmark of becoming a true woman in many communities. Usually it is greatly honoured and celebrated by both men and women within these cultures. To focus only on lack of education or medical harm is—again—to treat it at a surface level. Rather, it is the underlying story that must be reframed by the horizons Scripture provides.
Redeeming Cultural Practices
Female Genital Cutting is a cultural symbol of personhood within a communal setting. There are cultural end goals in view, some of which are good, though attained through a devastating method.
It will take nothing less than a community reconceiving itself in the power of the Spirit through the Word to change it.
In the next article, we propose two main ways the Church can get to grips with FGC. We will also continue to urge Christians to remember that altering any aspect of how we conceive of ourselves takes time, love, and ultimately supernatural power.
