tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/cultural-practice-5900/articlesCultural practice – The Conversation2021-10-22T01:17:13Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1682672021-10-22T01:17:13Z2021-10-22T01:17:13ZRestrictions on cultural hunting practices are limiting Indigenous people’s access to food during the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426466/original/file-20211014-27-1h7x56w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smoke and dust as food is prepared for a traditional Māori feast or Hangi, Rotorua New Zealand.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rotorua-new-zealand-april-2014-smoke-1738652690">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indigenous people are some of the most food insecure people in Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand). The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns have made food security an even greater problem in both countries, though it has generally gone unnoticed. </p>
<p>The pandemic has worsened some Indigenous people’s food security by limiting their ability to partake in cultural food harvesting. </p>
<p>The diets of Indigenous people before colonisation were rich, varied, and seasonal. Indigenous people in both Australia and Aotearoa would eat a variety of plants, water and land fowl, seafood, and protein from animals, insects and reptiles. </p>
<p>In Australia, Aboriginal people had approximately <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/oldest-new-ingredients-earth/">150</a> different plants and animals as a food source. </p>
<p>However since colonisation, Indigenous people’s diets have dramatically changed. This change has contributed to food insecurity, in part due to the reliance on <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/oldest-new-ingredients-earth/">western</a> <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12571-018-0780-9">cultural</a> methods for food sourcing and the displacement of Indigenous people from their land. </p>
<p>Some Indigenous people rely on agricultural traditions and cultural practices to not only be food secure, but as a way of <a href="https://journals.lincoln.ac.nz/index.php/mk/article/view/1157">maintaining cultural identity</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/aboriginal.3.1.0048">connections</a> to Country.</p>
<p>In Aotearoa, mahika kai (food knowledge and practices for Māori) is linked to wealth and hospitality. It connects families through kinship and whakapapa (genealogy) to whenua (the land) and te taiao (natural resources). </p>
<p>Mahika kai is also fundamentally linked to Māori people’s underlying principles of manaakitaka (care and hospitality) and to the protection and stewardship of the land (totems, kaitiakitaka). </p>
<p>Food traditions also honour cultural lore and laws regarding access to seasonal foods and sites. These have protective factors for social and emotional wellbeing, providing a connection to <a href="http://apr.thompsonbooks.com/vols/APR_Vol_2Ch5.pdf">culture and community</a>.</p>
<p>Although governments and volunteer programs have been providing food and medical supplies to areas affected by COVID lockdowns, the loss of cultural practices can cause significant disconnect for Indigenous communities.</p>
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<h2>Cultural practices stifled in Australia</h2>
<p>Western New South Wales has been significantly affected by rising COVID-19 cases in Aboriginal communities. People have also become increasingly <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2021/08/25/food-insecurity-concerns-covid-hit-wilcannia">food insecure</a>. Some have limited financial resources to purchase food, which in rural and remote areas, is <a href="http://theconversation.com/covid-19-revealed-flaws-in-australias-food-supply-it-also-gives-us-a-chance-to-fix-them-159642">comparatively overpriced</a>. </p>
<p>People are also having to rely on <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/we-don-t-have-uber-eats-and-click-and-collect-how-wilcannia-is-getting-its-essentials-20210904-p58osi.html">food donations</a>. This has worsened the longer lockdowns have continued and may have lasting effects once they are over. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-covid-19-crisis-in-western-nsw-aboriginal-communities-is-a-nightmare-realised-166093">The COVID-19 crisis in western NSW Aboriginal communities is a nightmare realised</a>
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<p>Earlier in the pandemic, Aboriginal people in Wilcannia had maintained their cultural practice of hunting kangaroo and distributing the <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2021/08/31/deliver-roo-solving-covid-hit-wilcannias-food-shortage">butchered meat</a> to families within the township.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2021/08/25/food-insecurity-concerns-covid-hit-wilcannia">NITV News</a>, however, health authorities discouraged residents from hunting and distributing roo meat in August.</p>
<p>Said one resident, </p>
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<p>I got a cousin telling me that him and his family went out and got kangaroo and they delivered it into Wilcannia, but health officials were saying that they can’t hand out wild meat to Aboriginal families because it’s not fit for consumption.</p>
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<p>The NSW government has long made engaging in cultural food practices difficult, with <a href="https://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-02/licensing_requirements_for_field_harvesters_of_game_animals.pdf">game</a> meat regulations, and <a href="https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/hunting/volunteer-non-commercial-kangaroo-shooting/kangaroo-management-faq">culling</a> and <a href="https://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-02/licensing_requirements_for_field_harvesters_of_game_animals.pdf#:%7E:text=The%20law%20in%20New%20South,in%20line%20with%20National%20Standards.&text=A%20person%20supplying%20carcases%20without,and%20have%20their%20carcases%20condemned.">licensing</a> legislation. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/whole/html/inforce/current/act-1994-045">Native Title (New South Wales) Act 1994</a> acknowledges the land has social, cultural, economic and spiritual importance to Aboriginal people, but it does not define these as legal rights or say how they can be asserted to support cultural food practice, including resource sharing. </p>
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<p>Authorities eventually <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/11/scared-and-angry-warnings-ignored-before-delta-ripped-through-wilcannia">permitted</a> roo meat from Broken Hill to be delivered. Since late August, Malyangapa Barkindji Wiimpatja man Leroy Johnson has reportedly been <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2021/08/31/deliver-roo-solving-covid-hit-wilcannias-food-shortage">delivering kangaroo meat to affected communities</a> in Wilcannia, with the support of local police. </p>
<h2>Protection of Māori food practices</h2>
<p>In Aotearoa, mahika kai is an enduring and intergenerational food practice for Māori protected by <a href="https://www.mpi.govt.nz/fishing-aquaculture/maori-customary-fishing/maori-customary-fishing-information-and-resources/">law</a>. In March 2020, when Aotearoa first went into lockdown, all New Zealanders were required to remain at home. This prohibited activities such as hunting, seaside fishing, and <a href="https://www.hrc.co.nz/our-work/indigenous-rights/">food gathering</a>. </p>
<p>Concerns were raised by kaumātua (Elders) acknowledging these restrictions were affecting whānau (families) who regularly relied on hunting for food security and <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/414888/covid-19-whanau-relying-on-hunting-for-food-should-have-exemption-leaders">staples within the home</a>. </p>
<p>In the current lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government adjusted the lockdown rules to allow Māori to hunt and fish within a <a href="https://www.teaomaori.news/level-4-fishing-rules-changed-clearing-confusion">culturally acceptable</a> <a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/nicole-mckee-divisive-legislation-only-maori-can-go-fishing-under-level-4-health-legislation/">framework</a>. </p>
<p>This resulted in a resurgence in food gardens (maara kai) and traditional hospitality and service exchanges (kai hau kai) to support kaumātua and whānau. Other mahika kai activities, such as preserving and utilising local waterways, have also returned. </p>
<p>This demonstrates that lockdown rules can be tailored to allow cultural food sourcing, while still reducing the spread of the virus.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-significance-of-the-treaty-of-waitangi-110982">Explainer: the significance of the Treaty of Waitangi</a>
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<p>However, Māori rights are protected through both treaty and legislation, whereas Indigenous people in Australia still have no treaty. This means the protection of cultural activities are not prioritised within the public health orders in NSW. This contributes to growing food insecurity in affected communities.</p>
<p>Although the Commonwealth <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021C00165">Native Title Act 1993</a> provides limited protections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural rights still have no equivalent national protection. </p>
<p>Both Australia and Aotearoa have signed the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, however. This declaration could <a href="https://www.hrc.co.nz/our-work/indigenous-rights/">provide</a> some <a href="https://www.hrc.co.nz/files/5814/5618/4456/NZHR_Booklet_12_WEB.pdf">protections</a> to cultural hunting <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/un-declaration-rights-indigenous-peoples-1">rights</a>.</p>
<p>Without social distancing measures taking these rights into account, food insecurity will continue to occur. This could lead to poorer <a href="https://link-springer-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/article/10.1007/s12571-015-0433-1">ill-health</a> in communities beyond the pandemic.</p>
<p>Restoring cultural practices should be considered in federal and state governments’ exiting plans once crisis-level case numbers are down.</p>
<p>Australia’s governments must follow Aotearoa’s lead and find a way for public health orders and cultural food practices to work together.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dione Payne receives funding from Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for indigenous research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Wingett and Stewart Sutherland do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many Indigenous people in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are lacking food security due to public health orders preventing them from traditional food sourcing.Stewart Sutherland, Senior Lecturer Indigenous Health, Australian National UniversityAmanda Wingett, Associate lecturer, Australian National UniversityDione Payne, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Maori & Pasifika, Lincoln University, New ZealandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/279462014-06-23T05:02:20Z2014-06-23T05:02:20ZThe tricky business of cross-cultural refereeing
<p>The World Cup brings together teams, players, fans and also referees from every corner of the globe. The cultural differences that exist between them can be stark, especially for referees. While players tend to play in different leagues around the world, referees tend to remain rooted in their domestic leagues. So, the appointment of 25 referee trios from 43 different countries inevitably raises questions concerning their quality and the consistency of their decision making.</p>
<p>When referees are trained and then officiate within their domestic leagues that particular league will influence their style of refereeing, how they deal with players and the decisions that they give at certain times. Bringing them all together every four years for a few weeks therefore requires a concerted effort by FIFA to ensure they officiate fairly and uniformly. </p>
<p>Officials are selected from the football confederations of every continent. Just as the World Cup brings together the best players, these are the best officials that each region has to offer. FIFA then works with each referee over the course of three years in the build-up to the World Cup.</p>
<p>To achieve uniformity FIFA have modernised training, bringing them together for <a href="http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=2/news=seminars-announced-for-2014-fifa-world-cup-referees-2275045.html">regular seminars</a> involving match video analysis. A significant focus of the technical training is around the importance of protecting players from any overly physical treatment from other players, protecting the image of the game, the way referees read the game and understanding different football mentalities and cultures. </p>
<p>Even within Europe there is significant variation between different leagues. Decisions are accepted in some leagues that would not be accepted in others. In European football, the common example given is that of the “raised foot”. In England this act is often let slide, whereas in Spain or Italy it is always a foul and more often than not brings a yellow or red card, depending on the challenge. At the World Cup, referees will be attempting to standardise their approach to the “raised foot”, but this may be an example of an area of discrepancy. </p>
<p>The way referees manage games can also differ. Referees in England, for example, try and manage the players and talk to them more, whereas referees in Spain and Italy prefer to use yellow and red cards as their way of controlling the players right from the start of a match. At the World Cup, referees tend to try to be more lenient and accepting of the different cultures. However, despite training and guidance referees can demonstrate behaviour and decision making that can be traced back to the domestic league and country which they officiate within.</p>
<p>The training is all about trying to standardise the way that referees officiate so players know what to expect during a match. Massimo Busacca, FIFA’s head of refereeing, says that there should be no change in performance by referees: “How it was interpreted before has to be how it is interpreted at the World Cup.” </p>
<h2>An age-old issue</h2>
<p>The issue of standardising the way refereeing is conducted around the world has long been discussed. In 1980, the English Referee’s Association wrote off the idea of standardisation as an impractical and impossible dream, when it was discussed in its official publication, The Football Referee. </p>
<p>Following the World Cup in 1990, the issue was once again raised after different styles of refereeing were witnessed at the tournament. An article in The Football Referee described “the arrogant dictatorship of Helmut Kohl (Austria), lack of consistency with Carlos Silva Valente (Portugal) [and] the weakness of Elias Guerrero (Ecuador) that contributed to common mistakes in Law”. Clearly in the 1990s there was an idea that standardisation between countries was an issue and warranted further consideration. </p>
<p>Referees today are aware there are differences in the way they prepare for a match and how they perform on the pitch itself. Referees recognise that their style of officiating is dependent on the league and culture to which they belong, as does FIFA, <a href="http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/footballdevelopment/technicalsupport/refereeing/">which says</a>:</p>
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<p>Football is a global sport and its rules must be interpreted and applied with absolute consistency wherever the game is played. FIFA therefore has a policy of ongoing training for its referees to ensure that refereeing standards continue to improve and the Laws of the Game are applied the same way everywhere.</p>
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<p>It is a challenge for FIFA. The World Cup brings together referees from leagues and competitions all over the world, there is an acceptance that referees from different countries officiate differently in certain situations. FIFA is trying to minimise these differences through the training and pre-tournament preparation the referees have undertaken; however, only over the course of the tournament will we know whether this age-old question has been dealt with sufficiently. History certainly tells us it will not be easy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27946/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The World Cup brings together teams, players, fans and also referees from every corner of the globe. The cultural differences that exist between them can be stark, especially for referees. While players…Tom Webb, Senior Lecturer in Sports Development, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/265332014-05-12T05:20:05Z2014-05-12T05:20:05ZThe anti-FGM campaign may undermine the wellbeing of those it should be helping<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/48199/original/c4fktm67-1399654471.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Conflating a lot of issues.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Circumcision_Female_Genital_Multilation_FGM_October_2010.jpg">Rufai Ajala</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Police and border officials have been running a <a href="http://www.itv.com/news/2014-05-09/police-target-high-risk-flights-in-fight-against-female-genital-mutilation/">campaign at airports</a> across the UK to intercept families who could have taken their children abroad for female genital mutilation (FGM). Now the Metropolitan police chief has said <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/09/fgm-met-chief-medical-tests">medical examinations to identify FGM victims</a> may have to be considered. </p>
<p>Dominating the campaign to end FGM has been a “barbarism” discourse grounded in the belief that FGM is a uniquely pernicious cultural practice. While it is important that we attempt to protect vulnerable people and challenge practices like FGM, we need to avoid simplistic, shrill rhetoric which may undermine those efforts.</p>
<h2>Consistency and complexity</h2>
<p>The anti-FGM campaign argues that FGM inflicts injury on vulnerable people, diminishes their potential for sexual satisfaction and perpetuates the oppression of women. If we believe that culture <a href="http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9781137313799">should promote human wellbeing</a>, and that autonomy and sexual satisfaction is important for wellbeing, then cutting children’s genitals in the absence of urgent medical need is a practice we can well do without.</p>
<p>Yet, in liberal societies, we often accept children’s genitals being cut, since ritual male circumcision is seen as either harmless or positive. This is despite <a href="http://etn.sagepub.com/content/10/2/181.abstract">evidence</a> suggesting that it is painful, has risks, can reduce sensitivity, alters sexual functioning and is, or historically was, performed for similar reasons to FGM. </p>
<p>Although ritual MGM is often, though not <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23284898">always</a>, less dangerous and invasive than forms of FGM, and medical circumcision useful in dealing with a small range of conditions, we should be consistent in regarding it as <a href="https://theconversation.com/like-fgm-cut-foreskins-should-be-a-feminist-issue-20328">troubling</a>. </p>
<p>Challenging some basic assumptions about FGM and placing it more clearly in the context of Western understandings of male circumcision, the <a href="http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Publications/HCR/Detail.aspx?id=6059">Hastings Centre Report on female genital surgeries</a> in Africa concludes that some of the more extreme harms associated with FGM are less common than we might believe. It also points out that some of those cut believe that their experience did little or no harm and live in communities which <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23269995.2013.811923">do encourage</a> sexual fulfilment. </p>
<p>This does not mean that people are not harmed (far from it), but decrying FGM as “barbarian” lumps together very different practices conducted for very different reasons, ostracising those who practise them. This is compounded by the tactic of coupling “barbarianism” with descriptions of the practice as “unIslamic” or “unChristian” – in essence, heretical. This is especially alienating given that the Abrahamic faiths have developed related conceptions of civilisation which view non-believers, heretics or blasphemers as harmful not only to themselves but to God. </p>
<p>Given that the UN has endorsed male circumcision as part of its HIV prevention policy, we now have the bizarre prospect of Western agencies marching into communities telling people that it is “barbaric”, backward and “unChristian” or “unIslamic” to cut girls, but “civilised”, forward thinking and “Christian” or “Islamic” to cut boys. </p>
<p>Calling FGM barbaric and heretical transforms what is a complex and varied issue to, in real terms, simplistic condemnation of parents who sincerely believe they are doing the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/06/alternative-to-circumcision-prevents-girls-suffering-kenya">right thing</a> for their children. By extension, their children are also condemned as barbarian heretics and stigmatised as mutilated, <a href="http://jme.bmj.com/content/39/7/450.abstract">compounding</a> emotionally the physical injury inflicted by the cut.</p>
<h2>Promoting wellbeing and the law</h2>
<p>If we wish to promote wellbeing, we would do well to remember that one of the most significant factors in sexual fulfilment, which opponents of cutting seek to promote, is confidence in and contentment with one’s own body. As <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/series/sexualhealing">sex columns in Western media</a> demonstrate on a daily basis, one can be physically intact and yet bereft of confidence, contentment and fulfilment. Sending the message to those who’ve undergone genital cutting, potentially in contrast to their own perspective, that they are mutilated, barbarian heretics is unlikely to promote confidence and fulfilment.</p>
<p>The extreme simplification of the way FGM is discussed has shaped wrong-headed attempts at its prosecution. This is shown in the recent case of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/fgm-top-gynaecologisthits-out-at-political-prosecution-for-female-genital-mutilation-9213200.html">Dr Dharmasena</a>, who has been accused of conducting FGM by resuturing an <a href="http://www.unfpa.org/gender/practices2.htm">infibulated</a> woman after childbirth. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/fgm-top-gynaecologisthits-out-at-political-prosecution-for-female-genital-mutilation-9213200.html">Dr Katrina Erskine</a> has pointed out, this attempt to limit harm through medical intervention was hardly an act of mutilation. Unfortunately for Dr Dharmasena, however, in the eyes of the law, his attempt to limit harm made him complicit in barbarism.</p>
<p>If we are concerned about the wellbeing of vulnerable people (and the societies that practice FGM can often be vulnerable), then this is an unfortunate approach to adopt. Let me be clear: I don’t wish to defend or romanticise genital cutting (it is troubling on many levels), but I do think we should try to avoid compounding its direct effects.</p>
<p>In place of the barbarism, heresy and mutilation discourse, attempts must be made to express solidarity with people in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/06/alternative-to-circumcision-prevents-girls-suffering-kenya">ways</a> that don’t dominate or alienate them. We don’t have to be self-flagellating anti-colonialists to acknowledge the possibility that this kind of approach and rhetoric may both undermine wellbeing in general and fail to deal effectively with genital cutting in particular.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/26533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Johnson receives funding from the British Academy.</span></em></p>Police and border officials have been running a campaign at airports across the UK to intercept families who could have taken their children abroad for female genital mutilation (FGM). Now the Metropolitan…Matthew T. Johnson, Lecturer, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148672013-06-13T05:46:20Z2013-06-13T05:46:20ZUK letting down victims of female genital mutilation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/25432/original/mpxhmkx9-1371058532.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C3%2C1119%2C761&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Female genital mutilation is happening in the UK.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">London Safeguarding Children Board</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Female genital mutilation (FGM) is happening across the UK but despite being illegal for nearly 30 years, there have been no convictions. </p>
<p>Fortunately, politicians are beginning to pick up on the issue. A report from a committee of MPs <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/international-development-committee/news/vawg-report-substantive/">warned that</a> the UK “is weakened by its failure to address [FGM] violence within its own borders”. They say it’s “unforgiveable” that there hasn’t been a single prosecution since the procedure was made illegal here in 1985. </p>
<p>FGM is a deep rooted traditional practice that has a huge impact on the health and well being of millions of girls and young women around the world. It’s a common practice in 28 African countries, as well as parts of the Middle East and Asia. In some countries such as Djibouti and Mali, <a href="http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/4/07-042093/en/">more than 90% of women</a> are believed to have undergone FGM. In Egypt it is illegal but the country still has one of the highest rates in the world. Only recently, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/suhair-al-bataa-13-year-old-dies-circumcised_n_3417528.html">13-year-old Suhair al-Bata</a> died after undergoing the procedure in a village north of Cairo.</p>
<p>But FGM is not restricted to these countries. Globalisation and ease of travel means many Africans migrating to the EU and other developed regions - for economic reasons or asylum - has spread the practice. FGM is now taking place in EU countries and is <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P7-TA-2012-261">on the increase</a>. </p>
<p>In England and Wales it’s estimated that 66,000 women are already living with FGM and a further 21,000 girls are <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/female-genital-mutilation/Pages/Introduction.aspx">at risk of being cut</a>.</p>
<p>Anecdotal evidence collected as part of <a href="http://replacefgm.eu/sites/default/files/pressroom/REPLACE%20Toolkit.pdf">our research</a> suggests that some EU citizens are moving between member states to take advantage of differences in legislation - making the UK a destination for many families who want FGM for their daughters and believe the law isn’t applied here.</p>
<h2>What is FGM?</h2>
<p>FGM involves removing part or all of the external parts of a girl or woman’s genitalia but <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/">also includes procedures</a> that cause injury to that part of the body for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons. The UN regards the practice of FGM as a violation of human and female reproductive health rights. Many <a href="http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58002.html">now recognise it</a> as a form of violence against girls and women and further, a form of torture. </p>
<p>The ritual is usually performed by traditional practitioners who have no formal medical training and perform the operation in non-sterile conditions. It can cause serious physical harm such as complications in childbirth, excessive bleeding, blood poisoning, death and HIV transmission, and psychological damage.</p>
<p>The World Health Organisation classifies FGM into four types. Type III is the most serious kind and often involves women <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/">having to be cut open</a> again to have sexual intercourse and for childbirth. It’s <a href="http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/fgm/prevalence/en/">estimated that globally</a> 90% of women affected by the practice have been subjected to full or partial removal of their clitoris and/or the removal of their inner labia and other “unclassified” procedures, including the use of cauterisation. </p>
<h2>Where did FGM come from?</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58002.html">origins of FGM are unknown</a>; it doesn’t appear to be connected to any particular religion or culture, but perpetuated over generations by social dynamics. </p>
<p>It is often defended as a rite of passage from girlhood into womanhood and usually performed on girls from babyhood up until the age of 15. Support comes directly from mothers, mothers-in-law, and elder women. But FGM isn’t “women’s business” as it’s often seen. All the communities where it is common are highly patriarchal. And men wield a lot of influence - indirectly from fathers, religious and community leaders. </p>
<p>Pain is an important element of the ritual that it is said prepares girls for the pain of childbirth - even though it can cause later complications. Sometimes FGM is performed for “purity” or “hygiene” and some people also believe, wrongly, that FGM is just a female version of male circumcision.</p>
<h2>Overcoming cultural barriers</h2>
<p>At Coventry University we headed up <a href="http://www.replace%20fgm.eu">two European-funded projects</a>: one looking at Somali and Sudanese communities in the UK and Holland and another, which has just started, at different African FGM practising communities across six EU countries.</p>
<p>It’s clear that we need to get away from cloaking FGM in medical terminology. Many practising communities also have their own definitions and language for the procedure which are difficult to relate to the WHO’s “type” classifications. Various differences that individuals and communities place on certain terminology make it extremely difficult to work out the various types of genital cutting and how often it happens.</p>
<p>Many people in the communities that we worked with don’t regard FGM as “mutilation” so that can lead to confusion about what type of cutting is covered by legislation. Many find the term FGM offensive and equate it with the worst kind of procedures, which we’ve found many don’t support. Using the term “sunna”, which loosely equates with FGM types I and II, can be better. </p>
<h2>We need more information</h2>
<p>In the 1990s, 14 African countries including Ethiopia, Uganda, Ghana, Senegal and Togo, together with Egypt and Djibouti and six of the Federal States in Nigeria effectively banned FGM. But today, there is little evidence the situation is changing. Practising communities in the UK are from countries where FGM is common and include Somalian, Sudanese, Gambian and Nigerian communities.</p>
<p>But we still lack information. Only <a href="http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/fgm/fgm_prevalence_egypt/en/">in Egypt</a> and Sudan is some data available to properly work out trends. For example, we know that there was a decline in FGM from 96% of women in 1979 <a href="http://www.childinfo.org/files/fgmc_Coordinated_Strategy_to_Abandon_FGMC__in_One_Generation_eng.pdf">to 89% in 1990 in Sudan</a>. This was accompanied by a 10% shift from the worst type of FGM to a less drastic form.</p>
<p>In Egypt, surveys showed that <a href="http://measuredhs.com/Who-We-Are/News-Room/Female-circumcision-decreasing-among-young-women-in-Egypt.cfm">girls are now less likely</a> to be cut than their mothers. Some credit urbanisation and increased access to education for girls as partly responsible; others suggest that the high international profile of the practice and the criminalising of the practice in some countries have also played a role.</p>
<p>But elimination of FGM is proving very difficult. Despite campaigns to explain to communities the health implications of the rite and the criminalisation of the practice in many countries, FGM has continued. The link between social structures and gender power relations and sexuality mean it’s very resistant to change. The failure to conform can affect how well a girl marries and her family’s standing. Turning against it can lead to social exclusion, ostracism or even violence. </p>
<p>Family honour and social expectations play a powerful role in perpetuating FGM, making it extremely difficult for individual families, as well as individual girls and women, to stop the practice on their own.</p>
<p>This is also true of the UK; it’s clear that pressure from the community makes it hard for people to go against it. To tackle the problem we need not just to change the behaviour of individual people, for example those doing the cutting, but tackle wider issues concerning the beliefs held by the community that perpetuate the practice making it ‘normal’.</p>
<p>Ending FGM in the UK is going to take time, but understanding more about it and taking new approaches to change individual and community behaviour will push us towards the tipping point that we need - when communities accept that FGM is no longer necessary or acceptable and individuals (parents and children) have the power to say no.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/14867/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hazel Barrett receives funding from European Commission's Daphne III programme</span></em></p>Female genital mutilation (FGM) is happening across the UK but despite being illegal for nearly 30 years, there have been no convictions. Fortunately, politicians are beginning to pick up on the issue…Hazel Barrett, Associate Dean for Applied Research, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.