Female genital mutilation: empirical evidence supports concerns about statistics and safeguarding

Findings from our recent work with Somali families living in Bristol1 provide empirical support for the concerns raised by Creighton and colleagues about the UK’s response to female genital mutilation (FGM).2 Focus group discussions documented the myriad ways in which approaches to safeguarding against FGM—whether provided in healthcare, through children’s schools, or particularly through the heavy handed approaches of social services and police conducting home visits—stigmatised and criminalised families who had done nothing wrong. Participants described how their hopes for “normal” lives (for family holidays, to have their needs accommodated, and to be treated with dignity and respect) were undermined by professionals encouraged to see suspicion in everyday, mundane experiences. There is also evidence that the requirements of the FGM enhanced dataset risk retraumatising women who have been cut through repeated questioning by health professionals about experiences they want to forget. These experiences led to disillusionment and disengagement from, and additional stress when accessing, statutory services. It also undermined trust within families, the local Somali community, and wider British society.

This distress was magnified by a sense that the evidence on which these policies were based was inaccurate. There was no question among our participants that FGM was wrong and should be stopped. Universally, FGM was considered to no longer be a part of British Somali culture. That the lack of successful prosecutions was treated by officials as a “collective professional failure” rather than actual low prevalence was seen, by participants, as testament to the exclusion of groups affected by FGM from policy making processes, and to the Islamophobia inherent in much current policy, which treats Muslims unquestioningly as “suspect communities.”3 Improving these policies requires a multifaceted approach, which examines their development, implementation, and impact. There is also a dire need for a comprehensive examination of the statistics on which these policies are based. This will be the focus of our next study, beginning in April.