FGM, also known as female circumcision, is a procedure that involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia - a process is ridden with health complications, including infection, hemorrhage and psychological trauma. It is practiced in some communities in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, as well as their respective diasporas.
Kurdistan’s Parliament criminalized FGM when it passed the Domestic Violence Law in 2011 which criminalized FGM. Perpetrators face up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $80,000 if found guilty.
Though numbers have dropped since the law was passed, FGM continues to be practiced in the Kurdistan Region. According to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), around 15,000 girls were circumcised in the Kurdistan Region in 2018 alone.
Parwin is an FGM survivor from the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil. Though she underwent the circumcision at the hands of her family years ago, she still suffers from its consequences.
“Female genital mutilation is a deadly process, no matter how old you are,” Parwin told Rudaw on Thursday.
“FGM will kill your sexuality,” she said, adding that its effects put a strain so heavy on her marriage that her husband left her.
Sabriyah is an FGM practitioner from Erbil. Once offering her services to the general public, she now limits her practice to relatives.
“I burn the genitals with a piece of coal, then remove it [coal and flesh] with a metal,” Sabriyah said of the process.
Some conduct FGM on the grounds of Sunnah, believing the excision to be a tradition condoned by the Prophet Mohammed.
But Kurdish cleric Omer Mrro dismissed the idea of FGM as condoned in Islam as a misconception and stressed that non-medical professionals are not an authority on the circumcision, a surgical practice.
“Islam does not encourage people to practice FGM,” Mrro told Rudaw on Thursday. “I encourage everyone to visit the doctors to get advice, as FGM is a medical process.”
Shayma was only 5 years old when her mother took her to an FGM practitioner in Erbil. To her, the practice is incomprehensible and akin to torture.
“I can’t understand how people can be so heartless to make their loved ones experience this torture,” Shayma said. “Cutting a piece of meat from someone’s body is not easy, and should not be easy.”
Translation by Lawk Ghafuri
Related: Long road to eradicating FGM in Kurdistan
