Gendered and Racialised Epistemological Injustice in FGM-safeguarding

Abstract

This paper explores FGM-safeguarding in the UK through a decolonial lens. Based on an analysis of the development of law and policy relating to ‘Female Genital Mutilation’ in the UK alongside data collected in focus groups with people of ethnic Somali heritage living in Bristol, we argue that the current legislation and policies, as well as their delivery, are steeped in colonial Othering. We demonstrate that legislative and policy approaches operate through a gendered and generational binary in which non-White mothers are othered as migrants (regardless of citizenship status) for whom anachronistic culture is deemed determinative, whilst their daughters are claimed as British. In this construction, ‘FGM’ operates as the symbolic marker that designates un/belonging: the uncircumcised girl is rescuable and claimed as ‘one of us’, whilst the circumcised mother is considered a mutilated political subject for whom belonging is foreclosed.

UK policy response to female genital mutilation needs urgent rethink

“…However, as of late 2023, there have been just two successful prosecutions for FGM/C offences in England and Wales,1112 which many advocates for change consider a collective professional failure given the large numbers of girls in the UK believed to be at risk according to UK government policy 13. We suggest an alternative explanation is that the scale of this practice in the UK is far lower than assumed,14 and that policy approaches should shift to reflect this.…”

“…Women report feeling re-traumatised by clinicians repeatedly collecting information about their past experiences of FGM/C, and they say this distracts from their other health needs 38. These experiences can be alienating and stigmatising for women in vulnerable moments accessing health services 1439. To date, the UK government has not evaluated the potential harmful consequences of these information systems on the people involved nor established any use to inform policy and practice which might justify them.…”

“…Although FGM/C can cause different short and long term health complications, women living with FGM/C point out that clinicians must not automatically assume that their particular health problems stem from this cause 183948. In addition, given the documented attitudes against FGM/C, it should not be assumed that girls born to mothers with FGM/C are necessarily at risk 1449…”