Activists have launched a new Asia-wide network to end the lesser-known practice of FGM in the region.

A dearth of data and transparency about female genital mutilation in Southeast Asia has stymied efforts to stop it. Global attention and advocacy on the subject have tended to focus on African nations. But now a new pan-Asia network aims to unpack the region’s FGM problem as it works to end the practice.

Around 200 million girls and women are estimated to have been subjected to FGM — the partial or total removal of their external genitalia. But this data on the practice is almost entirely drawn from African countries and doesn’t incorporate most Southeast Asian nations where FGM is also known to take place, including Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines, and southern Thailand.

“People don’t usually think of FGM as something that happens in Asia. It still has an association with Africa,” said Sivananthi Thanenthiran, executive director of the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), a Malaysia-based regional advocacy group. Global meetings tend to be held in countries in Africa, where the practice is concentrated, and funding follows suit.

This premise was challenged in 2016 when Indonesia became the first Asian country to be included in the UN’s global report on FGM prevalence. The “dramatic increase” in the figures “unsettled governments” in Southeast Asia, Sivananthi said, as it showed FGM was more widespread than previously thought. Among the findings was the startling figure that nearly half of Indonesian girls aged 11 and under had undergone FGM.

In recent years victims of botched FGM procedures have spoken out in Singapore, while concerns have been voiced about the unregulated nature of the practice in southern Thailand. In Malaysia, a 2012 study found that more than 93 percent of Muslim women surveyed had undergone FGM.

To strengthen advocacy in the region, ARROW, in June, launched the Asia Network to End FGM/C in partnership with British charity the Orchid Project (FGC, female genital cutting, is a term some people use instead of FGM for reasons explored here). The network seeks to build collaboration between groups already campaigning to end FGM – focusing advocacy work on communities, religious leaders and governments to help eradicate the practice. It is also hoping to address the Asia data gap. Better evidence about the practice’s prevalence, especially governmental reporting, could go a long way to inform Asian advocacy on FGM.

Within Southeast Asia Indonesia has been the most pro-active in challenging FGM — a movement led by women’s rights groups but also at times by the state. In 2006, the government banned the practice (as many countries have, including at least 25 in Africa). But four years later it succumbed to pressure from religious groups, issuing a regulation allowing FGM if performed by medical staff.

The law has been “ambiguous” ever since, said Nina Nurmila, a gender and Islamic studies professor who also sits on Indonesia’s National Commission on Violence Against Women. She thinks FGM ought to be banned alongside a widespread public education campaign about the health risks. But the official advice now just refers Indonesians to an Islamic health council to provide FGM guidelines, effectively putting no bars on the practice. The country’s women’s minister announced a renewed campaign to end FGM in 2016, but opposition from religious leaders has only increased amid growing Islamic conservatism.

Yet the Quran makes no mention of FGM. Leading Islamic scholars worldwide have said there is no basis for the practice, which predates the rise of both Islam and Christianity. And FGM is not practiced in many Islamic societies while it is undertaken by some non-Islamic groups including Christians and Ethiopian Jews. But in Southeast Asia many Muslims believe the practice is compulsory.

In Malaysia, it didn’t help that in 2009 the National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs issued a fatwa that ruled FGM obligatory for Muslims. Unfortunately, there is almost no political will to correct the powerful religious lobby. Last year Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also a medical doctor, said FGM was a part of Malaysian culture – despite international consensus that cultural arguments cannot be used to condone violence against people. FGM has no health benefits and procedures can cause severe bleeding and problems including infections and childbirth complications.

The job of reframing the archaic practice as a humans rights issue rooted in extreme discrimination rather than a religious one has been left mostly to activists. The added problem in Malaysia is that FGM has been “normalized” by being offered as a routine medical procedure, said Azrul Mohd Khalib, head of the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy, a Kuala Lumpur-based think-tank.

As in Indonesia, procedures are even offered as part of “birthing packages” in some hospitals, which further serves to legitimize them. In both countries FGM tends to be conducted at infancy, which activists say makes it a more “hidden” practice. Many women will not remember the trauma they underwent – unlike in countries where FGM is performed when a girl reaches adolescence in a more ceremonial and public manner that she can likely recount.

“For some reason the image is that FGC is not as traumatic as in Africa and is harmless,” Azrul said. “I completely disagree. An invasive procedure is an invasive procedure. You’re basically mutilating a child. And there is no religious justification.”

The new Asia network has started consulting activists around the region on how to move forwards. One strategy showing promise in Indonesia, said Risya Kori, a UNFPA gender specialist in Jakarta, is targeting young Muslims more receptive to change. The country’s growing female ulama (Islamic scholars) movement has also been a positive catalyst with more voices denouncing FGM, she said.

There are communities across Africa that are questioning and even abandoning FGM as a result of longstanding activism and the political will to enforce change. The hope is that Southeast Asian nations will soon do the same.

By: The Diplomat

Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in Asia will be addressed by the development of a new Asia Network to End FGM/C, across countries such as Brunei, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Malaysia, Maldives, Singapore and Thailand.

Malaysia-based regional feminist NGO, the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), and British charity, Orchid Project have joined forces to support the development of the network, which they announced on Sunday (June 2) at Women Deliver in Vancouver, Canada.

FGM/C is practised in over 45 countries globally, but the global focus has not responded strongly enough to the situation in the Asia region. For example, in Indonesia 49% of girls have undergone FGM/C. UNFPA estimate that by 2030, a further 15 million girls in Indonesia will be cut if efforts to end the practice are not accelerated.

“FGM/C has for long been presented as a traditional practice with harmful consequences for girls and women primarily taking place in Africa,” said Sivananthi Thanethiran, ED of Malaysia-based ARROW, a regional NGO advocating for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women and young people.

“What is lesser known is that there are many girls and women in Asia who are affected by the same practice. Because of the overall lack of advocacy in the region and pressure from the international community to end the practice in the region, governments continue to shy from taking measures to end FGM/C, which is in direct contradiction of a number of human rights commitments.”

Once established, the network will actively lobby governments in the Asia Pacific to end the practice to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality and empowering all women and girls, and specifically SDG target 5.3 which relates to ending FGM/C. According to UNICEF (2018), 3.9 million girls are at risk of FGM/C annually, and at least 200 million girls and women have been cut in 30 countries. However, this figure does not include many countries in Asia Pacific where FGM/C is known to take place, so the true scale of the problem is unknown because of these gaps in data.

The announcement of the Asia Network to End FGM/C follows the establishment of vibrant networks to end FGM/C in Europe, the US and most recently in Canada – where Women Deliver is taking place.

“The first step in this process is to invite organisations across the region to help shape the Asia Network to End FGM/C,” said Ebony Riddell Bamber, Head of Advocacy & Policy at Orchid Project. “We will build a vibrant network in partnership with international organizations active on FGM/C in Asia, including Sahiyo and Equality Now, as well as grassroots organizations across the continent.”

“Our goal is to create a platform to jointly advocate for change, and identify how best to support and amplify the great work underway at the grassroots to end FGM/C,” Riddell Bamber added. If we don’t act now, many more girls across Asia will be subject to this harmful practice, and progress in ending FGM/C will be severely compromised.” she added.

Community and media reports indicate that FGM/C is prevalent in many Asian and Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Philippines, Maldives, India and Pakistan.

The Asia Network to End FGM/C will establish a platform of NGOs, activists, and researchers across these countries to build stronger relationships and collaboration between organisations working across Asia. The platform will gather data and evidence on prevalence, take survivor needs and viewpoints into account, engage with religious scholars who can influence communities positively, and urge governments to report on the SDG indicator (5.3.2) related to FGM/C.

FGM/C has several immediate and long term health complications on women including infections, painful menstruation, urinary and vaginal problems, complications during childbirth and even death. “It is also important to frame FGM/C as a bodily rights and bodily integrity issue,” added Ms Thanenthiran.

Often, proponents of FGM/C justify the practice on the basis of religion, or some unproven health benefit or claim that it doesn’t harm women and girls. But religious scholars from different countries are divided on this, and some Muslim countries have banned FGM/C through fatwas and the law.

Support for the initial stage of development of the Asia Network to End FGM/C is being provided by Wallace Global Fund.

“No region of the world is immune from female genital mutilation/cutting, and advocates are increasingly speaking out against the practice throughout Asia,” said Susan Gibbs, Program Director for Women’s Rights and Empowerment at the Wallace Global Fund. “The practice remains poorly understood and largely hidden in the shadows. Wallace Global is convinced that the new Asia Network will play a powerful role in drawing attention to the issue and helping galvanize a regional response.”

Activists, researchers and organisations interested in being involved in shaping the network can contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

By: ARROW & Orchid Project

PETALING JAYA: The US government's reluctance to defend the ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) is a "slippery slope" that Malaysia should avoid, say two women non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Recently, US media reported that the Trump administration had decided not to defend a ban on FGM that was passed more than 20 years ago.

Business Insider said the ongoing case against doctor Jumana Nagarwala who allegedly cut the clitoral hoods of two seven-year-old-girls at the request of their mothers was the first test of the US law that bans FGM for non-medical reasons.

However, Michigan federal Judge Bernard Friedman ruled the anti-FGM law unconstitutional in November 2018 and dismissed the charges against Nagarwala.


The Justice Department had an opportunity to appeal the court decision, but Business Insider said they may not pursue it.

According to the Trump administration, there aren't adequate grounds to defend the law.

"The US’ reluctance to have a strong stance against FGM demonstrates an irresponsible lack of political will where sexual and reproductive health rights are concerned," Sisters In Islam communications manager Majidah Hashim said.

"This disappointing move, coupled with the fact that the US still has not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Cedaw) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), reflects a misogynistic disregard for the well-being of girls and women under the Trump administration," she added.

Majidah said minorities are the most vulnerable to FGM in the United States, as it is most common among its diverse immigrant communities.

"Malaysia needs to learn from the slippery slope that the United States has cornered itself into where the health and well-being of its citizens are concerned," she said.

"Many Muslim-majority countries have completely banned all forms of the practice, and we encourage Malaysia to urgently follow suit," Majidah said, adding that FGM is a harmful practice with no Islamic basis or any medical benefits.

Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (Arrow) said it was unfortunate that even the legal framework of developed countries such as the United States were inadequate in affirming and protecting basic sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls.

"It is regrettable that the US government does not have a comprehensive framework for gender equality in place in order to ensure progress towards recognising women's equal rights in society, which includes their sexual and reproductive rights," its executive director Sivananthi Thanenthiran said.

In Malaysia, the government had previously reaffirmed its stand that female circumcision was part of Malaysian culture.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail reportedly said that female circumcision in Malaysia was unlike the extreme FGM practised in some African countries, but would look into the issue.

By: The Star

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — Two major non-governmental organisations in Malaysia and the United Kingdom have teamed up to end the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in several Asia Pacific countries, including Malaysia.

The Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW) based in Malaysia and British charity Orchid Project today announced that they have joined forces to work with grassroots organisations to end FGM/C in Malaysia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Maldives, Thailand and Singapore.

“FGM/C is practised in over 45 countries globally, but the global focus has not responded strongly enough to the situation in the Asia region.  For example, in Indonesia 49 per cent of girls have undergone FGM/C,” the two NGOs said in a joint statement coinciding with their launch in Vancouver, Canada today.

The United Nations population fund (UNFPA) estimate that by 2030, a further 15 million girls in Indonesia will be mutilated if efforts to end the practice are not accelerated. 

“FGM/C has for long been presented as a traditional practice with harmful consequences for girls and women primarily taking place in Africa. What is lesser known is that there are many girls and women in Asia who are affected by the same practice,” ARROW executive director Sivananthi Thanethiran said in the statement.

She said the lack of advocacy in the region and pressure from the international community to end the practice in the region means that governments continue to shy from taking measures to end FGM/C, which is in direct contradiction of a number of human rights commitments.

Once established, the network will actively lobby governments in the Asia Pacific to end the practice to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality and empowering all women and girls, and specifically SDG target 5.3 which relates to ending FGM/C.

“The first step in this process is to invite organisations across the region to help shape the Asia Network to End FGM/C,” said Orchid Project’s Head of Advocacy and Policy  Ebony Riddell Bamber, adding that they will work with other international organisations like Sahiyo and Equality Now, as well as grassroots organizations.

“Our goal is to create a platform to jointly advocate for change, and identify how best to support and amplify the great work underway at the grassroots to end FGM/C. If we don’t act now, many more girls across Asia will be subject to this harmful practice, and progress in ending FGM/C will be severely compromised.” she added.

According to Unicef, 3.9 million girls are at risk of FGM/C annually, and at least 200 million girls and women have been mutilated in 30 countries. However, this figure does not include many countries in Asia Pacific where FGM/C is known to take place, so the true scale of the problem is unknown because of these gaps in data.

Community and media reports indicate that FGM/C is prevalent in many Asian and Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, the Philippines, Maldives, India and Pakistan.

The network will be a platform will gather data and evidence on prevalence, take survivor needs and viewpoints into account, engage with religious scholars who can influence communities positively, and urge governments to report on the SDG indicator (5.3.2) related to FGM/C.

FGM/C has several immediate and long-term health complications on women including infections, painful menstruation, urinary and vaginal problems, complications during childbirth and even death.

Proponents of FGM/C justify the practice on the basis of religion, or some unproven health benefit or claim that it doesn’t harm women and girls. But religious scholars from different countries are divided on this, and some Muslim countries have banned FGM/C through fatwas and the law.

By: The Malay Mail

Activists from around the world are calling on governments and members of the public to take action to support an end to female genital cutting. 

Cutting impacts at least 200 million women and girls, in over 45 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and within diaspora communities worldwide. It is a truly global issue, which presents multiple, complex challenges within each different context where girls are affected.

The good news is that committed activists, grassroots organisations, communities, NGOs and, increasingly, governments are turning towards this issue. Together we are presenting solutions as to how we can protect girls and allow them to thrive, free from the practice.

We are seeing significant progress. UNICEF reports that a girl is around one third less likely to be cut today than she was three decades ago. More and more, communities are deciding to leave cutting behind, but there is still so much more to be done.

On the International Day to End FGC 2019, Orchid Project brought three esteemed guests together to speak live on Facebook about the global movement to end cutting, and the challenges that we still face.

We were joined by Sivananthi Thanenthiran, Executive Director of The Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), based in Malaysia, Wairimu Munyinyi-Wahome, Executive Director of the Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW) in Kenya, and Mariya Taher, Co-Founder of transnational Indian & US organisation, Sahiyo.

They called for governments and members of the public to take action and support an end to this harmful traditional practice.

Together with Siva, Wairimu and Mariya, we call on governments to:

• Engage meaningfully with custodians of the practice, such as cultural and religious leaders.
• Report on UN Sustainable Development Goal Indicator relating to cutting (5.3.2).
• Provide dedicated budgets and resources towards ending the practice.
• Support greater data collection on the practice at national, regional and local levels.
• Engage, support and partner with grassroots, community-led initiatives.
• Recognise cutting as a global issue, particularly in contexts such as Malaysia where it is not yet acknowledged.
• Approach cutting as a human rights issue, acknowledging that all forms of the practice are a rights violation, and harmful to women and girls.

…and for members of the public to:

• Elevate the voices of women, girls and communities affected by cutting on platforms like social media.
• Share and talk about the practice with friends, family and colleagues to raise awareness.
• Write to local and national representatives, asking them to support change.
• Support, volunteer and donate to organisations working to end FGC.
• Stay up-to-date with organisations working to end the practice, such as Sahiyo, COVAW, ARROW and Orchid Project.
  
  

By: Orchid Project

FEBRUARY 4 — Malaysia should ban female genital mutilation/ cutting (FGM/C), and work with health and religious authorities, and the community to end the practice immediately.

We appeal to the government to enforce laws that protect a woman’s right to bodily integrity and autonomy, ahead of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM on Wednesday.

“It has been a year since the UN’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Committee criticised Malaysia for practising FGM/C,” said Sivananthi Thanenthiran, Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), a regional NGO that champions sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and young people. “CEDAW committee members from Muslim countries like Egypt asked the Malaysian Government to revisit the 2009 decision by the National Fatwa Committee that made it obligatory, and urged the Government to abolish it.”

Rozana Isa, Executive Director of Sisters in Islam (SIS), said “Islam did not introduce circumcision of girls to the world. Circumcision of girls can be traced back to pre-Islamic traditions. Nevertheless, the modern Islamic world has made a clear stance that FGM, no matter how insignificant, has a clear harm factor and is categorically unIslamic.”

Dar al-Ifta al Misriyyah, which is among the pillars of the religious foundations in Egypt (and includes Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, Al-Azhar University, Ministry of Religious Endowments, and Dar al-Ifta al-Misryyah), had declared all forms of FGM, including female circumcision, to be religiously forbidden from May last year. The organisation said that banning FGM should be a religious duty of all Muslim countries due to its harmful effects on the body. Al-Azhar is considered the authoritative reference for Sunni religious authorities throughout the world, including Malaysia.

In February last year, the CEDAW Committee said that women’s rights had regressed in Malaysia, and urged the government to abolish FGM, which takes place in certain Muslim Malay communities. At the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva in November, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry denied the practice of FGM, but said female circumcision was done on babies as part of a cultural obligation.

FGM refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for cultural or other non-medical reasons. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified four types of FGM (details below). In Malaysia, Type 4 — pricking, piercing, incising, scraping or cauterisation — is common, and reports indicate Type I — also called clitoridectomy, which is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce — is also common as described by doctors engaged in the practice.

“FGM has long lasting physical and psychological effects on girls. Continuing the practice means further eroding Malaysia’s human rights record. We call on the government to abolish the practice and implement the recommendations of the CEDAW Committee and the UPR. All Malaysian girls and women deserve to grow up free from harmful practices that endanger their health and well-being,” Thanenthiran said.

In conjunction with the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, ARROW will be part of a Facebook Live discussion, “End female genital cutting globally: Activists in Conversation, on Feb 6 on Wednesday at 2pm GMT. Hosted by the Orchid Project, a UK-based charity, the discussion will include activists from Sahiyo, an India-based NGO, the US, and Kenya, to discuss how action at the grassroots can be supported, to end FGC globally.

The link to the event is http://bit.ly/2Fxoopf.

* Press statement by Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.

By: The Malay Mail

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia should ban female genital mutilation (FGM) and work with health and religious authorities, as well as the community, to end the practice, says two women non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“We appeal to the government to enforce laws that protect a woman's right to bodily integrity and autonomy, ahead of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM on Feb 6,” the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (Arrow) and Sisters in Islam (SIS) said in a joint statement on Monday (Feb 4).


Arrow executive director Sivananthi Thanenthiran said FGM has long lasting physical and psychological effects on girls.

“Continuing the practice means further eroding Malaysia’s human rights record.

“We call on the government to abolish the practice and implement the recommendations of the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) Committee and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

“All Malaysian girls and women deserve to grow up free from harmful practices that endanger their health and well-being,” she said.

Sivananthi added that even Cedaw committee members from Muslim countries such as Egypt have asked the Malaysian government to revisit its 2009 decision by the National Fatwa Committee.

SIS executive director Rozana Isa said Islam did not introduce circumcision of girls to the world, adding that the practice can be traced back to pre-Islamic traditions.

Nevertheless, Rozana said that the modern Islamic world has made a clear stance that FGM has a “clear harm factor and is categorically un-Islamic”.

The government had previously reaffirmed its stand that female circumcision was part of Malaysian culture.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said that female circumcision in Malaysia was unlike the extreme FMG practised in some African countries.

Dr Wan Azizah, who is also the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, said that her Ministry would look into the issue.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) describes FGM as “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.

In Malaysia, the most prevalent form of FGM among Muslims is Type I, where the clitoral hood is removed.

Some practise Type IV, a ritual form that includes pricking or nicking of the genitals.

By: The Star