TRAINING AND INFORMATION CAMPAIGN ON THE ... - Fokus

concern for women’s sexuality. A number of scholars and activists, however, have concluded that the
most “sensitive” and least controversial angle from which to argue for the elimination of the practice is
that of the right to health and bodily integrity.
A number of African nations have passed legislation against FGM, although enforcement mechanisms
vary. Many feel, however, that outright legislation against the practice, especially during the early stages
of abandonment, is highly problematic as it pits community members against each other, penalizing
individuals acting in good faith within their cultural framework, and potentially driving the practice
underground and reducing the likelihood that those who need medical attention will receive it.
The “development and modernization” approach suggests that overall improvements in socioeconomic
status and education, especially for women, will have far-reaching social effects, including a reduced
demand for FGM. The empirical data do not consistently support this conclusion, however, and many
argue that changing social conditions will not automatically change strongly held beliefs and values
regarding female “circumcision,” but that targeted intervention issues on the harmful effects of the
practice are needed as well.
The “convention theory” of abandonment argues that practices such as FGM are conventions locked
in place by interdependent expectations in the marriage market and that once in place such conventions
become deeply entrenched, since those who fail to comply also risk failing to reproduce (Mackie 2000).
Therefore, education about adverse consequences does not suffice, but must be accompanied by a
collective convention shift. This approach, which has been carried out in practice by the Senegalese
NGO Tostan, uses basic education leading to public declarations in which communities who historically
intermarry join in denouncing FGM.
It is common for activists to argue that one of the reasons that FGM is so “entrenched” is that it
constitutes an important source of income for those performing the procedure. Consequently, some
eradication efforts have focused in part on schemes to compensate circumcisers for lost income. Critics
(see Mackie 2000) argue that this is a misguided functionalism: although circumcisers immediately do
cause circumcision of girls, they do not cause parents to want circumcision for their daughters and
thus do not directly cause the continuation of the practice. Others point out that circumcisers may
receive compensation for not practicing while continuing to do so in secrecy. However, in contexts in
which circumcisers are prestigious community leaders, their genuine conversion is crucial and it may
be an important strategy to provide at least symbolic, and perhaps limited material, support to those
circumcisers who have already had a change of heart, thus motivating them to stick to their decision,
which is distinct from “bribing” people to stop.
Some groups and communities have experimented with alternative, non-circumcising rituals, for
example in Kenya and The Gambia. The success of such an approach has not been documented,
however, and there are reports from Kenya that girls who have undergone “ritual without cutting” have
later been coerced into actual genital cutting.
While these approaches have been discussed separately, in reality most campaigns combine a variety
of strategies into an integrated approach.
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