Report: Harmful Traditional Practices In Diaspora Communities

I was recently invited to submit some thoughts for a paper on Harmful traditional practices in diaspora communities, to be written by Evie Browne of GSDRC for the DfID Aids and Reproductive Health Team.  The paper covers female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage and the ways these harmful traditional practices (HTP) have changed – not always in the same direction, but generally positively – with diaspora movement.

The report, published today (16 May 2014), engages with a useful range of referenced evidence and is nuanced in considering variances over time in behaviour and beliefs in different places.

The topics covered by the report are legality, social pressures, cultural integration, access to information and diasporic identity – all fields where our knowledge is now increasing quite rapidly.

One thing which becomes clear from this study is that the traditionally enforced norm of ‘communal interest above all else’ is slowly losing its grip, especially where the second and subsequent generations find opportunities to align meaningfully with the mainstream.

People are beginning to decide their own destinies, and their choices are shaped and influenced by education, economic contexts and critically, even in the case of FGM, the expectations of men as well as women.

The report  can be found  here .

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FURTHER INFORMATION AND ACTION

Readers are invited to support these two FGM e-petitions:

UK Government: Enforce the UK law which forbids FGM (Female Genital so-called ‘Cutting’)    .. and

FGM abolitionists internationally: Support the Feminist Statement on Female Genital Mutilation

[See also HM Government e-petition, No. 35313, to STOP Female Genital Mutilation (FGM / ‘cutting’) in Britain  (for UK citizens and residents – now closed).]

There is a free FGM hotline for anyone in the UK: 0800 028 3550, or email:fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk

The #NoFGM Daily News carries reports of all items shared on Twitter that day about FGM – brings many organisations and developments into focus.  Also available to follow is daily news from NoFGM_USA.

For more on FGM please see here.

Twitter accounts: @NoFGM1  @NoFGMBookUK  @FGMStatement  @NoFGM_USA   [tag for all: #NoFGM]

Facebook page: #NoFGM – a crime against humanity

More info on FGM in the UK here.

Email contact: NoFGM email

** Hilary Burrage is currently writing a book, Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation: A UK Perspective