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Malaysia: female genital mutilation on the rise
22.6.2016. By Zofia Reych
Walls in the reception of the Global Ikhwan clinic in Rawang, north of Kuala Lumpur, are pale pink and a nice, if medical, scent is hanging in the air. A fashionable headscarf conceals the black hair of Najwa, a 24-year old woman, standing at the counter. She is wearing high heels and light blue denim trousers. Holding her five-year-old daugher firmly by the hand, Najwa is making an appointment with Dr. Mighilia Aziza, an obstetrician and a gynecologist. (more…)
Wadi and Aware organize first ever conference on Female Genital Mutilation/ Cutting in Singapore
9.1.2016. By Hannah Wettig. Women from Malaysia, Thailand, India and Singapore joined on Thursday in Singapore to present their perspectives on FGM/C in their countries and discuss ways to eliminate the practice. It is the first time that such a meeting took place in Singapore and even in South East Asia as a whole, assumes Vivienne Wee, a founding member of the Singaporean women’s organization Aware. The Singaporean feminist organization organized the conference together with WADI as part of WADI’s Stop FGM in the Middle East & Asia campaign. (more…)
Guardian: In Thailand’s Muslim south, authorities turn a blind eye to FGM
1.4.2015. By Gabrielle Paluch.
Eight-week-old baby Amiyah grimaces when sunlight falls on her face as though she isn’t used to the idea of having been born yet. On a Saturday afternoon, in Thailand’s southern Pattani province, her Muslim mother has brought her to a small clinic so midwife Dah can slice her clitoris for sunat. The practice, a form of female genital mutilation (FGM), has been banned by the World Health Organisation. (more…)
VOA: UN, Malaysia Groups Seek to Repeal Fatwa Requiring FGM
March 02, 2015. By Gabrielle Paluch
In 2009, Malaysia’s National Fatwa Committee, the nation’s top Islamic council, required all Muslim women in the country to undergo female genital mutilation, otherwise known as female circumcision.
A recent study indicated that nearly all Muslim women in the country have had the procedure. But now the United Nations is working with the Committee to repeal ruling that made it mandatory. (more…)
Vice: Female Circumcision Is Becoming More Popular in Malaysia
I meet 19-year-old Syahiera Atika at the mall. She spends most Sundays prowling Kuala Lumpur’s mega malls like other women her age, but as she eagerly points out she’s also different. Syahiera is a modern incarnation of Malay culture: She happily embraces Western-style capitalism, while at the same time strictly following the local interpretation of Islam. And as she proudly informs me, that also means she’s circumcised.
“I’m circumcised because it is required by Islam,” she says. The Malay word she uses is wajib, meaning any religious duty commanded by Allah. Syahiera is aware of how female circumcision is perceived in the West, but rejects any notion that it’s inhumane. “I don’t think the way we do it here is harmful,” she says. “It protects young girls from premarital sex as it is supposed to lower their sex drive. But I am not sure it always works.” She giggles at this thought.
Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM: We need more campaigns in Asia
By Stop FGM Middle East
February 5th, 2015. On the fifth official International Day of Zero Tolerance to female genital mutilation (FGM), the campaign against FGM in Iraq is taking up speed and with its comprehensive approach already yielding great successes. Newest data shows: FGM can be eradicated in one generation. According to a KAP-Study by Unicef 72% of respondents in Northern Iraq say they do not support FGM at all. Formerly, FGM was practiced by more than 70% of the population.
Yearly Report 2013-14
11.1.2015 by Stop FGM Middle East
Stop FGM Middle East was founded as a website and a small research project in early 2013 with the aim of making the existence of FGM in the Middle East and Asia outside of Africa public. In August 2013 we started working with a small team to bring together activists from the Middle East and push the issue on the agenda of international organizations, national governments, religious representatives, the media and non-governmental organizations.
Here is our public report of the first year of our work. (more…)
Revisiting Reza Aslan’s response to Bill Maher about female genital mutilation
21.10.2014. After Reza Aslan called FGM an African Problem, Stop FGM Middle East contacted PunditFact to set things straight. Here is their clarification:
“Hannah Wettig, who manages the Stop FGM Middle East campaign for Germany-based nonprofit WADI and Hivos, pushes back on the notion of FGM as an “African problem” and criticized UNICEF’s reliance on national survey data. For one, she said, Middle Eastern women may be more reluctant to admit they have been through the procedure, as it’s more secretive than the public rite of passage in some African countries. In addition to Iraq and Yemen, Wettig said it happens in Asian countries that include Oman, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Maldives and the Philippines.”
Second Middle East & Asia Conference on FGM shows that new strategies are needed
16.5.2014. By Stop FGM Middle East.
On May 7th to 10th the Second Middle East & Asia Conference on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) was held in Istanbul where more than thirty activists and researchers from Iraq, Egypt, Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia and India met as well as representatives from UNICEF Iraq, Orchid Project (England) and Terre des Femmes (Germany). It was the second such conference organized by the German-Iraqi NGOs WADI and the Dutch NGO Hivos.
For the longest time FGM was regarded as an African problem, based on the African continent with some prevalence in neighboring countries like Yemen. This mantra was overcome only recently when WADI strated raising conscious, that FGM is also widespread in a Middle Eastern country like Iraq. In January 2012, the first conference on FGM in the Middle East was held in Beirut. In the last two years the STOP FGM Middle East Project by WADI and Hivos collected further evidence, that countries like Oman, Malaysia and Indonesia have a significant high prevalence rate of FGM. Therefore, this second conference widened the scope from the Middle East to South East Asia. (more…)
Second Middle East Conference on FGM to tackle myths
Berlin, 30.4.2014. By WADI. The Second Middle East & Asia Conference on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by WADI and Hivos will take place from May 7th to May 10th in Istanbul.
The conference will tackle two myths about Female Genital Mutilation. It is commonly believed that FGM is mainly practiced in Africa and that it has no religious grounds. Both claims are not true.
FGM is practiced widely in Asia: In Middle Eastern countries such as Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Iran, but also in Southeast Asia: in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, India and the Maledives. (more…)