FGM: Why You Should Care and What You Can Do?

As part of AGS's continued work and engagement for women's rights, we hosted on February 4th a presentation and discussion on the theme: "Female Genital Mutilation: Why you should care and what you can do?" on February 4th. The talk was co-led by two guest speakers: Lorraine Koonce, Esq., and Dr. Tobe Levin, both of who are active fighters against FGM. Lorraine Koonce is a New York attorney and English Solicitor specializing in gender issues; she teaches international law at AGS. Tobe Levin is Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University's International Gender Studies Centre (Lady Margaret Hall) and Associate at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. An engaged advocate against FGM since the late 1970's, she is the Vice-president of FORWARD Germany, an NGO dedicated to this cause.

In their presentation, Koonce and Levin exposed the reality of the barbarian procedure undergone by women who are victims of FGM, which they emphasized is an important step toward raised awareness and informed understanding of why everyone should care. The discussion went on to explore some of the multiple and complex reasons that lead populations to perpetuate this practice. "FGM involves a toxic mix of motivations, from respecting tradition to desiring beauty, from honoring Mother and Father to wanting community harmony – or community escape," writes Levin in her blog, UnCut/Voices.

As Ahmed Samy Lotf, one of the M.A. candidates in International Relations and Diplomacy at AGS (Class of 2016), noted during the discussion: "It is by understanding the root causes of FGM that we can act to eliminate it. As an example, in my home country, Egypt, one of the reasons behind the practice of FGM, besides culture and tradition, has been religion - more precisely the misinterpretation of religion. In 2008, Al-Azhar, which is the largest Islamic institution in the country, issued a ban of FGM, which then was sponsored by the State and incorporated in the Law. This led to a substantial drop of the practice of FGM (from 96% to 72% over the course of just one year among the 19-30 age group according to the 2008 Demographic and Health Survey - cited by IRIN Middle-East). This shows how targeting the roots of the problem is an efficient way to approach it."

Following the presentation, Levin and Koonce invited the AGS students in the audience to volunteer for the newly-founded NGO that they both support, called the CRF (Clitoris Restoration Fund), which sponsors women to gain back their bodily integrity through surgery conducted (pro bono) by French surgeon Pierre Foldes. This is a meaningful opportunity for AGS students to support an important cause while gaining experience in humanitarian work in Paris.

This talk was part of the AGS Wine and Cheese evening series, which brings together students, alumni, faculty, and members of the international community in Paris twice a semester to share information and echange views on a topic of international relations, around a buffet of French wines and gourmet cheeses for a convivial atmosphere.

AGS is committed to continuing to fight violence against women through its research, teaching, and other activities bridging academia with practitioners in the field. Following the recent International Conference on Violence Against Women hosted by the school in Paris on November 28, Dr. Eileen Servidio, who heads the International Relations programs at AGS, is working on the forthcoming publication, under the auspices of AGS's research center, of a second edited volume following Crimes Against Women (Nova Science Publishers, New York: 2010). The first volume was a collection of 28 articles by scholars and pracitioners in the field, presenting a survey of gender-related crimes in the world with a three-fold focus: crimes rooted in concept and law, crimes deriving from religion, customs, and tradition, and crimes perpetrated in times of conflict.