| dc.description.abstract | The Somali community living in Kenya (and in their native Somalia) has practised the severest formof female genital cutting (FGC), infibulation, for centuries. To
understand the context
within which the practice takes place, and how
its complications are managed, the Population
Council’s Frontiers in Reproductive Health
Program
(FRONTIERS) undertook a diagnostic
study in North Eastern Province (Wajir and Mandera districts) a
nd in the Eastleigh area of
Nairobi. The study collected data through: in-depth
interviews and focus group discussions with
community and religious leaders, and recently married and unmarried men and women; interviews with health providers, and an assessment of their clinics’ readiness to offer safe
motherhood and FGC-related services
; and interviews with antenata
l clients who had been cut.
The study confirmed that FGC is a deeply rooted
and widely supported cultural practice. Several
closely related reasons are used
to sustain the practice: religious obligation, family honour, and
virginity as a prerequisite for marriage; an aesthetic preference for infibulated genitalia was alsomentioned. However, FGC plays no role as a rite
of passage. Underlying
these reasons are the
use of infibulation to enforce the cultural value
of sexual purity in females. A relevant lesson
learned from FGC abandonment strategies elsewhere is the impor
tance of working with inter-marrying groups, as FGC is a critical prerequisitefor marriage. If consensus can be generated
that marrying uncut women is acceptable within
the social group and this decision is then
publicised through a form
al declaration, then a “social convention shift” can happen. Thus, when
developing a strategy for working with community members, it is important to determinemarriage patterns and to organize activities accordingly.
The study also found that the health
sector is ill equipped to serve women who have been cut,
particularly infibulated pregnant
women. However, this stems from an overall weakness in the
availability and quality of safemotherhood services in NorthEastern Province. In addition, and
especially in
Nairobi, health workers
are increasingly being approached to
perform
infibulations
and re-infibulations.
Specific recomm
endations were made about the ways in which the health system
could
strengthen its handling of FGC among the Somali. Policy makers should seek to improve management
of associated complications with
in the framework of improving safe motherhood
generally, and contribute to abandonment effort
s through ensuring that staff adhere to MOH
policy, and become
involved in community-level discussions to create a climate for behaviour
change.
Given the clear strength
of feeling that FGC is a critical component of Somali culture, efforts to
encourage behaviour change cannot
focus solely on education about
health and rights alone. The
underlying reasons for the practice need to be discussed and debated so that a desire for change can emanate from
the community its
elf. Because
of the Somali community’s perception that
efforts to abandon FGC are driven by international interests, working with them
will require
credible organisations and i
ndividuals that have gained
their trust and acceptance | en_US |
