Female genital mutilation (FGM) is big
business. It’s trans-global and sometimes organised by centuries-old formal
agencies, on a for-profit basis. Like most other efficient businesses, it
markets itself as in the interest of the consumer, into whose lifestyle
expectations it is firmly embedded.
These observations imply no disrespect for the
immense suffering which FGM causes. Across the globe there are probably 200
million women and girls now alive who have experienced (and survived) FGM.
Cutters are often paid. Until recently nearly
all excisors were medically untrained, but increasingly, excision is undertaken
by qualified clinicians, giving FGM in the eyes of some, a veneer of
respectability. The World Health Organisation regards
the medicalisation of FGM as the
greatest threat to its final eradication.
FGM boosts low-paid medical workers’ incomes,
and attracts kudos and power for traditional excisors in communities where
other high-status work is hard to come by
