About this Research Topic
In 1997, the WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA together issued a joint statement against Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). FGM/C has since been defined as a violation of women’s and girls’ health and human rights. It has been estimated that around 200 million girls and women has been subjected to FGM/C and that more than 4 million girls are at risk each year. One of the main targets for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is to eliminate FGM/C by 2030.
The WHO recognizes four types of FGM/C, which include clitoridectomy, excision, infibulation and other harmful procedures undertaken on female genitalia, for a non-medical purpose. FGM/C have no known health benefits. FGM/C is painful and traumatic while the removal or damage to healthy, normal genital tissue interferes with the natural functioning of the body with immediate and long-term physical and mental health consequences.
Decades of prevention work by local communities, governments, and national and international organizations have contributed to the reduction in prevalence of FGM/C in some areas. Many countries around the world have passed laws against FGM/C, including 26 countries where FGM/C is a tradition. Thus, despite years of legal and policy work at a global, national, and local level at eradicating FGM/C, the practice persists.
How can research contribute to the process of abandonment of FGM/C? What sort of knowledge, understanding, and practice are needed to stimulate and support communities to abandon FGM/C worldwide? How can legal regulations on FGM/C contribute to changes of the practice? How can providing care for girls and women already subjected to FGM/C contribute to change and abandonment? How does transnational movement and abandonment of the practice in diaspora populations contribute to the process of change in their countries of origin?
More knowledge into these and other questions can help fuel the abandonment of FGM/C.
We welcome submissions on various aspects of FGM/C both in the global north and the global south, such as:
• The social, cultural, political and symbolic values affecting the persistence and change of FGM/C
• National and local legal and policy work in tackling FGM/C
• The impact of information on FGM/C in relevant health and sexual education programs (for example youth, healthcare professionals, etc.) on processes of change
• Theories of change and abandonment in the practice of FGM/C on individual and community level
• Reconstructive surgery after FGM/C and other types of genital surgery and its potential effect on the meaning of the practice of FGM/C
• How can work against FGM/C be anti-racist in its message and effects
• Community engagement in research and interventions on abandoning FGM/C
• The role of health information and healthcare in improving health and/or affecting cultural values and norms
We will consider methodological, theoretical and empirical papers.
The WHO recognizes four types of FGM/C, which include clitoridectomy, excision, infibulation and other harmful procedures undertaken on female genitalia, for a non-medical purpose. FGM/C have no known health benefits. FGM/C is painful and traumatic while the removal or damage to healthy, normal genital tissue interferes with the natural functioning of the body with immediate and long-term physical and mental health consequences.
Decades of prevention work by local communities, governments, and national and international organizations have contributed to the reduction in prevalence of FGM/C in some areas. Many countries around the world have passed laws against FGM/C, including 26 countries where FGM/C is a tradition. Thus, despite years of legal and policy work at a global, national, and local level at eradicating FGM/C, the practice persists.
How can research contribute to the process of abandonment of FGM/C? What sort of knowledge, understanding, and practice are needed to stimulate and support communities to abandon FGM/C worldwide? How can legal regulations on FGM/C contribute to changes of the practice? How can providing care for girls and women already subjected to FGM/C contribute to change and abandonment? How does transnational movement and abandonment of the practice in diaspora populations contribute to the process of change in their countries of origin?
More knowledge into these and other questions can help fuel the abandonment of FGM/C.
We welcome submissions on various aspects of FGM/C both in the global north and the global south, such as:
• The social, cultural, political and symbolic values affecting the persistence and change of FGM/C
• National and local legal and policy work in tackling FGM/C
• The impact of information on FGM/C in relevant health and sexual education programs (for example youth, healthcare professionals, etc.) on processes of change
• Theories of change and abandonment in the practice of FGM/C on individual and community level
• Reconstructive surgery after FGM/C and other types of genital surgery and its potential effect on the meaning of the practice of FGM/C
• How can work against FGM/C be anti-racist in its message and effects
• Community engagement in research and interventions on abandoning FGM/C
• The role of health information and healthcare in improving health and/or affecting cultural values and norms
We will consider methodological, theoretical and empirical papers.
Keywords: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, FGM/C, Human Rights Violation, abandonment, change, healthcare, racism/discrimination
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
