Despite the efforts made by governmental and civil society intuitions over the past two decades in eliminating FGM /C, the results indicate that the magnitude of change is in no way proportional to the size of the human and financial resources allocated to this issue. As Tadwein Center crucially believe in the importance of getting the women’s rights organizations to work on the issue of combating female genital mutilation again and that there is no way for actual change in this regard without a concrete partnership between the state and civil society. Tadwein met with a number of civil society organizations working in the field of combating violence against women, and they agreed on the need to unify their efforts in combating FGM, and on the need to reconfigure the “task force against FGM” as they believe that there is an urgent need to look critically at the efforts made throughout past years. This was announced during the founding conference of the Task Force against Female Genital Mutilation, on February 6, 2018, which marked the International Day of Zero Tolerance for the Crime of Genital Mutilation. One of the reasons behind the slow change in this issue is the state’s domination of it, and the decline of the role of civil society organizations despite its important role in combating female genital mutilation.
In light of the above, the task force against female genital mutilation aims to achieve the following:
- Work to change the societal beliefs about female genital mutilation to be in line with the legal criminalization.
- Shed the light on the state’s responsibility to protect girls and generate new effective mechanisms to make this happen.
- Complete the legal reform path aimed at amending articles related to FGM, follow up on their enforcement, and provide legal aid in the necessary cases.
- Lobby to include comprehensive sexual education materials in schools, and to develop FGM/ C awareness classes for school students.
- Develop a human rights discourse against FGM/ C that is not limited to religious and medical approaches, but extends to include the rights of girls and women to a healthy and sound life, and sexual and reproductive rights.
- Resist the medicalization of FGM by making partnerships with young doctors and trying to develop medical education, and encouraging the Doctors Syndicate to exercise its supervisory role to prevent the crimes of FGM from taking place.
- Preserve the history of women’s organizations in combating FGM, by documenting the history of the previous workforce, and collecting studies and reports issued in this regard, whether at the local or regional levels
A statement of establishing the task force against FGM on February 6, 2018.
First Statement by The Anti-FGM Task Force on May 24, 2018.
Second Statement by The Anti-FGM Task Force on February 1, 2020
Third Statement by The Anti-FGM Task Force on August 7, 2020.
Fourth Statement by The Anti-FGM Task Force on February 9, 2021.
Fifth Statement by The Anti-FGM Task Force on June 27, 2021.
