“The lotus flower blossoms, baring its exquisite beauty to all those who are aware, enough to recognize God unfolding.” Patricia Cori
I don’t want to be the white woman from the Western world, pointing her finger at developing countries and saying to them, “Change. Be like us. The way you are is wrong.” There are many things about the way the West operates that are harmful and unjust. However, as a person, I do not align myself with “the West” and whatever ideology that conjures up in the minds of different people. I align myself with universal human worth and dignity, non-violence, and the values of honesty, respect and kindness. I am concerned not with what others think of me as a white woman, or as a Westerner; rather I am more concerned with where these values lie in the hearts of others, or if they exist there at all.
As a student of international development, I am of the particular school of thought that homegrown development is where lasting and meaningful change lies, in small steps, in small actions, in small groups that start out slowly and quietly, and then breathe and grow and become larger and more powerful, capable of spreading change and ideas and innovations across great distances. When I heard about the film Africa Rising: The Grassroots Movement to End Female Genital Mutilation, I was deeply heartened. I know there are groups out there fighting against FGM all the time, and they have been for years, but more than anything, the voices of those who are threatened firsthand by such violent misogyny are the voices we need to hear from, and that is what Africa Rising is all about. The film follows the journey of a number of characters from various grassroots movements of both men and women against FGM in Burkina Faso, Mali, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania. I truly believe that if FGM is ever to be stopped, it is going to be largely a result of grassroots movements against the practice.
Here we come back to where FGM is practiced in the world, and what kind of ideology allows it to continue. FGM is practiced mostly in developing nations in Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, with other smaller pockets existing around the world in the Middle East and North America; FGM in North America is practiced by specific cultures that have immigrated and have brought the custom with them. The practice of FGM is firmly rooted in a foundation of misogyny. Now, I know that might seem obvious, but the mindset behind the practice is more complex than just wishing to inflict violence upon women and girls. FGM persists as a result of a combination of cultural, religious and social causes. Some communities practice FGM because it is believed that the cutting of a girls’ genitals will dissuade her from premarital sexual behaviour, or keep her from committing adultery. In some cases, social pressure to conform to this already accepted practice allows FGM to go on, even when some members of the community may feel that the practice should not continue. Sometimes girls’ are forced to undergo the procedure with the aim of closing and tightening the inner labia so that sexual intercourse will be more pleasurable for her future husband, and therefore make her more desirable for marriage. All of these reasons for the perpetuation of this heinous practice come from one source – the idea that females in general are lesser than men, lesser even than some animals, that they do not have a fundamental human right to protect their bodies from such violence and that they can and should be controlled and dominated.
I hear a lot of women in the Western world talk about how the fight for women’s rights is, for the most part, pretty irrelevant in this day and age, that we have everything we asked for, that we can marry and divorce freely, have sex with whomever we choose, have children or not at all, get the same jobs as men and make the same kind of money (or more), and even marry another woman in some countries. We are free, a lot of them say, and while I agree with this statement on a few levels, I recognize that the battle is far from over. Personally, I won’t feel “free” until every woman on the planet can enjoy the freedoms and rights that I enjoy. I am willing to do whatever I can to support other women around the world, fighting for basic rights to protect their bodies, their hearts and their minds, because I am just lucky enough to have lived a life where I didn’t have to fight nearly as hard for such things. Can we all take a minute to stop and remember how hard our foremothers fought just for the right to vote, just to be seen as “persons” under the law? I think it’s also important to remember that if you travel to some countries in the world today, you will still be ostracized as a woman, even if you are a “free” white woman from the West. The same oppressions inflicted on the local women will be inflicted on you, and while you might get away with more as a tourist and a foreigner, you will, unfortunately, feel the sting of discrimination, sometimes even to the point where you fear for your personal safety.
I think it can be useful to keep these other realities in sight when we consider how much freedom women really have and specifically, how many more millions of women in the world are living with violence and discrimination as compared to women who already have nearly every freedom they could want.
