Session 2: Birth and Adolescence

Goals

Our goals for this session are that you will:

• be aware of the risks to women around the world during birth and adolescence
• be able to evaluate the causes and consequences of sex-selective abortion and female genital mutilation
• become involved in the campaign against gendercide (sex-selective abortion) and female genital mutilation

Before the session:

Before starting the session you will need to read chapters 2 and 3 of Scars Across Humanity, remembering to allow time to process the content.

Recap (5 mins)

In the last session we looked at: 

• The global picture of women at risk
• A number of contributing factors: Lack of legal protection (laws); unequal access to justice; state-sponsored violence; traditional and cultural roles of men and women; social pressures and stigma; religious beliefs; official denial; failure to resource and finance support and intervention; lack of safeguarding standards; cultural glorification
• There are both situational and systemic factors/causes

Our course looks at how violence against women affects every part of the life-cycle. This session focuses on birth and adolescence, beginning with a video which looks at the issue of sex-selective abortion.

Female Infanticide or Sex-selective Abortion

In the video Paul Hallam from Lighthouse Church, Manchester, discusses female infanticide in India.

Watch Video 3: Female Infanticide(7 mins)

Answer the following questions:

1. What are the main causes of sex-selective abortion in countries like India?
2. What are the main consequences of sex-selective abortion?
3. What steps are needed for the situation to change?

Bible Reflection (5 mins)

One of the consequences of forced gender imbalance can be found in the story of the Benjamites, in the book of Judges.

Read Judges 21:15-25. 

Can you see parallels with the situation in India?

Female Genital Mutilation 

In this next section of Session 2, we will be looking at the topic of Female Genital Mutilation.

Some basic information:

• Definition of FGM: “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons” (World Health Organisation)
• Types of FGM: Clitoridectomy (removal of clitoris), excision (removal of clitoris and labia), infibulation (sealing the vagina by stitching), other procedures (pricking, piercing, cauterising, etc.)
• Affects up to 140m women worldwide. Most prevalent in Saharan Africa and East Africa. Also found in Yemen and Iraq, and in countries with significant diaspora populations.
• Often called “circumcision”, but not promoted or condoned by any religion.
• Support is declining, but there is still much to be done.

Watch this Video clip: (5 mins)

In this clip spokesperson of Ex-Muslim Council & FGM survivor Amal Farah shares her experience of FGM.

From your reading of Scars Across Humanity, try to answer the following questions:

1. What reasons are given for the practice of FGM by communities that support it?
2. What are the main effects of FGM on women and girls?
3. What is being done to end FGM in the UK?

Response

Next we will look at ways that communities overseas have successfully tackled the problem of FGM. 

Choose one of the following stories from the United Nations Population Fund report “17 Ways to End FGM/C.” You can find it at: www.unfpa.org/publications/seventeen-ways-end-fgmc

• Eritrea encourages affirmation (p31)
• Uganda shows respect for tradition (p33-35)
• Men from Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan stand up for women (p63-65)

Spend ten minutes reading through the story and exploring how the community worked to tackle the issue. If you have more time obviously do read more! If you are working with a group, you could read one each and report back to each other.

Response and Action (10 mins) 

Assuming you use a smart phone, you could follow 28toomany on Facebook or Twitter to receive updates about their work to end FGM.

The UK government does not explicitly ban sex-selective abortion. Stop Gendercide is a campaign which is working to bring about an explicit ban. Read about their work here, and again you can join the campaign to keep up with their work. (https://stopgendercide.org).

Finish this session by spending a few minutes praising God for the progress being made in eradicating FGM, and pray for a similar change in attitudes towards the dowry and sex-selective abortion.

Before starting the next session, as well as reading chapters 4 to 6 of Scars Across Humanity, try to find out what services are available from local councils and community groups for survivors of domestic violence.

Resources

Campaigns against gender-selective abortion
https://stopgendercide.org  

Invisible Girl Project is a US-based non-profit working with Indian organisations to rescue and care for girls, and raise awareness of gendercide
https://invisiblegirlproject.org  

28 Too Many is an international charity working to end FGM through research and local initiatives
http://28toomany.org 

The British national FGM centre
http://nationalfgmcentre.org.uk 

Help

If you are affected by any of the topics discussed during the session, then we recommend the following organisations to you:

For support related to FGM, you can contact 28 Too Many. (http://28toomany.org) 

CARE’s Open ministry provides Christian pastoral support for post-abortion and post-miscarriage grief. (http://www.weareopen.org.uk)

End of session 2.