Life after female genital mutilation: "I never feel like having sex"

Fatoumata Jallow was six or seven years old, she doesn't remember exactly, when one of the old women from her hometown in Gambia told her to go “buy sweets”.

Three decades later he lives with the consequences of what really happened when he accepted that assignment.

"She took advantage of the fact that my mother was not at home to take me with her and cut me," he recalls with a bitter smile.

She is one of the 130 million girls and women who have been victims of female genital mutilation, according to Unicef ​​data.

Now, Jallow describes the aftermath of another woman's decision for her.

“I never feel like having sex,” she says.

She also doesn't use the public toilets.

“I wait until I get home because I can catch any infection easily,” she explains in an interview at the Karibu association offices,

In her family, all the women have suffered this type of gender violence.

"My mother would not have let them take me," she says, "because she is also broken and she always told us that she was not going to allow us to go through the same thing."

Jallow is the mother of four children and is expecting the last one.

And she is afraid.

“I lost one during childbirth, partly due to mutilation,” she explains.

“Each case is unique, but since there is a scar in the genital area, the skin is not as flexible, so vaginal delivery is more complex.

In addition, it depends on the type of mutilation that has been carried out and whether there is an internal infection”, explains Nerea Sancho Sánchez, coordinator of the culture, gender and sexuality area of ​​the National Union of Family Associations (UNAF).

"If there has not been a follow-up during the pregnancy and the doctors do not know what they are dealing with, the chances of the delivery being complicated are higher," she says.

They took advantage of a day that I was in the market and took my daughter to cut her

Fatoumata Jallow, survivor of female genital mutilation

In Africa, the practice has been medicalized, explains Nicole Ndongala, director of Karibu.

This means that some medical professionals encourage parents to take their daughters to clinics under the pretext that it is more sanitary and less harmful to health.

“There is no modern and non-modern mutilation, because both in a center and in a house, women are hurt,” she says.

Mutilation causes health complications such as severe infections, chronic pain, depression, infertility and death, reports the United Nations Population Fund.

And, although in recent decades there has been a decline in this practice, the pace must be 10 times faster to achieve the global goal of completely eradicating this practice by 2030, and of which this Tuesday marks its international day.

Despite the advances, three million girls still suffer the cutting of their genitals every year, denounces Unicef.

Jallow sadly reveals that one of her daughters was one of them.

He couldn't stop his story from repeating itself.

“They took advantage of a day that she was in the market and took her away.

If it weren't because my grandmother did it, she would have denounced her, ”she says.

Although it has been an illegal practice in The Gambia since 2015, only one case has reached the courts.

Mamadou Bah is 29 years old and migrated from Guinea Conakry to Spain in 2014. During that time, and before being with her current partner, she had a marriage of cultures, that is, the union of two families for convenience.

He had a girl with his ex-wife who, like Jallow and her daughter, was also a victim of cutting, although in her case with a fatal result: death.

More than 600,000 women suffer the consequences of female genital mutilation in Europe

He lived in Spain when his daughter was mutilated and he assures that neither he nor the mother knew the true intentions when they called him by phone to ask if it was okay for the girl to go on vacation with the family of one of his brothers.

"My ex-wife is Nigerian, they don't mutilate them, so she didn't know what was going to happen," he clarifies.

“I have two versions of what happened and until I go I will not be able to know.

The only thing that is clear to me is that there were no neighbors where my daughter was and the closest hospital was the one in my town, so she bled to death, ”she says.

Mamadou Bah, father of a woman who died from female genital mutilation, at the Karibu Association, in Madrid.Samuel Sánchez

a european problem

Jallow and Bah's daughter underwent female genital mutilation in their home countries.

Soraya Rodríguez, MEP for Ciudadanos in the Renew Europe group, recalls in an interview with EL PAÍS that, like them, in Europe "there are a very significant number of girls who are at risk of being subjected to this crime, since on a trip to their countries of origin, they take advantage to carry out this practice and then they return completely traumatized.”

More than 600,000 women suffer the consequences of female cutting in Europe and another 190,000 residents in 17 European countries are at risk of being subjected to this harmful practice, reports the European Network to End FGM.

For this reason, underlines Rodríguez, this is also a problem in the European Union (EU).

To address it, Parliament is preparing a directive against gender violence, which includes female genital mutilation as a crime.

“All prevention measures and assistance services established in the directive will also apply to victims of female genital mutilation.

And, in a special way, article 29 will establish specialized support for them in European territory”, clarifies Rodríguez.

The forecast is that the text will be voted on in May or June.

In addition, “there is a shared feeling that Spain should preside.

It would be the best option”, notes the MEP.

"There is a general recognition that it is one of the most advanced countries in legislation on gender violence."

Brussels, sentence, arrives late to these measures.

In Spain, excision -even if it is carried out outside the borders- is punishable by between 8 to 12 years in prison for the parents and the withdrawal of parental authority of the minor, since the parents are responsible of your safety.

"There are not many complaints and of those that do, there are not too many that reach the courts," explains the MEP.

When a case goes to trial, she continues, "there aren't too many convictions."

In Spain, the first sentence handed down by the National Court was in 2013, against a Senegalese woman.

For Rodríguez there are still “many gaps” that prevent work to prevent and prosecute this crime when it has already occurred.

Nerea Sancho Sánchez, from UNAF, affirms that the approval and implementation of the European directive in preparation will be an important step that will endorse the work carried out by various organizations in this field.

However, he points out that the directive is not enough: “If we do not accompany it with everything else [psychological support, education and prevention work], we will be re-victimizing families who, on many occasions, already live in a situation of exclusion in Europe".

Men must be taught that each woman is unique and has the right to enjoy life

Fatoumata Jallow

Nicole Ndongala, director of Karibu, suggests a change in the current laws, such as the Spanish one, so that parents are not always sentenced, since on many occasions they fail to prevent their daughters from being mutilated during vacation visits to their countries of origin .

Sometimes, as in Bah's case, they are unaware that the family plans to make the cut.

But when they find out, the fear of being sentenced leads them to make the decision to leave their daughters in those countries, explains Ndongala.

Bah is convinced that the change is coming, but that it is difficult.

It is a deeply rooted practice in many countries and there are too many misconceptions surrounding it.

“There is a woman with us who suffered mutilation when she was two years old and, when she lived in her country, she laughed at those who had not been cut.

She felt that she was above them.

When she migrated, she changed her perspective and now she informs others why mutilation is dangerous, ”explains the director of Karibu.

Jallow adds another of those myths to be dismantled, one that he has experienced firsthand.

“Men think that if you're not cut you're going to want to do it with everyone and all the time.

You have to teach them that this is not the case, that each woman is unique and has the right to enjoy life ”, she settles.

In Ethiopia, the end of female genital mutilation is closer

The End Female Genital Mutilation project in Ethiopia of the Amref Health Africa association reported on January 19 that 90% of the girls born during the project period in the districts of Awash Fentale, Amibara and Argoba, in Afar , a region in northern Ethiopia, bordering Djibouti, are free of female genital mutilation.

The initiative began on February 1, 2020 and ended on May 31, 2022. A subsequent study, carried out in August 2022, concluded that the percentage of mutilated girls under the age of two had been reduced from 89 .7% to 14.2%. 

To achieve this result, training was given on the different harmful practices.

In addition, they made a documentary and a play with the inhabitants of the areas in which their experiences with female genital mutilation were recounted.

The NGO highlights the change of mentality of the new generation of girls and women, and the involvement of the religious and community leader of one of the Afar localities.

"That he took a position against this practice, not only as a leader, but as a man, was essential. He knew how to empathize and understand that this is a violation of human rights," says Iraxis Bello Alzuate, an organization worker.

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