Website review: Waris Dirie Foundation
anitab discovered this in Activism
•4 reviews since Jan 27, 2008
activism, fgm, humanitarianism
•waris-dirie-foundation.com
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anitab discovered 6 months ago- "My fifteen goals I want: 1. everyone in Europe to recognise genital mutilation as a problem common to all countries and one we can no longer shut our eyes to; 2. every religious community to take a clear stand against the practice of genital mutilation; 3. every FGM victim needing help to get the help she needs; 4. all European governments to issue regulations to protect girls from genital mutilation - in Europe and abroad; 5. all European governments to pass legislation enabling perpetrators and their accomplices to be brought to justice; 6. it to be mandatory for every incident that comes to light of mutilation of a minor to be reported for prosecution; 7. all European countries to regard genital mutilation as equal to political persecution and as grounds for asylum; 8. everyone to be enlightenend about the status of genital mutilation: not culture, but torture; 9. all genital mutilation victims at last to be treated with sensitivity and respect; 10. all health workers to become well-informed about FGM and to know how to help victims, 11. all victims, where it is their wish, to have free access to surgery to counteract the damage and to receive psychological counselling; 12. genital mutilation to be a subject that people can and will openly discuss; 13. all the groups working to combat FGM to come together and agree on their policy and strategies; 14. all organizations working to combat FGM to have sufficient funding to be able to function efficiently; 15. everyone in Europe to put into action my dream of an end to genital mutilation." from: http://www.waris-dirie-foundation.com/manifest.htm Join the Facebook group. More links.
- digits rated 6 months ago
The byline, "If genital mutilation were a problem affecting men, the matter would long be settled." is a truth. Much like Gloria Steinem's, "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." I don't think any one woman half worth her intelligence would think to blame men as a whole for the injustices suffered against women - because it's an idea; a mindset; a tradition; propagated by men, yes, but not necessarily you men.
Ideas based in historically bad ideas [traditions] are not so easily fought but we can take correlative history and make some observations that no man need take personally. Watch how I won't take personally the strongly charged racial problems within my community; it's the karma of the situation. Taking it personally shifts the focus of the root of the problem and no solution can be offered then due to "anger at being blamed." Anger is just an emotion. Okay; be angry that you *feel* blamed but then be the better person and overcome *your* emotions in order to try to make "right" the bad ideas or traditions that have continued for generations. It's the only way to restore the karma; the injustice. Getting angry because "your people" are being blamed keeps you where you are.
Onto the topic. Genital mutilation is not a problem on another planet. It happens. Here. On our earth. To our fellow human beings. Women are suffering. They are tortured. Then they are embarrassed. They are tortured so they can feel no pleasure in sex.
If the shoe were on the other foot and someone had this great idea to cut off men's penises [which is the equivalent of "removing" a clitoris] who would stand for that? Would we not laugh that off? But here we're fighting against generations and years of sexism, fundamentalism, inequality... In the end, the women who will be tortured and maimed today really don't get comforted due to that knowledge. So, I say, let's start today. Let's start where we are. Let's have some awareness and then let's work to stop this atrocious human on human torture. It's a humanitarian issue and as long as men feel pissed off at getting blamed or don't seemingly care that it's happening to women, it seems then to me that women will have to work harder, and without their help.
[ Read this information on Female Gender Mutilation - Graphic image ]
- marielaem rated 6 months ago
"If genital mutilation were a problem affecting men, the matter would long be settled."
Well, white men in what pass for advanced countries, maybe....but definitely not CastorQuinn, although he does seem to suffer from PMS every now and then.
Link seen chez anitab.
- CastorQuinn rated 6 months ago
- "If genital mutilation were a problem affecting men, the matter would long be settled."
Fuck off. Is it a problem? Yes. Should it be stopped? Yes. Does it cause all sorts of problems? Yes. Is it my fault, as a man, that this happens in the world? No, it bloody isn't, and I'm fed up with this suggestion that all the problems in the world are the fault of my gender. They aren't. There are over six billion people in the world, and over half of them are women. This world belongs to everyone, and societies decide what happens in their little part of it, not just generic "men". That's an ignorant, unproductive and offensive suggestion to make.
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I've now been contacted by six separate people about my response to this site. Five of them were angry at me. Two of those are friends of mine. This was all quite unexpected, since it's not uncommon for me to post, you know, my opinion on my pages. Also, I'm at a loss to see why people think I should disregard blatant sexism purely because the site is also talking about a real problem.
Here's an edited version of my justification for my thumb. Read all of this before contacting me, please:
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Try reversing the situation. Who can honestly say they would have thumbed the site up had the main page quote been: "Women can't defend themselves from this sort of abuse - they need men to do it for them" or "Women are the reason this barbaric practice continues"?
This site is saying this is an important issue of which there isn't sufficient awareness. The goal of the organisation is to raise awareness. So the message they are bringing to millions of people and the way this new idea is being presented to them and to the community at large is: This is a terrible problem that should have been solved by now if it weren't for the fact that men are so crap.
That's a negative - and offensive - way to present the message. I was offended by that. I don't like being told that I'm the reason women are being abused in Africa. I don't like being told how crap my gender is over and over again by advertising, charities, humanitarians, and I don't like having my gender blamed for the fact that there are stupid people in the world doing stupid things.
And it isn't an isolated quote. Check out her speeches some time. Or her books. Or the interviews she has given. That sentiment - that the reason this issue still exists is because men make all the decisions and they don't care - is a recurring and central theme. In fact in her first speech as Special UN Envoy was a rallying cry to women in Africa and the world to stand up and challenge the men who think there is nothing wrong with this practice.
I've never been happy with the fact that stereotyping, negatively representing or deriding women en masse is an act of unbridled sexism, but that when you say those things about men it's suddenly okay.
This isn't the only reason I thumbed this site down, but I wanted to focus on the issue that mattered to me: The fact that her organisation blames my gender for the actions of a bunch of crackpots getting about the place in Africa. I find that to be unfair, unfounded, and unacceptable.
Again, if the main quote on her site had been suggesting that the women of the world were responsible for the continuation of the practice of female genital mutilation, how many people can honestly say they would have thumbed the site up? If you can honestly say you would have quite happily thumbed the site up despite its negative representation of women as the central cause of the problem, then you are entitled to criticise me for thumbing it down. If not, then we just have different priorities. My priority is to not promote the circulation of content which is sexist, and which denigrates any gender, even if the central issue it is using sexism to represent is a real one. - "If genital mutilation were a problem affecting men, the matter would long be settled."
