UNDERSTANDING CULTURES
It Takes a
Village ( or 10 )
An empowered approach to end female genital cutting .
By Inga Kiderra
Gerry Mackie , associate professor of political science , UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences
The traumatic and dangerous practice is estimated to have affected 130 million girls and women .
Can people change their ways ? Yes . But don ’ t bother preaching against a culture ’ s conventions , or outlawing them . Neither will work , says Gerry Mackie , associate professor of political science in the UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences . When it comes to stopping a practice like female genital cutting ( FGC ), a community must be empowered to change itself .
FGC ranges from symbolic pricking to infibulation — full excision of the clitoris and labia and being sewn shut . Concentrated in 29 countries across Africa and the Middle East , the traumatic and dangerous practice is estimated to have affected 130 million girls and women , with more than 3 million girls under the age of 15 currently at risk .
Many efforts to end FGC can backfire . Informing people that cutting is unsafe can result in medicalization — replacing traditional cutters with doctors and nurses . And criminalizing FGC can drive it underground , making it even more dangerous and entrenching traditionalists in their positions .
Mackie ’ s approach starts with understanding how communities that have practiced FGC for centuries are not intending to hurt or disfigure , but rather to ensure marriageability in their society .
“ They do it because they love their daughters ,” Mackie explains . “ And they will stop because they love them .”
Over the two decades Mackie has studied female genital cutting , he ’ s seen striking similarities with the abandoned practice of foot-binding in China . The pivotal innovation in that case : public pledges by intermarrying groups .
In 1998 Mackie began collaborating with the nonprofit Tostan to put this theory into practice , encouraging more than 7,000 communities across eight African countries to publicly declare abandonment of FGC .
The pledges are a high point , Mackie cautions . Harmful practices end as “ enough people see that enough people are changing .”
Mackie and UC San Diego graduate assistants are currently writing a theory of change for ending FGC , outlining the desired outcome and measures of success . While the details will depend on what ’ s discovered over the next years , Mackie ’ s premise will certainly remain : “ Treat people as rational , good people , who want what ’ s best for their girls .”
16 TRITON | FALL 2015