Female Genital Mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan

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One day when Dashty (right) was 12, her mother told her to expect company. Expecting friends, she was shocked when she saw the midwife enter her house. After Dashty resisted, her mother beat her as other women held her down. She said she spent 20 days recovering in bed from the traumatic operation. “Since that day, my personality has changed and I’m depressed,” says Dashty, 32, who lives close to her sister Sara (left), 30, in their village of Meer Ghasem. “I’ve lost my love for this world because of what happened at the hands of people I trusted.” © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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Girls are forcefully held down and their legs pried apart. The midwife cuts their clitoris with a razor blade, which often is unclean and unsterile. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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After the procedure, the midwife covers the open wound with xola kawa (ashes) from the tanoor. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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The justifications women give for continuing female genital mutilation (FGM) are linked to culture and religion. Young girls and women for generations have been led to believe that anything they touch, food or water, is unclean until they go through this “purifying” procedure. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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Khanm, 36, was about four when she was circumcised at her uncle’s house. While her two oldest daughters have undergone the procedure, she says that the she will not force the remaining two to do it. “For the first two, all my friends and neighbors were insisting that I do it,” says Khanm, shown here with one of her younger daughters in her village of Dowoudia. “This was the normal practice before, but now things are changing.” © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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When Kochar, 40, was 7 or 8, an old woman knocked on the door of her house and told her family to bring all the young girls to one house. When Kochar arrived, she saw 10 to 15 girls already there and to this day remembers their excruciating screams. When it was her turn, she managed to escape twice but was caught and pinned down by three women, including her aunt. Kochar, says she never forced her daughter to undergo the procedure, despite constant pressure from her mother-in-law. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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Habsa, 23, pictured here at a neighbor’s house in Dowoudia village, was circumcised when she was four. She is frequently ill and suffers from infections that she believes are connected to the FGM. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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The Kurdistan Regional Government has not made any serious attempt to tackle FGM as it has other issues related to gender-based violence. Many women have only a rudimentary understanding of FGM (apart from their personal experience of pain), the consequences of the procedure, and the potential health complications. To fill the gap, The Association for Crisis Assistance and Development Cooperation (WADI), a German-Iraqi human rights organization, holds educational seminars on FGM in different parts of the region. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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Qumry, a 40-year-old midwife in Sarghala town, was herself circumcised when she was seven. After five years of circumcising girls, she stopped because she sensed that what she was doing was wrong. She performed the operations without any antiseptic, using only a razor and ash from the tanoor, a flat-surfaced oven used to bake traditional bread. She offered her services for free, but says other midwives accepted basic gifts of food items, such as eggs and bread. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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After the seminars, WADI distributes questionnaires to the women and girls to tabulate how many have been circumcised and what health problems they have experienced as a result. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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A young woman attends a seminar held by WADI. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
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Iraqi Kurdish girls play soccer before attending a WADI seminar on FGM. © 2009 Samer Muscati/Human Rights Watch 117783
A significant number of girls and women in Iraqi Kurdistan suffer femalegenital mutilation (FGM) and its destructive after-effects. Human RightsWatch says the Kurdistan Regional Government should take immediate action toend FGM and develop a long term plan for its eradication, including passinga law to ban the practice. Photographs by Samer Muscati.
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