Language and Image Guide on FGM
About FGM
The World Health Organisation defines Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as:
“Any procedure which involves the partial or complete removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.
FGM violates the rights and dignity of women and girls and is illegal regardless of the age of the female on which it is performed. FGM is usually practised on girls between infancy and 15 years old, but can also be performed on older girls. More than 125 million girls and women alive today have been cut globally and in the UK, it is estimated that there are over 130,000 women living with FGM.
It is vital to balance strong messaging with avoiding harm to the girls, women and communities we seek to protect. For example, choosing the wrong language might result in stigmatising communities, traumatising survivors, driving the practice of FGM ‘underground’, alienating affected communities or feeding into anti-immigration sentiments. Secondly, we need to ensure that we give credit to the survivors and organisations that have led the work to end FGM so far, while clarifying our role in the sector.
About the National FGM Centre
Barnardo's is one of the UK's leading children's charities, working directly with over 240,000 children, young people, parents and carers every year. We run over 960 vital projects across the UK, including counselling for children who have been abused; fostering and adoption services; vocational training and disability inclusion groups.
The National FGM Centre is a partnership between Barnardo’s and the Local Government Association (LGA) to achieve a systems change in the provision of services for girls and women affected by female genital mutilation (FGM). The Centre provides a national resource for professionals across England, drawing from leading experts in social care, health, education, community engagement and youth work.
The Centre provides direct services to pilot local authorities in the first instance, combining social work services and community outreach, and shares this learning nationally through a knowledge hub, consultancy, practice development and training, conferences and workshops. It is the link between these different activities which gives the Centre its expertise and transformative power.
Purpose of the present guide
This guide was developed to outline the core communication principles employed by the National FGM Centre and to support other campaigns in the UK that are raising awareness against the practice.
Core Messages
FGM is an age-old custom that is usually committed out of the genuine belief that it is beneficial for the girl child. However, FGM can have very harmful long-term consequences to the health and wellbeing of girls and women and is a serious human rights violation. This means that although professionals have to apply sensitivity when addressing FGM, they cannot apply cultural relativism.
The campaign to end FGM in the UK has been driven by the work of FGM survivors who have succeeded in bringing about vital changes in legislation to protect children. The National FGM Centre aims to build on these successes to ensure all children in the UK are protected from FGM.
Our focus on FGM is not an attempt to stigmatise communities. Efforts to end FGM have been driven by affected communities themselves and failure to protect girls and women from the practice is discriminatory. We aim to ensure that the rights of girls and women from affected communities are protected.
Ending FGM is everyone’s responsibility. The National FGM Centre will develop and promote effective multi-agency working around the country.
We recognise that FGM can affect all cultures and religions. We also recognise that FGM affects thousands of women and girls in the UK and is not a practice that happens far from our shores.
Choosing the right language:
Describing FGM
When talking to professionals, the appropriate term to use is Female Genital Mutilation, as this is the established terminology. When talking to survivors, use the term the survivor is more comfortable with. This is often ‘cutting’ rather than mutilation. However, the term circumcision is not encouraged because it may lead to false associations with male circumcision.
The term ‘sunna’ is often used by communities to describe any type of FGM that does not involve infibulation. This term leads to false associations with Islamic practices and should always be avoided. FGM is a practice that bears no religious credit, therefore, the term ‘sunna’ is misleading.
Describing your work
Avoid any language that might be interpreted as an attempt to impose Western values on communities. For example: ‘we need to change their culture’, ‘it is our moral responsibility’, ‘we have to change their minds’.
Your main goal should always be to protect girls. If a crime has been committed every professional has to meet their statutory responsibilities and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice. However, when describing your work the focus should be on the efforts you undertake to protect girls, not to prosecute parents.
Avoid saying that your goal is to ‘eradicate’ FGM as the term ‘eradicate’ is most commonly associated with diseases and can be seen as offensive.
Describing the campaign
Always use positive messaging - positive messaging is linked to behavioural change. Messages should be around positive change achieved by communities. Negative messaging can be seen as stigmatizing and can be traumatizing to survivors. Only use personal stories if they are about families choosing to end the practice. Relaying the traumatic experiences of survivors can invoke traumatic memories on those affected.
The campaign to end FGM is often used to serve anti-immigration agendas. Avoid any language that criminalizes entire communities.
Never imply that responsibility for the campaign lies with one organization / section of the community / family member. Ending FGM is a shared responsibility and should be portrayed as such. It is common for campaigns to place the burden of ending FGM upon mothers or women, while ignoring the realities of the practice, i.e. that it happens to increase a girl’s perceived value in the eyes of her future husband.
Describing the practice
Avoid loaded terms such as ‘barbaric’, ‘disgusting’, ‘horrific’, ‘revolting’ that assign qualities to the communities or women and girls affected. Use terms such as ‘harmful’ and ‘human rights violation’ instead.
Prefer the term ‘tradition’ or ‘custom’ over ‘culture’ to describe FGM. The term ‘culture’ is more strongly associated with identity and it encompasses a much wider set of practices, many of which are positive.
Do not use terms such as ‘unsterile conditions’, ‘rusty razors,’ ‘bleeding to death’ etc. This might infer that the medicalization of FGM would be an acceptable alternative. For similar reasons, do not just focus on the consequences of Type 3 FGM (e.g. women cannot pass urine or menstruation blood, need C-sections to deliver etc). A number of communities and professionals question the harm of ‘milder’ forms of FGM. Make sure you stress that all types of FGM can have long-term consequences such as recurrent UTIs, psychological trauma and reduced sexual pleasure.
Never imply that all women who have undergone FGM suffer negative consequences. Don’t even assume that women who have endured the most severe types of FGM will be experiencing sexual problems. Use terms such as ‘common consequences’ and ‘many’ instead of ‘all’.
Describing those affected
Use the term ‘survivor’ instead of ‘victim’ unless a woman chooses to call herself otherwise. It is also preferable to use value neutral terms, such as, ‘women and girls subjected to FGM’ or ‘who have undergone FGM’.
Always use the term ‘affected’ rather than ‘practicing’ communities. The term ‘practicing’ community implies that the practice is widespread and accepted.
Do not talk down to people. Avoid language such as ‘poor little girls’.
Choosing the right images
The principles for choosing the right images are the same as for using the right language.
Avoid shocking images that can invoke traumatic memories or alienate affected communities. Tears, razors, blood etc should never be used.
If you use the image of a child or woman from an affected community make sure it is in the context of relaying a positive message (e.g. ‘how I ended FGM in my family’).
The setting should always be UK-based. Campaigns often use African images which imply that FGM is an exclusively African practice. Such images can lead to the false conclusion that the practice does not happen in the UK, or can conceal the risk to non-African communities affected by the practice.
Do not target one community or one religion; for example, don’t use the image of an African girl on her own or a girl with a headscarf on her own. If you use images of girls, make sure they’re from a range of backgrounds. The use of illustrations can help you avoid the pitfalls of stigmatising a particular section of the public.
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