In the Name of Tradition

From the Prologue: Although efforts to eradicate a thousand-year-old custom are challenged by the very tenacity – and increasingly recognized ubiquity – of the practice, Female Genital Mutilation is an issue of urgency to feminists, human rights campaigners and social activists as well as international organizations such as UNICEF and many responsible governments determined to end it. I join them. ... This research [began] when I returned from Europe after a prolonged absence to my birthplace, Iranian Kurdistan, to learn more about FGM. For several years I had worked in Africa with humanitarian relief NGOs and observed UN projects to combat excision in countries like Egypt, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. Remembering hushed tones from my childhood suggesting that FGM -- locally called sunnet -- existed in some parts of Iranian Kurdistan, I decided to conduct some preliminary research beginning with my own family and close relatives. Imagine my shock when uncovering evidence that FGM had long existed in areas of Mukriyan and that my grandmothers, mother and sister had all endured it. In fact, within Iran, a heavy omerta hangs over the practice. Only a limited number of people from non-FGM-practicing provinces know of its concentration within some regions of the country. Being male and having a ‘non-traditional’ background in the sense that I lived abroad, my detailed questions about this extremely sensitive topic—the cutting of women’s ‘private parts’— created resistance and bewilderment. Some local residents, especially men, refused to take me seriously, while others, including a number of my own relatives, opined that this subject was unworthy of an educated male’s attention. Researching FGM was deemed not a “manly” job. Here I would like to thank my late father who, despite the pressure of neighbors’ viewpoints and from time to time also the government’s, supported me throughout.

The scope of the project gradually extended into regions of Iran beyond my home, and in this journey, I enjoyed assistance in fieldwork as well as in analysis and assembly of data.

While focused most sharply on FGM-affected areas in the western part of the country, namely West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah provinces, and some areas in southern Iran, that is, Hormozgan province and its islands, you will find a comprehensive overview of the custom’s prevalence throughout the entire country. (A 2017 unedited update is available electronically at http://kameelahmady.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/THE-CHANGING-PARADIGMS-OF-FGMC-WEB.pdf.)