How My MSW Thesis Broke the Silence on Female Genital Cutting

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Mariya Taher

Mariya Taher

by Mariya Taher, MSW

Sometimes, it’s strange for me to reflect on how I entered my career path. It was almost accidental or maybe it was cosmic, fate, a path that was predestined. I wouldn’t be on this path, though, if it had not been for my Master of Social Work thesis, which at the time, I thought of as only a project that would help me graduate. I chose a subject I was curious about, female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C), and did an exploratory study on it occurring to women living in the United States. The subject was familiar to me. I had looked into FGC on and off since my teenage years, because it happened to me when I was seven and it had happened to generations of women in my family. Yet, every time I searched for FGC online, I never found search results about it occurring to American-born, U.S. citizens whose ethnic background was South Asian.

    In each and every research class I took during my graduate school social work experience, whenever I could do so, I wrote my research papers on the topic. I looked into how FGC related to violence against women. I looked into best practices that social workers used when they worked with survivors. The National Association of Social Workers’ website stated that it was becoming more important for social workers to understand the cultural, ethical, mental, and physical aspects of FGC because there was a chance they would encounter it in their line of work if they worked with refugee and immigrant populations, patients in health settings, or children in schools or child protective services. Yet, at the time and even now in 2017, not much was available for social workers on what those best practices were. I took every opportunity during my two years of graduate school to dive deeper into this topic, and in time, the material I gathered, the connections I made with experts from around the world who worked on FGC, and the survivors with whom I came into contact; all of the findings and networking helped me lay the foundation for the thesis project I would come to call “Understanding the Continuation of Female Genital Cutting Within the United States.”

    During the data gathering phase of my study, I connected with friends and family, hoping to find people ready to speak openly and candidly about FGC happening to them. Once I found willing participants, I asked them interview questions (demographic and knowledge and experience of FGC questions) my thesis advisor and I crafted together for this ethnographic study, ensuring each question asked came off bias-free and as non-judgmental as possible. If I remembered nothing else from my graduate school experience, it was that as social workers, to be effective, to be supportive, we needed to check our biases and preconceived prejudices at the door when working with clients. My questions were created in a semi-structured interview manner to gain a deeper understanding of the worldview or cultural frame of reference communities might have toward the practice. This narrative strategy allowed me to play the part of the listener or learner, while the participants, who were explaining their worldview, were the teachers.

    By project’s end, I learned there were many reasons why the practice continued. Yet, an overarching theme to emerge from the women’s responses was that Khatna, as it is known in the community I studied, was based in religion and tradition and was done to affect female sexuality. I learned that explanations given for FGC were complicated. A false notion that it helped women aided its continuation. Additionally, my study found that within the United States, the practice was often continued out of a need to hold onto cultural roots. Participants who were against the practice also suggested that social services addressing FGC were lacking.

    After pursuing this project, and because my second-year MSW field work placement was with the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, I gave presentations on the topic around the city. At every presentation, I provided information about my study and discussed how there was a myth that FGC occurred only in Africa. I even told participants that American and European women had undergone clitoridectomy (a form of FGC) to treat hysteria or masturbation as a routine medical treatment up until the 1950s. Their open-mouthed, dropped jaw, shocked faces were not completely unexpected to me.

    After reviewing the academic literature on FGC, I was quite aware that little was known about it occurring on U.S. soil. At the time, the Population Reference Bureau estimated that 227,887 women in the United States had undergone the procedure or were at risk of undergoing it. (Today, it is estimated that more than half a million women and girls in the U.S. live at risk of FGC, a threefold increase from the previous study done by the Population Reference Bureau in 2008.) In time, my work allowed me to grow in confidence to share my own story aloud and speak on this subject in an assertive manner. I realized I was contributing to breaking the silence on this form of violence, but it was something I would not fully be aware of for a few years more.

    After graduating with my Master of Social Work from San Francisco State in 2010, I worked at nonprofits in the domestic violence field, learning about the dynamics of power and control and their relation to the continuation of domestic violence within our society. I learned how to work with survivors, answering a 24/7 support line as a peer counselor, working as a house meeting facilitator at a domestic violence shelter, and going to endless trainings and conferences to build my knowledge of how to better serve survivors of all violence.

    In 2015, after I moved to a new state to pursue another master’s degree, the knowledge I had gained during my MSW years and years working in the domestic violence field did, indeed, come to use in my helping to build an organization. The organization, Sahiyo, has a mission to end female genital cutting among Asian communities and Asian diaspora communities. We do so by engaging the community to create positive social change through dialogue, education, and collaboration. I also joined with the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association to advocate for state legislation criminalizing FGC. At the national level, I was tapped to join the U.S. Network to End FGM/C. ABC News  even shared my story (see http://abcn.ws/28Qlw8G).  

    Finally, I understood my path. I pursued that work in graduate school because, since childhood, I had been aware of this harmful tradition. I understood that FGC was often misunderstood by health workers, social workers, child protective professionals, lawyers, and others, and in some circumstances—because these professionals were not trained in how to provide sensitive services—survivors were reluctant to seek needed help. I had my own experience in college with this being true when I confided in a nurse that it had happened to me. Afterwards, the look of horror she gave me, a look I never wanted to see again, drew me to the decision to never inform a future health professional about it. (In my case you cannot distinguish any physical abnormalities as a result of my undergoing FGC, so I am never questioned by health professionals about it.)

    My awareness led me to become a social activist at the local, federal, and international levels. It led me to join other advocates in attending the first U.S. Summit to End FGM/C in Washington, DC, in December 2016. My awareness led me to diligently work on this topic, to advocate for more research, to advocate for more funding for preventive and supportive programs to serve the needs of women and girls at risk for FGC. My awareness allowed me to join the voices of those who are in the field addressing this issue worldwide. Yet, none of it could have happened if I had not pursued my Master of Social Work degree.

Additional Resources

Bergstrom, R. (2016, December). FGM happened to me in white, Midwest America. The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/02/fgm-happened-to-me-in-white-midwest-america

Equality Now. (2015, July). Female genital mutilation (FGM) in the United States. Factsheet (updated) [cited 2015 Jul 30]. Retrieved from: http://www.equalitynow.org/sites/default/files /EN_FAQ_FGM_in_US.pdf

Mackie, G. (2000). Female genital cutting: The beginning of the end. In: Shell-Duncan, B., Hernlund, Y., editors. Female “circumcision” in Africa: Culture, controversy, and change. Boulder (CO): Lynne Rienner Publishers; p. 253-83.

Sanctuary for Families. (2013). Female genital mutilation in the United States: Protecting girls and women in the U.S. from FGM and vacation cutting. New York, NY: Sanctuary for Families. Retrieved from: http://www.sanctuaryforfamilies.org/wp-content/uploads /sites/18/2015/07/FGM-report-march-2013.pdf

Mariya Taher has worked in the gender violence field for nearly nine years in the areas of research, policy, program development, and direct service. She received her MSW from San Francisco State University.