Engaging stakeholders and audiences with the roots and routes of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) discourses

世界卫生组织将女性生殖器切割定义为出于非医疗原因对女性生殖器的任何伤害或切除（WHO 2018）。女性外阴残割侵犯了多项人权，包括不受暴力和歧视的权利、健康权、身体完整权以及可能的生命权（儿童基金会，2005年）。在许多情况下，女性生殖器切割先于早婚和辍学（Cloward 2016）。除健康和心理影响外，世界卫生组织（2020年）估计，目前和未来接受割礼妇女的医疗保健费用为14亿美元。虽然反女性外阴残割运动在某些情况下在结束女性外阴残割方面取得了重大进展，但在其他地方，女性外阴残割在今天仍然几乎与30年前一样普遍（UNICEF 2020，4）.我的博士论文表明，全球占主导地位的反女性生殖器切割话语-由联合国推动，并坚持大多数民间社会行为者-未能包括和反映女性生殖器切割的多重和不同的经验-受影响的社区。这一失败是反对女性外阴残割的干预措施没有产生预期结果的一个重要原因：人们不太可能支持与他们的经历不一致的干预措施。学者们详细记录了与切割女性生殖器有关的含义、原因、类型和态度的多样性（即：Gruenbaum 2001; Nnaemeka 2005年; Abusharaf 2006年; Abdulcadir et al. 2012; Longman and布拉德利2015），但这些知识并没有充分转化为政策和方法的改变。我的博士研究使用了一种创新的、多地点的民族志来“跟踪”受FGM影响的社区、非政府组织、联合国机构、政府和学术界之间的知识（“话语”）、政策和方法。我的目标是了解需要做些什么，以确保来自受女性生殖器切割影响社区的人的声音和经验被纳入反女性生殖器切割政策，宣传和方案。我的研究确定了“障碍”，这些障碍使这些不同的声音、经验和观点变得复杂或受阻，无法真正影响和改变占主导地位的反女性生殖器切割话语和建立在此基础上的方法。了解这些“障碍”将使政策和方案制定者能够使政策和方案更具包容性，更能反映人们的经验，因此，该研究金将使我能够向关注女性外阴残割的利益攸关方传播我的研究结果，使反对女性外阴残割的努力更具包容性和有效性。为了最大限度地发挥影响力，我将扩大我与学术和非学术行为者的网络，并通过博客文章向公众提供见解。此外，奖学金将允许我通过发表我的发现来为学术辩论做出贡献，这样做，我将发展我的记录。我将对2019年在肯尼亚Loita发表的公开声明进行迫切需要的后续研究。最后，奖学金将帮助我通过参与职业发展机会和申请我随后的研究资金来发展我的学术生涯。布里斯托大学是我项目的完美主办研究机构。政策布里斯托尔，Perivoli非洲研究中心，以及该大学与人口基金的伙伴关系提供了独特的机会，网络，分享调查结果，并在未来的研究合作。我的导师Saffron Karlsen和Mhairi吉布森通过他们对研究生和博士后学生的研究和监督，为我的项目带来了大量关于女性生殖器切割的专业知识。我从我的跨学科背景（社会学，人类学，性别研究），并选择了跨学科的途径和导师来自不同学科，因为我相信人权问题，如女性生殖器切割需要不同的学科视角。出于这个原因，我的目标是汇集布里斯托研究人员从不同的学科和院系的女性生殖器切割和相关问题的工作，以刺激跨学科和跨院系的合作就这个问题。

The WHO defines FGM as any injury to or removal of the female genitalia for non-medical reasons (WHO 2018). FGM violates several human rights, including the right to being free from violence and discrimination, the right to health, bodily integrity, and, potentially, to life (UNICEF 2005). In many contexts, FGM precedes early marriage and school dropout (Cloward 2016). Beyond health and psychological implications, the WHO (2020) estimates that the current and future financial cost of health care for circumcised women is 1.4 billion USD. While the anti-FGM campaign has made significant progress in ending FGM in some contexts, in other places, FGM remains nearly as common today as it was 30 years ago (UNICEF 2020, 4).My doctoral thesis demonstrates that the globally dominant anti-FGM discourse - as promoted by the UN and adhered to by most civil society actors - fails to include and reflect the multiple and diverse experiences of FGM- affected communities. This failure is an important reason why anti-FGM interventions do not yield the hoped-for results: people are less likely to support interventions that do not resonate with their experiences. Scholars have meticulously documented the diversity of meanings, reasons, types, and attitudes related to FGM (i.a. Gruenbaum 2001; Nnaemeka 2005; Abusharaf 2006; Abdulcadir et al. 2012; Longman and Bradley 2015), but this knowledge has not adequately translated into changed policy and approaches.My doctoral research used an innovative, multi-sited ethnography to "follow" knowledge ("discourses"), policies, and approaches on their travels between FGM-affected communities, NGOs, UN agencies, governments, and academics. My goal was to understand what is required to ensure that the voices and experiences of people from FGM-affected communities are included in anti-FGM policy, advocacy, and programmes. My research identified the "obstructions" that complicate or impede these alternative voices, experiences, and perspectives from actually influencing and changing the dominant anti-FGM discourse and the approaches that were built on it. Understanding these "obstructions" will allow policy- and programme-makers to make policy and programmes more inclusive and reflective of people's experiences and, thus, more effective in encouraging the abandonment of FGM.The Fellowship will allow me to disseminate my findings to stakeholders concerned with FGM to make anti-FGM efforts more inclusive and effective. To maximise impact, I will expand my network with academic and non-academic actors and make insights available to the general public through blog posts. Furthermore, the Fellowship will allow me to contribute to academic debates by publishing my findings and, in doing so, I will develop my track record. I will conduct urgently-needed follow-up research on a public declaration to abandon FGM made in Loita, Kenya, in 2019. Finally, the Fellowship will help me develop my academic career by participating in career development opportunities and applying for my subsequent research funding.The University of Bristol is the perfect host research organisation for my project. PolicyBristol, the Perivoli Africa Research Centre, and the University's partnership with UNFPA offer unique opportunities for networking, sharing findings, and collaborating on future research. My mentors Saffron Karlsen and Mhairi Gibson bring substantial expertise on FGM to my project through their research and supervision of postgraduate and postdoctoral students. I draw from my interdisciplinary background (sociology, anthropology, gender studies) and chose the interdisciplinary pathway and mentors from different disciplines because I believe human rights issues such as FGM require different disciplinary perspectives. For that reason, I aim to bring together Bristol researchers from different disciplines and faculties working on FGM and related issues to stimulate cross-disciplinary and -faculty collaboration on the topic.