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因非医疗原因对女性生殖器的任何伤害或切除(世卫组织2018年)。女性生殖器切割侵犯了几项人权，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(联合国儿童基金会，2005年)。在许多情况下，女性生殖器切割先于早婚和辍学(Cloward 2016)。除了对健康和心理的影响，世界卫生组织(2020)估计，目前和未来接受包皮环切术的妇女的医疗保健费用为14亿美元。虽然反女性生殖器切割运动在某些情况下在结束女性生殖器切割方面取得了重大进展，但在其他地方，女性生殖器切割在今天仍然几乎和30年前一样普遍(联合国儿童基金会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的话语--由联合国推动并得到大多数公民社会行为者的坚持--未能包括和反映受女性生殖器切割影响的社区的多重和不同的经历。这一失败是反女性生殖器切割干预没有产生希望的结果的一个重要原因：人们不太可能支持与他们的经历不产生共鸣的干预。学者们仔细地记录了与女性生殖器切割相关的各种含义、原因、类型和态度。Gruenbaum 2001；Nneemka 2005；Abusharaf 2006；Abdulcadir等人。2012年；Longman和Bradley，2015)，但这种知识并没有充分地转化为改变的政策和方法。我的博士研究使用了一种创新的、多地点的民族志来“跟踪”受女性生殖器切割影响的社区、非政府组织、联合国机构、政府和学者之间的知识(“话语”)、政策和方法。我的目标是了解需要什么才能确保受女性生殖器切割影响的社区的人们的声音和经验被纳入反女性生殖器切割的政策、宣传和方案中。我的研究找出了使这些不同的声音、经历和观点复杂化或受阻的“障碍”，实际上影响和改变了占主导地位的反女性生殖器切割的话语和以此为基础的方法。了解这些“障碍”将使政策和方案的制定者更具包容性和反映人们的经验，从而更有效地鼓励放弃女性生殖器切割。奖学金将使我能够向关注女性生殖器切割的利益相关者传播我的发现，使反女性生殖器切割的努力更具包容性和有效性。为了最大限度地发挥影响，我将扩大我与学术界和非学术界人士的关系网，并通过博客文章向公众提供见解。此外，该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，通过这样做，我将发展我的记录。我将对2019年在肯尼亚洛伊塔发表的放弃女性生殖器切割的公开声明进行急需的后续研究。最后，该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基金来发展我的学术生涯。布里斯托尔大学是我项目的完美主办研究机构。布里斯托尔政策研究所、佩里沃利非洲研究中心以及该大学与人口基金的伙伴关系为今后的研究提供了独特的联网、分享研究成果和合作的机会。我的导师Saffron Karlsen和Maili Gibson通过他们对研究生和博士后的研究和监督，为我的项目带来了大量女性生殖器切割方面的专业知识。我借鉴了我的跨学科背景(社会学、人类学、性别研究)，选择了跨学科的道路和来自不同学科的导师，因为我认为女性生殖器切割等人权问题需要不同的学科视角。出于这个原因，我的目标是将布里斯托尔不同学科和院系的研究人员聚集在一起，研究女性生殖器切割和相关问题，以促进跨学科和教职员工在这一主题上的合作。

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.