FGM in Switzerland: between legality and loyalty in the transmission of a traditional practice

ABSTRACT

Excision and infibulations, otherwise known as ‘female genital mutilation (FGM)’, is recognised internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. The population affected by FGM in Switzerland is young and characterised by a first-generation migratory background. It is estimated around 14,700 women affected by excision or infibulation live in Switzerland. In 2012, a specific law against FGM was approved and the Criminal Code amended to include excision or infibulation as a crime (article 124), testifying to the Swiss government’s strong political commitment to eliminating FGM. Our study looked into this political context and the current public policy agenda with the aim to better understand the specific logic of the intergenerational transmission of FGM. In particular, this article discusses the reasons invoked by women concerning such a transmission, their attitudes about the new generation of daughters and their demands on what it is possible to do, in the present, to recover and to go forward after FGM.

KEYWORDS:

• Female genital mutilation
• migration
• intergenerational transmission
• tradition
• norms

Acknowledgments

The research benefited from the advice and collaboration of Dr Saira-Christina Renteria, Prof. Patrick Hohlfeld and Prof. Francesco Panese.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Confédération Suisse, Mutilations sexuelles féminines. Mesures de sensibilisation et de prévention, Rapport du Conseil fédéral en réponse à la motion Bernasconi (05.3235), Berne, 28 octobre 2015

2. This is the case in 11 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and Ireland. Switzerland has also adopted a specific law (Source: European Parliament, Resolution 2014/2511RSP)

3. The questionnaire is structured in six units that identify: (1) socio-demographic characteristics; (2) circumstances of FGM/infibulation; (3) somatic and physiological consequences of FGM in a subjective approach to health; (4) link between FGM/infibulation and sexual life; (5) perception of FGM/infibulation; (6) risk of intergenerational transmission of FGM in a migratory context.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by the Department of Health and Community Medicine (DUMSC) of the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) by a grant.