Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As the coalition spokesperson for the status of women I rise in the Senate this evening to acknowledge that today, 6 February 2013, is the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation.

Female genital mutilation, as defined by the World Health Organization and the United Nations, is the 'partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.' The World Health Organization estimates that between 130 and 140 million girls and women in the world today have been subjected to this brutal practice, with some three million girls at risk of undergoing the procedure this year alone. An article by Erica Weir published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2000, had this to say on the subject:

… many still see this tradition as an effective and acceptable method of controlling women's attitudes toward sex and sexuality and of ensuring their virginity and suitability for marriage.

There are four internationally recognised forms of female genital mutilation. None of them are nice and none of them are very well known, especially to people like us who live in the Western world and, quite frankly, in the luckiest country in the world. It is, however, important that each of us has an understanding of exactly what a young girl or a young woman goes through or has gone through when she is subjected to female genital mutilation. Type 1 refers to the partial or total removal of the clitoris. Type 2 includes removal of the clitoris along with the labia minora. Type 3 is removal of both of these elements, with the addition of the stitching and fusing of the outer labia, in what is called infibulation. Type 4 includes all other harmful procedures on the female genitalia.

In most cases, these procedures are carried out on girls between infancy and 15 years of age, without anaesthetic and traditionally by someone with little to no formal medical knowledge. Common tools of the trade can be anything from knives and razors to scissors. Along with the ideas of maintaining a woman's virginity before marriage, and controlling her attitude towards sex and sexuality, this practice has often been associated with cultural ideas of femininity and modesty. By removing the parts of the body that are deemed as 'unclean' or 'male', a girl or woman is then seen to be both 'clean' and 'beautiful'.

Female genital mutilation has been categorised as a breach of the human rights of both girls and women, with the World Health Organization writing:

FGM is recognised internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. The practice also violates a person's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.

Female genital mutilation also brings with it serious and significant health risks, both in the short and long term. Short-term side effects include severe pain, shock, haemorrhage, bacterial infections—including tetanus and sepsis—urine retention and open sores and wounds in the genital region. Long-term physical effects include recurrent infections of the bladder and urinary tract, infertility and an increased risk of birth complications and deaths of newborns. Negative psychological consequences have also been documented amongst women who have undergone female genital mutilation, which include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and psychosexual problems. Women who have undergone the practice are also likely to require further surgery as a result, especially those subjected to infibulation. Defibulation, which is a cutting process, is required to reopen the outer labia to allow for sexual intercourse, and is then further cut to allow for childbirth. In some instances either the woman or her family will request that reinfibulation—in other words, stitching back up—occur after childbirth. The woman will then be subjected to the process of defibulation and then reinfibulation surrounding childbirth and this will happen time and again throughout a woman's lifetime. Each time the process is undertaken the risks of infection and complications and ultimately death of the woman are increased.

The World Health Organization, while today highlighting the plight of women who have undergone, or will undergo, female genital mutilation—as I stated, three million girls this year are at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation—is particularly focusing this year on the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation on the worrying global trend that is seeing healthcare providers performing the procedure, which can only contribute to the legitimisation of the process and help to maintain its practice. The World Health Organization defines the medicalisation of female genital mutilation as 'situations in which FGM is practised by any category of healthcare provider, whether in a public or private clinic, at home or elsewhere. It also includes the procedure of reinfibulation at any point in time in a woman's life.' When I refer to healthcare providers, it has to be remembered that this practice has been reported in most parts of the world but is most prevalent in 28 countries in Africa and some parts of Asia and the Middle East. So I do not want people to think that healthcare providers in Australia regularly do this. To explain why healthcare providers have increased in their willingness to undertake FGM practices, the World Health Organization explains that parents are probably motivated to seek healthcare providers to perform FGM due to an increased awareness of the health risks associated with this practice. So, whilst there is a growing understanding of the detrimental ramifications of subjecting children to this practice, it still seems to be that there is a disconnect between the procedure itself and the short- and long-term effects that it causes.

Just last year in Australia, in New South Wales, we saw the arrest of a number of people who had organised or carried out female genital mutilation. One of those charged with performing the procedure is, unfortunately, a retired healthcare provider. It is astounding to think that in 2013 women and children are still subjected to this brutal practice, even more so that this practice is now being found in our community. Female genital mutilation is an illegal practice in Australia in all jurisdictions and, whilst I am thankful that the perpetrators in this case will feel the full force of the law, the reality is that what occurred should never have occurred in the first place. And again, in my home state of Western Australia last year, the Western Australian Police charged a couple after it was alleged that they took their very young daughter, just one year old, to Bali for her to undergo female genital mutilation. Surely in 2013, with the technological, medical and social information we have at our fingertips, the evidence is clear that this is a cruel and brutal procedure to force upon a child. One girl undergoing this cruel practice is one too many. One girl suffering from shock and ongoing infections as a result of this practice is one too many. One girl or woman experiencing complications in childbirth or the death of a newborn child as a result of her having undergone female genital mutilation is one too many.

I would like to commend the World Health Organization for their ongoing work to meet their aim of eradicating this practice within a generation. Their continued focus on advocacy, research and guidance for health systems has already seen a documented decrease in the numbers of girls subjected to the practice. However, I remind the Senate that at least three million girls this year will undergo the practice. It is through awareness-raising days like today that we can slowly but surely ensure that not one girl globally undergoes this brutal practice.