Babies are among the victims of female genital mutilation (FGM), campaigners claim, reflecting a growing trend of younger girls being targeted.

Girls were traditionally cut when they were around 10 years old, to ‘prepare them for marriage’, but are now being disfigured earlier so offenders can escape justice, say the Africa-based Network Against Female Genital Mutilation (NAFGEM).

The World Health Organisation defines FGM as ‘altering or causing injury to the female genital organs for non medical reasons’.

http://www.euronews.com/2017/02/06/babies-targeted-as-fgm-victims-get-younger-say-campaigners

An MP is attempting to ban authorities from describing murders as “honour killings”.

Conservative Nusrat Ghani said the term was used by abusers as a “pathetic self-justification” for their violence.

She proposed a bill in the House of Commons that would ban the use of the description in official publications.

The move would make it clear that “cultural and religious sensitivities are not a barrier to justice”, the MP for Wealden in East Sussex said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38813589

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – There is a growing global drive to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM) in a generation. Ministers, U.N. officials and campaigners from around the world meet in Rome on Monday for a major conference to discuss how to accelerate efforts to end the practice. Here are some facts.

– An estimated 200 million girls and women worldwide have been subjected to FGM. In Africa, it is thought that 3 million girls are at risk every year.

– FGM is known to be prevalent in 27 African countries, Yemen, Iraqi Kurdistan and Indonesia. But there is growing evidence that it may exist in many more Asian and Middle Eastern countries than commonly thought. It is also found in industrialized countries among some immigrant populations.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-fgm-conference-factbox-idUSKBN15E0KH

Survivors of rape often say they are left with devastating, sometimes lifelong, trauma. One woman who was sexually assaulted in Iraq described her feelings this way: “I have no past and no future at the moment. I am stuck in my anger and pain.”

Imagine how much worse this pain would be if you were forced to marry your rapist and share a home and bed with him.

Once again we hear of another girl murdered in Pakistan, murdered by her brother for choosing to marry the man she loved. The man she loved was a Christian who had converted to Islam to please her family thinking this was enough to be accepted. Converting to Islam made no difference to his wife’s family and the brother felt no shame in shooting her dead. Only pride in this evil crime he had committed.

The brother’s work colleagues taunted him daily, telling him how shameless his sister was and how she was bringing dishonour to his family name. The villagers with their village mentality also taunted the brother; uneducated and illiterate they were not happy and satisfied until he had taken her life.

There are no pictures of this girl taken while she was alive as her father was very strict and believed photographs were haram – forbidden. The only picture that exists is the one the police took of her, after her brother shot her dead.

The victim’s father felt no remorse at the fact that his son shot his daughter dead. The only thing he felt was pride and anger. Pride that his son had murdered his daughter and anger towards his dead daughter for bringing even more shame onto the family name, as now the wider community and family in Pakistan where aware of the dishonour she had caused by marrying a Christian.

Pakistan recently passed The Anti-Honour Killing bill in Parliament and one can only hope that this will be enough to deter those willing to murder in the name of honour.

Safe house

Fleeing a forced marriage or honour-based violence can be harrowing enough without having to worry about where you are going to stay.Basic necessities like accommodation are urgently required yet sometimes there are no places available at homeless units or women’s refuges, and sometimes the emergency accommodation is not suitable for a young vulnerable girl. The importance of a safe house then becomes glaringly obvious.

Halo Project Charity opened their first safe house in 2015 and has helped many victims. With only two bedrooms the safe house is restricted to the number of families and women it can help out at any given time.

Today it is home to a woman in her late 40’s and her two young children as well as a young woman, in her mid 20s, from Iran. Both these women said the safe house was ‘good’ they both felt ‘safe’ and described it as a ‘home from home.’

Nusrat (not her real name) arrived in the UK, almost 25 years ago, as a young 17-year-old bride, from Pakistan. Throughout that time she experienced domestic violence and was unaware of the help out there to support her in leaving her abusive marriage. It was only when social services arrived at the house to deal with an incident not related to Nusrat that she asked for help in leaving her husband. Initially she was placed in a women’s refuge which was not an unpleasant experience for Nusrat, who can speak pretty good English and in her own words ‘Even though I wear a hijab, nobody at the women’s refuge made me feel unwelcome. We all have the same problems with our men, no matter what the colour of our skin or religion.’

Nusrat was happier when she moved into the safe house and has been there for the past 6 weeks and is moving into her new home in the next few days. Although she will miss the safe house, she said she is looking forward to getting her two young children settled in before school begins in September.

Sabah is a quietly spoken 26 year old from Iran. She was married at 19 and moved to the UK to be with her British born Iranian husband. Initially they had a happy marriage and after the birth of her two children, her husband decided he wanted to go back to Iran. Arriving in Iran he divorced her, destroyed all her documents, like passport etc, and left her there while he returned to the UK, with their children. She said there was nothing else to do but work hard and save her money, her parents meanwhile wanted to get her married again. Sabah managed to save enough money and made her way to Turkey where she was able to apply for another passport and made her way back to the UK. Arriving in London, with two suitcases she was told she would be receiving no financial help whatsoever for at least three months. Luckily for Sabah she had a Facebook friend who she contacted and was allowed to sleep on her friend’s sofa for a few weeks until the friend got in touch with the Halo Project and Sabah was able to move into the safe house and has been there since March.

Christine is the volunteer coordinator for the Halo Project and with a background in Victim Support; she has a vast of experience to draw from. The volunteers at the Halo Project are from a mixed background with males and females making up the numbers and their roles vary from supporting victims, raising awareness of the Halo Project Charity to fundraising.

The ‘Everyday English’ is a course designed especially for women who speak little English. The Halo Project volunteers have devised their own alphabet with the letters relating to words that are appropriate to everyday life.

‘B, for example is not ball but bus.’ Christine explained. “A bus is a more practical word for the women who will be attending the courses, to learn than say ball.’

Women accessing the course will also be taken out of the ‘classroom setting’ to practice English. Trips to doctor’s surgeries to make appointments will be part of the course work.

The coursework will be available in Arabic, Urdu and Hindi, with handbag size booklets, designed especially by the Halo Project, handed out at the start of the course.

The final preparations are being put in place and Christine is hoping to have the first 8-10 students start the course in November.

The “Everyday English’ course is a brilliant way of enabling those who do not have English as their first language to gain the confidence in taking the steps to learn English.