‘It’s Only a Tradition’: Making Sense of Eradication Interventions and the Persistence of Female ‘Circumcision’ within a Swedish Context (2004)
This study is a Descriptive research regarding All FGM/C with the following characteristics:
Author(s): Beth Maina Ahlberg
FGM/C Type(s): All
Health area of focus: None.
Objective: To assess why female circumcision (FC) persists despite eradication interventions and the migration of people to non-practising countries and discusses the reasoning of Somali immigrants on female circumcision.
Study Population: Somali immigrants
Findings: Female circumcision was described,as just ‘a tradition’ that has little to do with Islam. The fear of bringing up an uncircumcised daughter in the liberal sexual morality of Sweden was mentioned as a dilemma. Circumcised women said the health care they received during pregnancy and childbirth was poor while the law failed to take account of the experiences of the Somali people. We conclude that rather than eradication,interventions seem to have silenced and stigmatized the practice due to their failure to take account of its meanings,organization and contexts,including the diasporic dynamics within which immigrants negotiate identities.
Geographical coverage
Region(s):Northern Europe
Country(ies):Sweden