Shahin Ashraf, Muslim Women’s Network UK - DFID Girl Summit 2014

"I've had a survivor - she is now 47 - she had FGM done at the age of 7 three times within a three-week period..." - Shahin Ashraf

Panel Discussion: Spotlight on Progress A3 - Faith Forward: the Role of Faith Communities and Leaders in Addressing FGM and CEFM

Context
This is one of the 14 "Spotlights on Progress" video-recorded sessions that took place at the Girl Summit 2014 in London on 22nd July. The sessions were organised to spark conversations and share best practice between practitioners from around the world, between grassroots activists and ministers, and across all the issues of female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM). Girl Summit is a project of the Department for International Development (DFID), UK.

A featured speaker in this Spotlight session was Shahin Ashraf, who talked about working with faith leaders to address FGM and forced marriage in the UK.

Profile of Speaker
Shahin Ashraf is a national network coordinator at the Muslim Women's Network UK (MWNUK), she is a trained counsellor and a Muslim Chaplain at the University of Birmingham.

Project strategy and key points made in the presentation:

The Muslim Women's Network UK (MWNUK) works to improve the social justice and equality for Muslim women and girls in the UK. The organisation seeks to understand the experiences of Muslim women and girls, including forced marriage and FGM, through research and helpline enquiries. They identify policy and practice gaps and provide advice to government on issues relating to Muslim women. The research is also used to inform their community campaigns. The network has organised several events on forced marriage and has collaborated with the Muslim Institute and Scholars to develop a model Muslim marriage contract which includes information about Muslim family laws, jurisprudence and Sharia, and civil marriage. The organisation also develops resources and provides training so women and girls are better informed about their rights and how to access support and help.

Shahin Ashra spoke about some of the findings of her research into FGM in Birmingham. The aim of the research was to understand FGM locally and find out what the attitudes are towards FGM, and who the influencial drivers of FGM are in the community. She explained that there are 29 FGM practicing communities in Birmingham. When working with communities, they first started with workshops only, but found that they were only reaching the activists that were coming to the workshops and not the ordinary women who are affected by FGM. In order to reach out to the community, they then tried a 3-pronged approach: 1) talking to schools, 2) community engagement, and 3) engaging men and boys.

The speaker then goes on to share some of the insights that arose out of this work. For example, during their work at schools they realised that many schoolchildren still see FGM as a religious issue which means that they may view any resistance to it as a religious attack. They found that women need to be the voice of change, and that this includes women that are not from FGM practicing communities. In engaging with men, they came to realise that there are variations when it comes to disagreeing with FGM: some disagree completely while others may only disagree with Type 3 (the most radical form of cutting) and not Type 1 and 2. Men, who are concerned about their daughters, are also fighting great pressure from outside, such as their mother-in-laws, who may not even live in the UK. She ends off by making the point that FGM is not just happening within communities, but is also taking place in London hospitals.

Key lessons from this presentation (as per the Session summary document): "Women have to be the voices of change. Tackling FGM and CEFM in the UK poses particular challenges, especially in terms of accessing the most vulnerable parts of the community where people have also fled conflict, violence, poverty and displacement. There are commonly held beliefs across the UK that FGM and CEFM are religiously condoned. Organisations are using a multi-pronged approach to try to tackle this message (via schools, the community and working with boys and men). However real change is not going to be forthcoming unless women are treated as equals and the fundamental gender disparities in Islam are addressed. Women from FGM and non-FGM affected communities need to work together to affect change. Men need to act as facilitators for change, and not hamper women’s right to demand reforms. More needs to be done to educate communities in the UK that CEFM and FGM are real and harmful and no women should have to choose between safety and her religion."

Overview of the "Faith Forward: the Role of Faith Communities and Leaders in Addressing FGM and CEFM" Summit Session:
"This Spotlight discusses initiatives with faith and community leaders who support efforts to end FGM and child, early and forced marriage. Lessons are shared from inter-faith dialogue and from coalition building with wider non-faith groups to outline areas for future action including joint statements, campaigns and by connecting local and international faith communities. The discussion covers:

• building coalitions with faith and community leaders at the grass roots;
• working with faith and community leaders in challenging contexts;
• using traditional networks and new media to engage audiences;
• engaging a global community of faith leaders."

The speakers, in order of appearance, are:
Rebecca Mahlunge Programme Manager, Hivos
Shahin Ashraf Muslim Chaplain and National Network Coordinator for the Muslim Women’s Network UK
Reverend Dr Medad Birungi Zinomuhangi President and Founder, World Shine Ministries
Professor Gamal Serour Professor and Director of the International Islamic Center for Population Studies and Research at Al-Azhar University
Dr Ann-Marie Wilson Executive Director, 28 Too Many

The session was chaired by human rights journalist Saroja Coelho, formerly Environment Editor and Radio Presenter at Deutsche Welle.

Footage of this (available below) and other "Spotlight Sessions" are available on DFID’s YouTube channel.