Thread by @monaeltahawy

Feb 6 is International Day of #ZeroToleranceDay for #FGM- female genital mutilation.

I was born in #Egypt, where FGM prevalence is 87.2% among all women aged 15-49.

Egypt has the greatest number of women and girls who have experienced FGM of any country in the world. A thread.

Here are key findings about #FGM in #Egypt via @28TooMany 28toomany.org/country/egypt/ #ZeroTolerance4FGM #ZeroToleranceDay #EndFGM

I have been obsessed with and writing about #FGM for decades. Too many women in my extended family have been subjected to this form of torture that serves no medical purpose whatsoever. FGM instead is about patriarchal control of female sexuality. #ZeroToleranceDay

These % prove the lie behind "it's women who cut their daughters, it has nothing to do with men." #EndFGM #Egypt #ZeroTolerance4FGM

Via @thegirlgen: Change is happening and prevalence rates have decreased among younger women and girls in #Egypt. While 97% of Egyptian women aged 45-49 have undergone #FGM, this figure decreases to 70% for girls and women aged 15-19. #ZeroTolerance4FGM

But that is not enough! Although #Egypt banned #FGM in 2008, the prevalence rate remains one of the highest worldwide at 87%. #EndFGM #ZeroToleranceDay #ZeroTolerance4FGM

Just last week, Nada Abdul Maksoud died in #Egypt after she was subjected to #FGM. Some news reports say she was 14yo, others that she was 12. How many more girls will be killed because of this torture? #ZeroToleranceForFGM

bbc.com/news/amp/world…

#Egypt: THERE IS NO REVOLUTION unless the destruction of patriarchy is at its heart, unless consent & agency are at its heart.

- There is NO excuse or justification for #FGM
- There are ZERO benefits for it
- It must NEVER be justified as “tradition” or “religious teaching”
- The goal of FGM is to control female sexuality.
- FGM is a harmful practice that must END. Everywhere.
#EndFGM #ZeroToleranceDay

When I am asked why mothers continue to subject their daughters to a pain and horror they themselves were subjected to, I suggest the question should be instead “Why do the men of the community continue to insist that girls be subjected to #FGM or else they’re “umarriageable”?”

It shatters my heart that so many women I love were subjected to #FGM. It shatters it more when I reflect on how much more the pain was knowing their mothers were complicit and what that exacts - of mothers and daughters.Fight the powers behind FGM at all levels, not just mothers

I wrote this in 2014 about #FGM in #Egypt: Fighting FGM must be part of the social justice & human dignity revolution that we began in #Egypt in January 2011
#ZeroTolerance4FGM
nyti.ms/11c0vM1

Something that hurts so many girls and women is kept silent and taboo because it has to do with our vaginas and with sex

I wrote this in 2016 about #FGM: we need to break the silence around FGM by breaking the silence around sex #EndFGM #ZeroTolerance

theguardian.com/society/2016/a…

How do you explain to a girl in #Egypt that we began a revolution to be free while she has a healthy part of her body cut?

THE ONLY BODY PART THE SOLE PURPOSE OF WHICH IS PLEASURE.

Whose fucking revolution is that?!

WHO IS THE REVOLUTION FOR?

WHO DOES THE REVOLUTION FREE?

MY HEART IS CRUSHED every time I hear we have lost another girl to #FGM.

ENOUGH!

This torture in the name of patriarchy MUST END.

Fuck the patriarchy and all who uphold it.

#EndFGM #Egypt #ZeroTolerance4FGM #ZeroToleranceDay

Laws are not enough. Countries that have succeeded in lowering the rate of FGM, like #Senegal, have used varied methods: e.g. alternative rites of passage into womanhood, campaigns in which brides and bridegrooms state that they both reject the custom.

#ZeroTolerance4FGM

We must fight patriarchy at all levels - community leaders, faith leaders, doctors & practitioners who perform #FGM and parents.

We can better protect our girls when we recognize that those chants of our revolution are essentially demands for autonomy & consent-for all

#Egypt

Our bodies, our stories, our autonomy, our consent, our agency: fuck the patriarchy

There is no revolution unless sexual liberation and gender liberation are at its heart.

#Egypt #EndFGM #ZeroTolerance4FGM
#ZeroToleranceDay