In the United Kingdom, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is still considered a taboo topic, and women refuse to talk about it openly, but it has begun to make headlines in recent years. Specialist clinics within the NHS offer different services such as counselling, sexual advice, physical examinations and reversal procedures. Clinics have also begun to work with local communities and the police to raise awareness and educate parents affected by FGM to prevent exposing their children and young adults to this tragic mutilation.
However, all these safety measurements and screening processes in place are not enough; some FGM victims slip through the system and remain undiagnosed until it is an emergency.

Inspired by personal experience, I started an in-depth investigation into Female Genital Mutilation by interviewing East African women in London affected by this cruel procedure. After comparing the stories of women from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti, reflecting on my own personal experience and conducting further research, I discovered that the majority of FGM cases in the United Kingdom are diagnosed during pregnancy or labour. However, a few are not diagnosed until the second or third child after undergoing unexplained caesarean sections during earlier pregnancies.

The aim of this project is to raise awareness of this procedure in the hope that women, young girls and children who may not realize the severity or what type of FGM they have are encouraged to go through an early screening process before it becomes an emergency. I also hope that this project encourages medical staff, when examining women affected by FGM, to have the courage to speak openly with them about it.

For this project, I have chosen to take an aesthetic approach to reduce the subject matter's intensity. Beads and flowers are stitched onto soft leather to resemble the subjects’ skin colours in order to create the different types of FGM. These are then attached to the mouth areas of the subjects’ silhouette portraits. The leather pieces show the various stages of tissue removal where cutting took place; the portraits are accompanied by short poems from interviews highlighting their FGM experiences. It is my hope that this approach will make it more accessible to a broader audience.



©Aida Silvestri 2015