30
Safeguarding shouldn’t mean alienating: parents criticise FGM investigations There’s growing discontent among sections of the Bristol Somali community around how anti-FGM efforts are being handled. Getting the balance wrong risks driving a wedge between families and the professionals paid to protect children
T
he aromas of stewing meat and cardamom-scented rice fill the Somali cafe in Lawrence Hill. Abdihakir Asir, a father of three daughters, huddles over a table waiting for our chat to get started.
the BRISTOL CABLE | ISSUE 15
After some initial pleasantries, I realise I’m not the only one recording the conversation. Asir has his phone set on record. Given the sensitive issue at hand, he’s understandably keen to ensure the reporter sitting opposite doesn’t misquote him. With recorders running, Asir dives in, describing the public outcry in February when a Bristol father accused of allowing his six-year-old daughter to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) was found not guilty of child cruelty. Judge Julian Lambert threw out the case, describing it as “deeply troubling” and dismissing the evidence as “wholly inconclusive”.
“We changed the social norms in our community – a change happened in the late 1980s and 1990s. Why are we being targeted and stigmatised for the actions of our ancestors?” That case stemmed from a tip-off by a worker for the Bristol-based charity Integrate UK, but Judge Lambert deemed the account of the key witness to be “inconsistent”. A consultant gynaecologist who examined the six-year-old found no evidence of FGM, nine weeks after another doctor had reported a “small lesion”. In the case’s wake, Asir says, “loads of people came forward” with allegations of intrusive questioning around FGM – as well as coercive behaviour – by education and social work staff and police. This included the signing of declaration forms. It is a criminal offence to arrange FGM,
so there is nothing legally objectionable in itself to asking a parent to give assurances in writing they won’t do it. What practical effect such an agreement might have, and whether it is being used oppressively – as some parents tell the Cable – depends on the circumstances. In the bid to stop FGM, and land the first conviction in the UK for the brutal procedure, Asir says Bristol Somali parents have been indiscriminately questioned by police and safeguarding teams. “[This] unfair treatment,” he says, “is clearly damaging the [anti-FGM] programme itself.” After speaking with Asir, national antiFGM campaigner Hibo Wardere, tells the Cable she was shocked by the lack of evidence in the collapsed trial, as well as by subsequent stories told to her by Bristol Somali parents. Wardere, herself a victim of FGM, came from London to observe the collapsed trial. “We campaigners are letting down the community if we don’t speak up for them,” she says. Wardere adds that the case has acted as a wake-up call for Bristol’s Somalis to voice their concerns over how FGM safeguarding strategies are being implemented. Deputy chief constable Sarah Crew tells the Cable by email, “We know that FGM is prevalent and
WORDS ALON AVIRAM ILLUSTRATION ROSANNA MORRIS rosannamorris.com
accepted in a number of countries around the world. Young people in Bristol have told us that this is happening and we must do everything in our power, within the law, to protect them.”
But frustrated members of the Somali community insist the police and authorities are overstating FGM’s prevalence and are damaging community relations with their actions.