FGM/C report visualisation

Creating illustrations depicting survivors and activists for a global FGM/C report.
Equality Now
Global
2020

Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) is a gross violation of human rights, violence against women and girls, and a horrendous manifestation of gender inequality. Equality Now, in partnership with the End FGM European Network and the US End FGM/C Network, released the Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Call For A Global Response report in March 2020. Scope’s role was to illustrate the stories of the survivors and activists in an empowering way that doesn’t define them by their FGM/C experience alone.

Each of the women speaking out in the report was cut. They are breaking the cycle of tradition and patriarchy by speaking out against harmful practice or sharing their experiences of being cut. The report highlights the global nature of FGM/C with data showing the practice in over 90 countries across the globe. It is a clarion call from survivors across cultures, communities, and countries to governments, the international community, and donors to recognise FGM/C as a global issue, requiring urgent global attention.

“There is such a silence that surrounds this practice… We have to remove the shame and make it a subject safe to talk about.”

The three changing faces of FGM/C. An illustration of a woman's profile, shouting something with her mouth open. Enclosed in her profice there are two other women's profiles depicting the same woman without her empowerment. The first one is white, drooping her head. Next to her is a slightly bigger, and pinker one, but still face drooping. She has not yet found the confindence needed to become the shouting, empowered woman she now is.

“I think we really need to change the face of FGM. It doesn’t just happen to people in Africa, it is everywhere.”

An adult woman wearing a bright red gown, walking hand-in-hand with a small girl in blue dress, holding a chocolate bar in her hand. She has bitten the chocolate once. The background is turquoise.

“We are living in a time where women have really found their voices. We have been shackled in silence and internalised a lot of oppression. The time has come to shed the yoke.”

FGM/C is a tradition passed on from generation to generation. A young couple is holding a newborn child in their arms. In the background, black shapes of relatives are sharing their opinions about whether to cut the child or not..

“FGC is a child rights violation as the child cannot consent to something being permanently removed from their body.”

An illustration of a meeting between a doctor and a baby with her mother at the hospital. The doctor is looking happy.

“People keep their hands off, saying, ‘That’s their tradition’, and that attitude is wrong, wrong, wrong. That’s why FGM has survived hundreds of years.”

An illustration of a mother, leading her two young girl children to a black void. They have left behind a doll, which is lying on the floor idly with a tear in its eye.

 

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