BBC, I did not have my say...!

7/23/2014

It was clearly a well-planned set-up that I knew I was walking into with my eyes open yet I had no reservations at all. Yesterday’s BBC World Have Your Say Programme that I was invited to appear on featured 12 or so FGM “survivors” and anti-FGM activists along with a representative from UNICEF, a minister from the UK and one from Ethiopia as well as a lawyer – all anti-FGM campaigners. The anti-FGM opponents (mostly hand-picked Sierra Leoneans, unsurprisingly) discussed the horrors and pain of their experiences. The Sierra Leoneans then detailed the alleged abuses of Bondo society and one even suggested that Bondo was under the authority of men and the Poro society. Try telling Poro men this…

All of this was expected. What I didn’t expect was that I would be ushered in a lone studio, staring at a blank camera (I had been told I would be able to see everyone in London) without any preparation at all, unable to see anyone or glimpse the scene that I was supposed to be participating in.

After each FGM survivor/activist spoke at length and uninterrupted about their traumas, I thought I would at least be given my 5 minutes -- to no avail. After about 25 minutes into the show, I was finally told I would be able to say something. Yaayy…I tried to remember all my soundbites, to no avail. They did go over to me after a commercial break and I opened up by thanking the other guests for their courage in telling their stories (I believe it takes a whole lot of bravado to go against the grain of dominant sociocultural norms…. I live it as a pro adult female circumcision activist based in the USA). But the minute I opened my mouth to clarify that the entire clitoris cannot be removed from a girl or woman’s body without killing her – I was pummeled. Speaker after speaker (mind you I could not see who was speaking) took turns interrupting and scolding me before I could finish my sentence. Before I knew it, I was unceremoniously muted and ignored for the rest of the programme. For a one hour show, I got in about 3mins and 24seconds in total!

Not all was lost, there were some pretty cool footages of the Malaysian crash debacle and escalating tensions in the Middle East flashing on a nearby screen that occupied my attention while the other women continued to have their say on the BBC World Have Your Say programme.

Alas, even though I did not have my own say, I know that Bondo/Sande in West Africa especially in Sierra Leone is here to stay. When the money runs out for anti-FGM activists (and the well will run dry…), we can then have a real global health debate and human rights discussion that focuses on consent for all non-medical genital surgeries on children – irrespective of gender, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion and so on. In the meantime we will continue to advocate for the equal rights and civil liberties of circumcised African women.

Stay tuned Friday for the BBC-TV version of today’s World Have Your Say radio programme – we will juxtapose that with the SBS-TV Insight Programme in Sidney, Australia that I appeared on last year with a Somali anti-FGM activist and let you decide which one represents true, impartial, unbiased journalism.

7 Comments

Mike

7/24/2014 09:31:42 am

I have today submitted to the BBC the following formal complaint.
I encourage others to write similarly.
Another disgracefully biased presentation, uncritically adopting the agenda and intentionally emotive, insulting, and demeaning terminology of extreme anti-FGM activists, while ignoring serious research studies which show their claims to be gross generalisations, exaggerations, and direct untruths. Inclusion of Fuambai Ahmadu ( a serious academic with genuine experience) gave hope of some balance, but she was grossly insulted by being introduced late, her name not stated correctly, and no attempt made to prevent her from being shouted down by studio participants in a "lynch mob" reaction to her expression of true facts which the activists did not wish to hear. She was not even allowed to conclude her first point, and was excluded from further participation. All BBC coverage of this topic has been similar, appearing to have been fully orchestrated if not directly produced by extremist anti-FGM activists in direct opposition to the views of the majority of circumcised women who, for deeply personal, cultural, or social reasons consider themselves to be beautified, cleansed and empowered, and certainly not mutilated. Again a small minority of irrational extremists is dominating the media and national policy, and the BBC is supporting them. The silent majority must be given a voice. The BBC owes Fuambai a programme where she is treated with respect. Maybe a Hard Talk interview with Zeinab Badawi ? Open your minds and read www.fuambaisiaahmadu.com . Happy to discuss further.

Freddy

7/25/2014 07:30:03 am

Dr Fuambai Ahmadu was invited to be a guest on the program World Have Your Say with regard to "FGM". She was brought into the discussion 24 minutes into the program and totally ignored for the last 18 minutes of a 53 minute program. She was interrupted before she could even make her first point even though all of the other guests were permitted enough time to make their point. She didn't even have 3 minutes to speak in the entire program and was cut off constantly. The moderator made no effort to give her an opportunity. This is disgraceful and well below the standards of what we know as the BBC. I believe it is important for the world to get a balanced view of controversial subjects especially issues like FGM that are wrought with emotion and cultural issues. Please rectify this problem as it was very unfair to your guest. Her name was even pronounced wrong. Shame on BBC.

Zeinab

9/6/2014 05:55:24 am

I think it is very brave of you to go into a programme where you know you will be in a minority and your views and experiences held up to ridicule. But there ar always some viewers or listeners who are open to reason and can be persuaded by the commonplace argument that circumcision is an enjoyable, beneficial and life affirming experience for most women who experience it.

Mike

9/6/2014 09:41:38 am

Thank you again, Zeinab, for your positive contribution. The present situation is similar to that at the start of the Gay Rights movement, when the entrenched views of a brainwashed society started to be eroded by a few courageous individuals "coming out", including some who already commanded social respect through their activities in other areas. Once these leaders had established immunity from harassment and persecution, increasing numbers were encouraged to join what then became a mass movement. There is a need for more brave women to join Fuambai and give publicly visible support to her campaign.

Henrik

10/13/2014 10:21:34 am

But is it not glaringly obvious who the women behind the anti-FGM campaign are? It does not matter whatever support or recognition is given or forthcoming in support of African women’s rights! These women will always oppose it on principle and as ferociously as they deem necessary as to them, female circumcision is the death-knell to their own sexuality.

Mike

10/19/2014 03:41:49 am

Exactly right Henrik. Undoubtedly many women have suffered physically or psychologically from being circumcised under primitive conditions or in an inappropriate social context. These are probably a small minority, however they are always the ones paraded by the activists to support their cause. The ultimate triumph of second-wave feminism is social acceptance of female masturbation, therefore anything which is perceived as threatening this is attacked hysterically and irrationally. Many of the leading activists are themselves uncircumcised, therefore they have no relevant understanding and incorrectly relate everything to their own clitoricentric experience.

Henry

3/24/2018 09:38:32 am

"...the entire clitoris cannot be removed from a girl or woman’s body without killing her."
If done in primitive, unsanitary conditions by one who is not technically competent. The entire clitoris may be removed if it is cancerous but this is an internal surgery.
Cosmetic-religious clitorectomy removes only the glans or glans and shaft, a small piece of tissue that is nonessential to sexual satisfaction and does not contribute to reproduction. It is the result of the male and female genital organs developing from the same embryonic precursors, much as vestigial nipples and milk glands and the raphe on males.
Radical prepucectomy of the penis risks serious unintended effects: pain in erection and intercourse, severe infection, penectomy and death even when executed by normally technically competent surgeons. Sexual sensation is markedly reduced, as those who were circumcised as older boys and men have testified repeatedly. The Jewish religious requirement is not radical prepucectomy but "clipping" the tip of the flaccid foreskin, as is evident from the Torah in Hebrew.
Strong's Hebrew dictionary: "A primitive root; to cut short, i.e. Curtail (specifically the prepuce, i.e. To circumcise); by implication, to blunt..."
Radical circumcision was introduced by rabbis concerned about Jewish men who had the traditional mul undergoing "restoration," that is, stretching the shortened prepuce to completely conceal the glans so that they would be accepted among Greeks in gymnasium, which is a facility where athletes exercise naked. It was considered unacceptable to display an erection, which an exposed glans, even only the tip, signified.

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BBC, I did not have my say...!

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