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In 2006–2007, the Swedish citizen Ali Elmi Hayow was sentenced to prison for the female genital mutilation of his daughter. In this paper I argue that the popular understanding of FGC, seeing African men as the true perpetrators, rendered it impossible for this man to get a fair trial. The facts presented during court proceedings were interpreted within a radical feminist framework, and the political will to sentence a male for FGC made it possible to overlook this citizen's legal rights. The case is discussed in its specific social context and in relation to the wider social and political context of FGC in Sweden. I try to show that this case cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of Somali culture and that the court members, rather than aiming for a well-grounded understanding of the case, leaned toward popular and stereotyped notions of FGC as well as of Somali men and women. Ethnocentric ideas of family organisation also affected the outcome of the court proceedings. With more realistic preconceptions of the Somali practice of female circumcision among Somalis, Ali Elmi would have walked free.

The authors analyse the experience of Toston, a Senegalese NGO, with the abandonment of female genital cutting (FGC) in Senegal, the Sudan, and Mali. Toston uses non-formal, participatory methodologies to support village-based social change, especially in the areas of human rights and women's health. (InWent/DÜI)

Der Beitrag befasst sich anhand des konkreten Handlungsbereichs "Female Genital Cutting (FGC)" mit den Herausforderungen kultursensibler Sozialer Arbeit. Einleitend werden die Eckpfeiler und Schlüsselfragen feministisch-postkolonialer Theorieansätze thematisiert und reflektiert sowie die unterschiedlichen Facetten von FGC und die damit einhergehenden ethischen Dilemmata erläutert. Aus sozialarbeiterischer Perspektive wird aufgezeigt, welche Rolle die Menschenrechte im Kampf gegen FGC spielen, mit Fokus auf das Spannungsfeld zwischen Universalismus und Kulturrelativismus, in welchem sich Sozialarbeiter_innen im Kontext von kultursensibler Beratung befinden. Hauptaugenmerk wird auf die Analyse von interkulturellen Handlungsansätzen aus feministischpostkolonialer Perspektive gesetzt, mit dem Ziel, Risiken der Reproduktion von "Othering"-Prozessen aufzuzeigen und Handlungsimplikationen im Kontext von FGC-Beratungen darzulegen. ; (VLID)5299026

In 2006-2007 (from District Court to the Supreme Court), the Swedish citizen Ali Elmi Hayow was sentenced to prison for female genital mutilation of his daughter. In this paper I argue that the popular understanding of FGC, seeing African men as the true actors and stakeholders in the upholding of FGC, rendered it impossible for this man to get a fair trial. The facts presented during court proceedings were interpreted within a radical feminist framework, and the political will to sentence a male for FGM made it possible to overlook this citizen's legal rights. The case is presented and discussed in relation to the social context of this specific case. Further it is discussed in relation to the wider social and political context of FGC in Sweden. I try to show that this case cannot be fully understood without knowledge of some cultural traits among Somalis and that the court members, rather than aiming for a well-grounded understanding of the case, leaned toward popular and stereotyped notions of FGC as well as of Somali men and women. Ethnocentric ideas of family organisation were also important for the outcome of the court proceedings. With less twisted and more realistic preconceptions of the Somali practice of FGC and gender relations, I argue, Ali Elmi Hayow would have walked free.

The present study examined the effectiveness of Family Group Conferencing (FGC) in child welfare. Effects were operationalized in terms of child safety (child maltreatment, supervision order, and out-of-home placement), number of professional services used, parental empowerment, and social support in a 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-up. Furthermore, the influence of family characteristics and the level of FGC completion were examined. A total of 328 families were included, randomly assigned to an experimental group ( n = 229) and a care as usual (CAU) group ( n = 99). FGC was equally effective as CAU in improving child safety but resulted in more out-of-home placements. Furthermore, FGC resulted in a longer duration of child welfare involvement, a marginally higher number of professional services used, and increased parental empowerment and social support. Family characteristics did not moderate the results. Level of FGC completion was in general low. Higher levels of completion were related to a larger social network, a higher number of professional services used, and, marginally, less parental empowerment. In conclusion, although some beneficial results marginally support the use of FGC, it is the question whether these effects outweigh FGC costs, a longer duration of child welfare involvement and a higher number of professional services used.