Today, 6 February, marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. It is neither a symbolic anniversary nor merely another date in the human rights calendar. It is an uncomfortable reminder of the extent to which the bodies of women and girls remain, in far too many contexts, territory for control, discipline and structural violence.
Female genital mutilation is neither culture, nor tradition, nor identity. It is a practice that violates fundamental rights: physical integrity, health, bodily autonomy and dignity. More than 230 million women and girls have already suffered it, and millions remain at risk each year. Behind every figure lies a specific body, an interrupted history, a marked biography.
It also demands a review of how we view, represent and understand the bodies of others
El lema internacional de este año plantea un horizonte claro y deliberadamente exigente: “Hacia 2030: no acabaremos con la mutilación genital femenina sin un compromiso e inversión sostenidos.” No habla de buenas intenciones, sino de responsabilidad política. De recursos, de continuidad, de voluntad real. Porque el problema no es la falta de conocimiento, sino la persistencia de estructuras que permiten que esta violencia continúe normalizada, silenciada o relativizada.
Erradicar la mutilación genital femenina implica mucho más que prohibiciones legales. Exige trabajo comunitario, educación, acompañamiento a las supervivientes y protección efectiva para las niñas. Exige también revisar cómo miramos, representamos y entendemos los cuerpos ajenos: qué cuerpos se consideran disponibles, qué violencias se toleran en nombre de lo “tradicional”, qué silencios se perpetúan por comodidad o distancia geográfica.
At Kripties Foundation, we advocate for art and culture as critical spaces from which to challenge such normalised violence. Art does not provide reparation in isolation, yet it names, exposes, unsettles and shifts perspectives. Such a shift is essential for any profound social transformation.
To speak of zero tolerance today is not a rhetorical gesture. It is to accept that the eradication of female genital mutilation is a collective obligation that challenges governments, institutions, civil society and those of us working within the cultural sphere.
There is no possibility of neutrality when the body is the battlefield. There is no equitable future if millions of girls grow up with their integrity compromised by violence.