Sophia Colloquium: Talking about female genital mutilation in Belgium without racism
On 12 November 2025, Sophia, the Belgian network for gender studies, organised a colloquium at Pianofabriek in Saint Gilles. One of the workshops was moderated by our director, Marianne Nguena Kana.
This event was organised around two essential panels, the first one was articulated around the theme “The obstacles and means of integrating gender and intersectionality in health promotion”
The second workshop, “How to approach the subject of female genital mutilation in Belgium from an anti racist and decolonial perspective”, was moderated by Marianne Nguena, with interventions from Aminata Sidibé (Brussels coordinator of GAMS Belgium and co president of the End FGM Network), Myriam Mhamedi (consultant in inclusive communication and intersectional approaches) and Sarah O’Neill (associate professor in medical anthropology at the Université libre de Bruxelles).
The discussion opened with two simple but crucial questions: how do we protect girls without stigmatising communities, and how do we care for women who have undergone FGM without reducing them to victims.
Naming racism, coloniality and systems of violence
Myriam Mhamedi explained that racism and coloniality are systems that shape institutions, knowledge and power. She invited participants to question their own imaginaries, noting that associating female genital mutilation (FGM) only with black African women invisibilises others and reinforces ideas of a civilised Europe versus a barbaric other. She reminded the audience that FGM is part of a wider system of gender based violence. She also compared it with non consensual surgeries on intersex children in Europe, which are rarely recognised as violence.
Epistemic injustice and medical biases
Sarah O’Neill showed how the history of medicine has marginalised the experiences of racialised women. Drawing on her work at CEMAVIE, she stressed the importance of letting women choose their own words and not imposing the label of mutilation. She underlined progress in clinical care but pointed to major gaps in communication and intercultural dialogue. She also warned about harmful practices in some European countries, such as forced genital checks and surprise visits to migrant families, which create fear and mistrust.
Community resistance and lived experience
Aminata Sidibé recalled that resistance to FGM began long before Europe took interest, led by black midwives and health workers. She highlighted the creation of GAMS Belgium in 1996 by Khadidiatou Diallo, a Senegalese woman affected herself. Aminata described how intercultural workers face the burden of being seen only as victims, and how women’s experiences can be misread through racist or exceptionalist narratives. She called for a holistic approach that recognises other forms of violence affecting women’s wellbeing.
Resisting dehumanising narratives
The speakers stressed that female genital mutilation is often used to construct a barbaric other and to feed far right rhetoric. They encouraged analysing how we speak about this human rights violation. They proposed tools such as keeping the topic in the fields of public health and rights, training professionals in sensitive communication and giving real space to the voices of the women concerned.
From analysis to concrete commitments
Marianne closed the session by inviting participants to identify practical changes they could apply in their work. Key priorities included integrating anti racist and decolonial perspectives into policies, centring the leadership of people directly concerned, rejecting racist instrumentalisation, creating participatory structures and strengthening training on anti racism and intersectionality.
The workshop offered a clear and grounded reflection on how to talk about female genital mutilation in Belgium without stigma or racism. It affirmed that the fight against this form of patriarchal violence is inseparable from the fight against structural racism, with women from affected communities at the centre.