The first webinar on the theme of Mothers & Daughters: Continuity, Love, Fear & Belonging Webinar, part of the Patriarchal Inscriptions: Female bodies contested, invaded defended & owned webinar series.

Feminism has made exploration of relations between mothers and daughters central to its project. How are these considered fraught, damaged, broken, or, in the eyes of FGM-supporters, strengthened by clitoridectomy? (The impairment, understood as universal to womanhood, is implicated no matter whether ‘rites of passage’ are explicitly celebrated). Given most nation’s adherence to global governance, human rights conventions, and attainment of Sustainable Development Goals, how is FGM antitheical to macro-political aims by impeding women’s solidarity and smiting them with a range of debilities (negative health consequences)? How does FGM compare to other abuses women endure that fracture their inclination to identify and support one another, instead becoming invested in, or complicit with, systemic injustice?

Speakers

In the Name of Your Daughter & Maa Feew, Giselle Portenier, Broadcast journalist, Cineaste, Producer, Director focusing mainly on women’s human rights & Mariame Racine Sow, PhD in education, Managing Director, FORWARD for Women (Registered Charity) & Ma Feew Project

Marginalisation of community voices in fighting FC/FGM/C, Phyll Livaha, Senior Lecturer at Erasmus University College, Rotterdam (Netherlands) teaching international relations & international law

No more oversimplifying! FGM in African & African Diaspora Memoirs, Tobe Levin von Gleichen, PhD in comparative literature, Visiting Professor, King’s College London & Associate, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University & Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, DPhil in literature, MEP (Member of the European Parliament, Green Party, Germany); formerly Erlangen City Councilwoman, President of DaMigra & President of FORWARD-Germany, e.V.

Respondents

Wangûi wa Goro, Visiting Professor LSE, translator, editor & author

Alimatu Dimonekene, anti-FGM activist, survivor & public speaker

Following the presentations, there will be a moderated Q&A.

Registered attendees will be sent the access link to participate in the webinar on their web browser or via the Microsoft Teams app the day prior.

To register your place, please visit Eventbrite.