Anti-FGM campaigner Hibo Wardere comes under attack

Yeah, but after that shit show that's the very least I would expect.

But I do like that she switched to using FGM instead of pointedly saying genital mutilation.

Yeah. Just as you nearly think maybe she really gets it and is sorry, that bit hits you.

Privileged woman blunders into the reception her arrogant pontifications should get when practised on women and girls who have suffered for being female, and has a tiny inkling that her theoretical bullshit is just that, but still has to lob a 'I'm sad about the uncompliant woman of colour, but I know I'm right' as she slinks away. Grim

This is the thread from this afternoon.

After some turbulent days here on Twitter and elsewhere, I need to say a few more things about feminist activism, #fgm, solidarity with trans people and inclusive language.

The most important thing first; I ask your forgiveness.

Namely because I rushed precipitately into a discussion without knowing all the background. I had underestimated its explosive nature and many people were hurt in the course of events. I’m sorry.

In brief, the origins. I follow the author Milli Hill on Twitter because she writes books for expectant parents in the English-speaking world so she is a virtual colleague. Apart from that, I am absolutely not at home with English-speaking Twitter.

When I was reeled in by a tweet by Milli in my timeline, in which she wrote, in other words, “unbelievable that this woman is being attacked for placing women and girls at the centre of her work and her language”, I remembered lines which I often hear.

Lines like “Nowadays you can’t even say that you’re a woman”. Or “Calling girls girls is apparently no longer politically correct”. In short, you reminded me of prejudices against inclusive, gender-sensitive language.

This subject is a bit of a hobby-horse of mine, because I have learned so much about the topic in recent years, and because it is so important to me today to write as precisely and inclusively (and legibly and appealingly as possible. Because language has power.

Short interpolation: I am a liberal, intersectional feminist, which means my feminism includes trans women equally. And that should characterise my work as an author and in particular my language. Here I discuss it further [link to her work on inclusive language off twitter]

Anyway, I read Milli’s tweet, looked briefly at the original tweet, which she had commented on and shared, and then I spontaneously had an impulse to exchange with her. From author to author, so to speak.

I wanted to advertise inclusive language to another writer, and thus show that it is no problem, to call women and girls, women and girls, but it is helpful to be appreciative of exactly whom you’re labelling with that.

So my desire was an exchange of ideas on equal footing, from one white cis woman to another. Then I realised very quickly that is wasn’t working out as I’d thought. Very many people commented on my tweet, including many who introduced themselves as radical feminists.

That means, that the main debaters here were women who explicitly exclude trans women. As I knew that exchange would be fruitless between us due to our different core values, I quickly bowed out of the discussion.

What I gave too little headspace to on my brief excursion to the English-speaking twitterworld, was the actual topic of the video that Milli had shared with her comment, and thus the core concern of its creator, @HiboWardere.

Wardere is a survivor of brutal genital mutilation and fights today against this barbaric practice. For this she deserves huge respect.

What I didn’t know was that for several months a fight on the subject of inclusive language has been raging, and it has been a factor that led to her being showered with hateful messages. Against that, she now defended herself, visibly attacked and shocked.

I don’t presume to be able to track the exact origin and course of this conflict here. However I can say that I kind of poured petrol on a smouldering fire with my tweet about inclusive language. Without knowing it.

For that I am eternally sorry. No-one should be exposed to hate speech online, especially not marginalised survivors of terrible violence. And nothing was further from my mind than wanting to fuel such violence.

Naturally I find it sad that Wardere - probably because of the terrible attacks that she had to endure – now simply blocks even the most respectful comments on the topic of trans identity and sometimes retweets hatespeech.

But I see that the account of a black #fgm-activist (and also the Drüko-tweets of her videos) rank amongst the worst places conceivable to have a constructive discussion on the subject of inclusivity and gender-sensitive language.

If I was in the same situation again and saw the tweet from Milli on my timeleine, I might send her a private message, but I would not respond publicly, as I did before.

Instead, I would express my solidarity with trans people and other margianlised groups in my own work, as I did previously.

It is important to me to emphasise that I definitely didn’t mean to pick a quarrel in order to get attention, to sow discord, or to fuel conflict. I simply wanted to be an ally and I got carried away.

Nevertheless I will leave my tweets on the topic to stand, for reading and further thought, and reflecting on successful and less successful ways to be a good person and to live and act by one’s own values.

Thank you to everyone who helps me with this.

Right, so: it's important that children don't bleed to death or live a life of pain for cultural reasons. But it's much more important that we never, ever say that the reason those children are at risk is because they are girls with female bodies who may get pregnant, and cutting them is supposed to control their sexuality and mark out the 'good' girls from the 'bad' girls. Even though that is the only reason for the risk and the agony they suffer. And her job in life is to police women's language in case they ever betray any knowledge in any context that they are female, that this makes them different from males, and that they would be at risk in the same situation because they are female.

She's a traitor.

The irony of her rambling long pseudo apology (I too read some German and a so relieved to hear from a native German speaker it wasn't just me who was confused) is that she still is directing this conversation towards trans. Worrying about trans inclusive language on issues that have nothing whatsoever to do with trans people is such an unnecessary distraction from helping girls at risk for FGM.

All the time it took for feminists to defend Hibo and for Hibo to defend herself could have been spent in letter writing campaigns to human rights groups, in charity fundraising for anti-FGM NGOs and general public awareness. What a waste of everyone's time!

Then we had a day or so of TRAs earnestly explaining they weren't criticising Hibo, but they were upset that white british feminists were using a black woman to be transphobic. That of course they understood that Hibo had a licence to be transphobic, but those awful, white rad-feminists with intact genitals, needed to check their privilege and stop being transexclusionary.

I am only paraphrasing slightly.

Oh, I remember. I won't ever forget.

pretty sure Hibo was tagged in all this, remember. Hibo got the shitstorm that came from a bestselling author with 13,500 followers sticking her oar in.

Yesterday I tried to have an exchange with a white author about why I find it a shame that Hibo Wardere the women’s right activist does not include trans women in her definition of women.

That is something completely different from speaking to Hibo Wardere herself. As a white woman who was not a victim of genital mutilation herself, naturally I am not entitled to criticise a WoC who was herself a victim of genital mutilation.

Now you have translated from German, I shall translate from self righteous horror:

I would never say these things to Hibo herself because I know how incredibly crass and despicable that would reveal me to be. I reserve the right to say these things to women I feel no need to condescend to, because Hibo is essentially leverage in my quest to be seen as someone who is very kind and nice and increase my own personal sense of righteousness.

I've now realized how this one isn't going my way, so I shall reiterate my commitment to my own righteousness and wait for the next opportunity to stick the boot in when a brown woman I deign to listen to a little bit needs to be corrected.

That's the thread from the 20th, after she engaged in the English posts that were posted in this thread.

She has done a bit of grovelling today, and I'll tackle that next.

The genital mutilation of women and girls, and people who are perceived as women and girls, is a terrible injustice. That’s why I am 100% behind the work of Hibo Wardere and all other activists, who oppose it across the world.

The right to safe and dignified abortion is also a cause close to my heart. That’s why I am so thankful for the efforts of @haenel_kh who has worked relentlessly for years for this fundamental right.

And I stand in solidarity with trans people, who are so often not considered in our society, not represented in language, and who experience so much discrimination every day.

All these and many other matters are simultaneously close to my heart. They are neither mutually exclusive nor do they compete with each other.

Sometimes the advocate of one of these causes close to my heart does not support another cause also close to my heart. Sometimes @?//haenel_kh does not speak of people with uteruses in her efforts for pregnancy rights. [really not quite sure about that sentence.] I think that’s a shame.

However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t value her efforts and appreciate it. It is the same with other causes.

Yesterday I tried to have an exchange with a white author about why I find it a shame that Hibo Wardere the women’s right activist does not include trans women in her definition of women.

That is something completely different from speaking to Hibo Wardere herself. As a white woman who was not a victim of genital mutilation herself, naturally I am not entitled to criticise a WoC who was herself a victim of genital mutilation.

It is obviously clear to me that trans women and girls can’t be victims of genital mutilation of the vulva and clitoris.

But whoever says, “I centre women and girls in my work, not men who identify as women” uses trans-hostile language and hurts.

The sentence “I centre women and girls and people who can be perceived as women, who can be victims of genital mutilation” would, however, be an example of inclusive language.

Some people argue that when it is about such serious, painful and weighty feminist issues as genital mutilation or abortion, the sensitivities of a few trans people don’t matter.

“Trans people don’t need to be the focus everywhere”, I often hear. But the point is, it’s not about putting trans people at the centre. The sole point is not discriminating against them.

An important and great effort for a particular issue does not bar discriminatory, hurtful behaviour.

If a person campaigned for children’s rights with verve but used racist language -- would it be nasty and inappropriate to make that a subject of discussion

Or if someone campaigned for disability rights but had sexist prejudices – shouldn’t we address that

That is the basis for why I sometimes try to cautiously enter into discussion, if I am in a position to simultaneously see great efforts for a good cause and appreciate discrimination.

At the same time, it is also very important to me not to divert discussion away from the core issues that unite us. So I quickly draw back from any discussion that threatens to degenerate into a verbal slugfest.

Italics are my notes.

white author refers to Milli Hill

Re: check your privilege

It reminds me of previous discussions about luxury beliefs and why, Rob Henderson calls them ‘luxury beliefs’ – ideas and opinions that confer status on the rich and privileged at very little cost, while taking a toll on poorer people who are more vulnerable and less privileged.

When someone uses the phrase “cultural appropriation,” what they are really saying is “I was educated at a top college.” Consider the Veblen quote, “Refined tastes, manners, habits of life are a useful evidence of gentility, because good breeding requires time, application and expense, and can therefore not be compassed by those whose time and energy are taken up with work.” Only the affluent can afford to learn strange vocabulary because ordinary people have real problems to worry about.
"The costs created by the luxury beliefs of the former are borne by the latter….

Back when I was a reporter writing society stories (antiquated concept), I always thought that the quest for status was as basic to humankind as the drive for food and shelter.

If I was right in this, it means that people will not easily be debated out of harmful beliefs if these beliefs confer status." (Charlotte Hayes: www.iwf.org/2019/11/18/luxury-beliefs-replace-luxury-goods-as-status-indicators/ )

Sadly, it seems as if there is accrued status from participating in the public shaming or assault on Hibo W's beliefs and work. And there couldn't be a plainer disparity in privilege between those who are active in those and those whom Hibo W has protected and continues to lobby to protect.

You just wait Bunting. Nearly finished and I didn't realise how awful the first thread was when I read it in German. Fuck.

If ever 'check your privilege' was appropriate, it's in the smug lingo-bullshit from the 'educated' women who so eagerly perform punishment rituals on those women who have more pressing concerns than pretend pronouns.

I have used many Ps in that sentence. I imagine the unconscious plosiveness is my own anger at another woman pulling this shite.

I am halfway through her first thread of salf-defence and scratching my head at what she's saying. Mein Gott!

Waffle, waffle. Could open a breakfast café here.

I can understand it if I try but I'm not used to having to put so much effort into understanding my own native language, I have no idea how migrants from countries where FGM is performed would cope with it.

I do hope Nora Imlau googles her own name occassionally and finds this thread.

And this is the thing that epitomises identity politics.

She is a native German speaker, and I can only understand that sentence because I am not!

It is morally bankrupt to insist grassroot campaigners like Hibo use such a style of speech within her own community to please outsiders like Nora. If Nora is so convinced it's achievable, how about she tackles awareness raising about FGM in Germany? We'll see how far she gets.

Organic google translate!
She lives in Freiburg says wiki, of course she would only use an organic version of google

Yes, that makes sense, her way of inclusivity means it's almost impossible to read.

She's a prat, but she's finally realising she's a prat, Bunting, and possibly the scale of the backlash. German rad-fem twitter is furious.

Ich stelle in den Mittelpunkt meiner Arbeit jene Frauen und Mädchen sowie als weiblich gelesene Personen, die Opfer von Genitalverstümmelung werden können' wäre hingegen ein Beispiel für eine inklusive Ausdrucksweise."

"In my work I centre women and girls as well as persons perceived as girls, who can be victims of genital mutilation".

If you click on individual tweets, you get a automatic translation into English, and they're all basically accurate.

I'll go translate the key ones.

Please help those of us whose German stalled at Sub-GCSE level...

If I take that directly into English, she means transboys who are perceived as girls and so suffer sexual discrimination like FGM.

Loses a lot of power, doesn't it? As has been pointed out to her over the last few days, how on earth is Hibo supposed to recite all that and still retain emotional impact when she is explaining to a family that they can and should reject traditional cultural values and that it is mutilation.

She says herself, she works with communities that don't have the vocabulary of child abuse. And she must insert gender-ID? Will families brought up with FGM take Hibo's exhortations seriously if she explains that some boys look like girls in the middle of her explanation that childhood FGM increases the risk of stillbirth for the victims as adults?

I don't think she writes for the Spiegel, I got that wrong, she was on the Spiegel Bestsellerlist.