Anti-FGM campaigner Hibo Wardere comes under attack

[JustTurtlesAllTheWayDown]

Again. I know Hibo has put out more than one video clarifying that her focus is on women and girls and on stopping FGM, but she did another one last night after being piled on and called a hater for not being 'inclusive' in her language.
mobile.twitter.com/HiboWardere/status/1362100744216866825
I am bloody angry about it this morning.
Hibo Wardere is a personal hero of mine for the amazing work she's done.
Attacking her for not focusing on other issues is the lowest of the low. The misogyny is rank.
(Also, if anyone hasn't got her book 'Cut' on their feminist book shelf, I really do recommend it. It's not an easy read but I found her journey incredibly inspiring).

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

first time I've seen an actual attempt to undermine the term FGM itself though. I'm sure it won't be the last.

Wasn't this attempted (maybe even passed?) by the Green Party - when Amy C and David C were involved in shaping the constitution? They had a motion to delete F and advocated making it Person or some such?

[Ereshkigalangcleg]

This push has been around for a while on the more extremist fringes of the trans rights movement, but it recently seems to have gained legitimacy.

[PermanentTemporary]

I think there is a strand of truth in it - there is an element of equivalence between genital procedures on any child too young to consent- but I also strongly believe that denying the sex differences both in prevalence and consequences of FGM and male circumcision is wrong, and I say this as someone who had her son circumcised and regrets it completely.

[Fluffien]

No they are not the same.

[ChancesWhatChances]

Why can trans people never accept something isn’t about them.

[PermanentTemporary]

Because if the aim is recasting socially acceptable language so that sex becomes irrelevant except as a private consumer choice as per crazed neoliberal fantasies/avatar use, FGM is a barrier to that.

[PermanentTemporary]

Sigh. I mean the campaign about FGM.

[PotholeParadies]

This thread from the German parenting expert is infuriating.

twitter.com/planet_eltern/status/1363198996307730434?s=19

[Igneococcus]

"'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."

I'm a native German speaker and I have no idea what she means with this, specifically with "sowie als weiblich gelesene Personen, die Opfer von Genitalverstümmelung werden können"
God, she waffles.

[PotholeParadies]

Ooh. Finaally. Finally.

The Spiegel writer has sort of apologised!

twitter.com/planet_eltern/status/1363896302233354240?s=19

[Igneococcus]

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

[PotholeParadies]

@Igneococcus

"'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."

I'm a native German speaker and I have no idea what she means with this, specifically with "sowie als weiblich gelesene Personen, die Opfer von Genitalverstümmelung werden können"
God, she waffles.

I think she's translating English woke-speak back in and out of German. Organic google translate!

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?

[BuntingEllacott]

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

[PotholeParadies]

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.

[Igneococcus]

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.

[PotholeParadies]

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.

[Igneococcus]

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.

[PotholeParadies]

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.

[BuntingEllacott]

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.

[PotholeParadies]

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

[EmbarrassingAdmissions]

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.

[PotholeParadies]

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

[PotholeParadies]

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.

[BuntingEllacott]

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.

[PotholeParadies]

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.