Photo: Mark Hillary
MORE than 130 women have been treated for female genital mutilation (FGM) in the past year at the hospital in the centre of the storm over the first prosecution for the illegal practice, Islington Now can reveal.
The figures, which have been slammed as “horrifying” by a local councillor, are revealed as a doctor from Whittington Hospital and another man are to be charged as Britain’s first prosecutions for alleged FGM.
The figures are revealed as a doctor from Whittington Hospital and another man are to be charged as Britain’s first prosecutions for alleged FGM.
The African Well Woman clinic, based on the hospital’s fifth floor, looks after women who are affected by female genital mutilation.
Every woman booked into the hospital for maternity care is asked if she has been subject to genital mutilation and, if needed, they are referred to the clinic while other women directly approach the specialist team for treatment related to FGM, according to Joy Clarke, the midwife who set up the African Well Woman Clinic.
Ms Clarke set up the second clinic in London aimed at specifically helping women affected by FGM in 2000. She received expert training from Dr Comfort Momoh, of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, which was the first centre in London and in the past year has seen 450-500 women.
FGM treatment at Whittington
Ms Clarke, a trained midwife, looks after women who have been affected by FGM at different levels of severity. Out of the four levels of FGM, type three – which involves the vagina being sewn up – is the most serious.
Around seven to eight percent of the women who received support from the clinic in the last year have been subject to type three FGM, according to Ms Clarke.
Ms Clarke’s work involves reversing some of the damage to a woman’s genitals caused by this procedure in a process called deinfibulation, where scar tissue is opened to make it easier to examine the woman and to ensure the baby is delivered as safely as possible.
The reversal is most commonly done during the latter half of a woman’s pregnancy or during the early stages of labour.
“Women with type three are usually given a choice and are happy to have [the FGM procedure] reversed. I have never had any woman come in that doesn’t [want that],” Ms Clarke said.
Alongside physical treatment, Ms Clarke and her team offer counselling. She explained that women often blame themselves because “it was done when they were children” and “they weren’t old enough to consent”.
“They need to get away from that. [In Britain] they are living in a different world. Here we have laws and so on, and we’ve got to teach them not to blame [themselves] and just to feel better about themselves and their body image.”
Ursula Woolley, an Islington councillor, was shocked at the revelations: “It’s horrifying, frankly, and doesn’t reflect well on any of us. It’s great that things are happening now – but it’s sad that things have been so wrong in the past and that there are so many women who we haven’t helped. It’s scandalous that this has taken place here in Islington. We need to take a lead in making sure this doesn’t happen in the future.”
None of the women Ms Clarke has dealt with were born in the UK but they originate from communities that practise FGM, such as Somalia, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Zambia, Eretria, Ghana and Iraq.
“Now these are women that I have personally met who have had FGM, but bear in mind that FGM is practised in 29 out of 43 African [and Middle Eastern] countries,” she said.
Each year the African Well Woman Clinic also treats around 10 women who are not pregnant, but are either about to get married or have recently wed.
“It’s all about being married, because it proves, if you have FGM type three, that you have had no intercourse or slept with anyone.
Karen Ingala Smith, CEO of domestic violence/rape crisis centre, NIA said:
“There is finally increasing focus on the need to prevent FGM and to recognise it as child abuse. However, it is important to remember that FGM affects victims their whole lives and that services are needed to support women as well as deal with the physical damage which can include scar tissue tearing or failing to tear during childbirth, painful intercourse and urinary and menstrual problems. The possibility of ending FGM is within reach but for thousands of women and girls it is too late. We mustn’t forget them. ”
Any Londoners affected by FGM should visit one of the ten specialist clinics in the capital. Their details are on the map below or can be found by visiting the charity FORWARD’s website.
The UK’s first FGM prosecution
There is no suggestion that the two men charged have any connection with the 130 cases seen by the clinic.
Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena is accused of carrying out an illegal FGM procedure on an adult woman who gave birth in Whittington Hospital in November 2012, the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement. The Metropolitan Police had asked the CPS to investigate, the statement said.
A spokesman for Whittington Hospital told Islington Now that it had held its own investigation into the matter.
Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions, said: “Having carefully considered all the available evidence, I have determined there is sufficient evidence and it would be in the public interest to prosecute Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena for an offence contrary to S1 (1) of the Female Genital Mutilation Act (2003).”
Dr Dharmasena, 31, and Hasan Mohamed, 40, who is alleged to have aided and abetted the illegal act, will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 15. FGM carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Last week we revealed that Whittington Hospital staff have been abused 1,200 times in five years.
