SOMALI PARENTS AGAINST STIGMATIZATION

In February 2018, a Bristol Somali father was acquitted at Bristol Crown Court. He was wrongfully accused of allowing his six-year old daughter to undergo female circumcision. He was then subsequently acquitted due to no substantive or credible evidence to support the allegations made against him. Indeed, Judge Lambert described the medical evidence as “wholly inconclusive at its highest”. He also said the account of the key witness, (an anti FGM campaigner), was “inconsistent”.

Shortly after the Bristol case, families from the Somali Community had disclosed that many of them were being racially profiled and stigmatized by the “Bristol Safeguarding Policy”. As a result, local councillors were contacted, and several events were done by the newly formed group – “Somali Parents Against Stigmatization” to enable their voices to be heard and to highlight the hurt, pain, and devastating impact unsubstantiated allegations were having on families and communities. Community meetings were held in Bristol regarding the unfair treatment of families being stereotyped at airports, and their freedom of movement, (a basic Human Right), being questioned and in some instances restricted on the condition that they were made to sign a document undertaking that they would not circumcise their daughters.