Sarah Yousri
ABSTRACT
Graphic Medicine as a Wake-up Call to Stand Against Female Genital Mutilation in Egypt
Sarah Yousri
Helwan University
Graphic Medicine as a Wake-up Call to Stand Against Female Genital Mutilation in
Egypt FGM, Female Genital Mutilation is one of the most prevalent criminal practices against girls and women in Egypt. Despite its horrific short- and long-term physical and psychological complications, according to UNICEF data reports, FGM remains widely practised against girls and women aged 15-49 in around 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Non-medical, and primarily social and cultural beliefs that are associated with girls’ and women’s chastity, marriageability, hygiene and honour continue to control the lives of millions of them and, in some cases lead to their death. November 25, 2021, marked the 30th anniversary of the global 16 days campaign of activism which was launched by the Centre for Women’s Leadership to raise awareness about violence against women worldwide. In Egypt, this year, among several events that commemorate the anniversary, Care Egypt Foundation in collaboration with UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund and NCEFGM, the National Committee for the Eradication of Female Genital Mutilation launched a social media against FGM entitled “My Story with FGM”1. The campaign’s team gathered eight real-life stories of FGM women survivors across Egypt and collaborated with artist Noran Fikri who drew the graphic artwork for each
story. In this research project, I argue that the aim of choosing graphic drawings for that campaign is twofold: 1) drawing real-life stories of Egyptian FGM survivors empowers thousands of girls/women to break their silence, to speak out and report about similar practices which may prevent potential victims from undergoing such abuse; 2) this campaign aims to reach large numbers of social platforms’ users, to make FGM everyone’s problem in Egypt, in the hope of shifting the narrative from chiefly raising awareness about such practice into inspiring mainly not NGOs, Lawmakers or National Officials but individuals—whether directly harmed or not—to take an action against FGM and other “Femicide”2 crimes. I also suggest that this eight-graphic-stories collection is a representation of a graphic medicine movement in Egypt. Coined in 2010 by the British Physician and comics artist Ian William, Graphic Medicine is “the intersection of the medium of comics and the discourse of healthcare . . . a community where many people have found their voice” (Czerwiec et al, 2015, p.1). Graphic form lends a fresh perspective to the reader of personal physical, psychological or mental suffering. It softly invites sufferers to share their story. Visual delineation of the memory of pain and hurt of such abuse to the life-long post-traumatic thoughts and feelings which those women are forced to live with, subtly connect them to their fellow survivors in a manner that words cannot attain. Since it is a social media campaign, each of these eight very short stories is illustrated in a one-page graphic artwork, in, precisely, a short quick yet shocking and horrifying emotion-packed post.
1 https://care.org.eg/ar/ 2021/11/25/2-الختان-مع-حكايتي/
2 “End Femicide” or #Let’sEndFemicide is the focus of this year’s Global 16 days Campaign. Global 16 Days
Campaign. https://16dayscampaign.org/
References:
Czerwiec et al. (2015). Graphic Medicine Manifesto. The Pennsylvania State University
Press.
BIO
Sarah Yousri is assistant lecturer and a PhD candidate in the department of English at Helwan University, Egypt. During her MA, she was a graduate assistant at Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for American Studies and Research (CASAR) at the American University of Cairo for a full academic year. Her PhD research focuses on Graphic Medicine and Embodied Cognition studies. She is currently a member of the committee that designs and develops the English Department’s undergraduate program of the newly established Helwan National University, Egypt.
Sarah participated in an advanced training program on applied linguistics at Trinity College, Dublin, in the Summer of 2019. She was a Cambridge English Oral Examiner at the American University in Cairo. She completed a 30-hour Teacher Training Program at the British Council through Higher Education English Access Programme (HEEAP), in Egypt, (funded by the European Union). She is also a certified Arabic language teacher; she obtained the Career Certificate in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (CCTAFL) at the American University in Cairo.