About us
The FGM-Toolkit was created by the Stop FGM Middle East & Asia campaign and funded by the Wallace Foundation.
The Stop FGM Middle East & Asia campaign was founded in 2013 by WADI e.V. and Hivos International and is now run by WADI e.V.
The campaign collects and distributes information on female genital mutilation (FGM) in Middle Eastern and Asian countries. We lobby UN organizations and advocate for laws and fatwas against this form of child abuse. We connect with activists and support them to initiate campaigns. Since our foundation, we have supported several groups and individuals to conduct surveys as a first step to recognition of the problem on local and international level.
Through mutual research, protests, films, conferences etc. it was possible to put a number of countries where girls are mutilated on the map of international organizations. No one doubts anymore that FGM exists in Oman, Iraq, Iran, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Yet, for many other countries still only anecdotal evidence exists, such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Thailand, Brunei, the Phillipines, the Maledives, Sri Lanka and the Russian Republic of Dagestan.
Thus, we keep striving to connect with activists in these places and support them in the initial steps to conduct surveys and gain recognition.
The campaign was born out of our own experience in Iraqi Kurdistan. When our mobile teams discovered that FGM was prevalent in many villages in 2006, no one believed us. It took several surveys and media reports for local politicians and international organizations to recognize that there was indeed a problem.
Founded in 1992, WADI is non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Frankfurt, Germany and Suleymania, Iraq and is recognized as a non-profit association in Germany. Donations are tax-deductible. Nearly 99 percent of WADI’s operating budget directly funds the organization’s projects and programs. Financial and accounting reports are available upon request.
WADI supports people in the Middle East in their strive to improve living conditions and democratic and human rights. Since more than ten years the main focus is the improvement of women’s rights, the struggle against domestic violence and female genital mutilation (FGM) in Northern Iraq. The engagement with FGM in Iraq and further research has led WADI to realize the scope of the problem in large parts of Asia – a human rights’ abuse mostly ignored up to that date. The Stop FGM Middle East & Asia campaign was consequently founded in 2013 to raise awareness internationally, to connect anti-FGM activists in Asia and to organize support for their projects and campaigns.