Transforming Vulnerability into Power: Exploring Empowerment among Women with Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in the Context of Migration in Belgium

Afi Agboli, Mylene Botbol, Sarah O’Neill, Fabienne Richard and Isabelle Aujoulat

Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 2020, vol. 21, issue 1, 49-62

Abstract: This paper discusses an aspect of empowerment in relation to the central human capabilities for women with FGM/C in the diaspora. Many women who have undergone the practice of FGM/C come from societies where gender inequalities and gender-based discrimination between men and women persist, which compromises their capabilities, and many find themselves in vulnerable positions in their relationships with men, at work and in their everyday-life. The participants in this study however appeared somehow to have been empowered through certain health-promoting activities where they exercised agency in the western social context, they reside in. This paper examines the empowerment gained by the migrant women with FGM/C after participating in health-promoting activities. We compared this form of empowerment to the reinforcement of their capabilities according to Nussbaum's central human capabilities. Drawing on Nussbaum's list as a starting point we explore the relationship between capabilities and empowerment. We found that some central human capabilities appeared to be reinforced through health-promoting activities, whereas issues relating to asylum seeking became a determinant of empowerment in the women's own terms. Although the activities aimed to empower women, the participants themselves felt that they would only truly be empowered if they obtained full citizenship.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1080/19452829.2019.1661981

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