Editing Female genital mutilation (section)

===Social obligation, poor access to information===
[[File:Keur Simbara, Senegal (8592417042), cropped.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=photograph|Keur Simbara, Senegal, abandoned FGM in 1998 after a three-year program by [[Tostan]].<ref>Gueye, Malick (4 February 2014). [http://www.tostan.org/blog/social-norm-change-theorists-meet-again-keur-simbara-senegal "Social Norm Change Theorists meet again in Keur Simbara, Senegal"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170311194456/http://www.tostan.org/blog/social-norm-change-theorists-meet-again-keur-simbara-senegal |date=11 March 2017 }}, Tostan.</ref>]]

Against the argument that women willingly choose FGM for their daughters, UNICEF calls the practice a "self-enforcing [[social convention]]" to which families feel they must conform to avoid uncut daughters facing social exclusion.<ref>[[#UNICEF2013|UNICEF 2013]], 15.</ref> [[Ellen Gruenbaum]] reported that, in Sudan in the 1970s, cut girls from an Arab ethnic group would mock uncut [[Zarma people|Zabarma]] girls with ''Ya, ghalfa!'' ("Hey, unclean!"). The Zabarma girls would respond ''Ya, mutmura!'' (A ''mutmura'' was a storage pit for grain that was continually opened and closed, like an infibulated woman.) But despite throwing the insult back, the Zabarma girls would ask their mothers, "What's the matter? Don't we have razor blades like the Arabs?"{{sfn|Gruenbaum|2005|loc=432–433}}

Because of poor access to information, and because practitioners downplay the causal connection, women may not associate the health consequences with the procedure. Lala Baldé, president of a women's association in Medina Cherif, a village in Senegal, told Mackie in 1998 that when girls fell ill or died, it was attributed to evil spirits. When informed of the causal relationship between FGM and ill health, Mackie wrote, the women broke down and wept. He argued that surveys taken before and after this sharing of information would show very different levels of support for FGM.{{sfn|Mackie|2003|loc=147–148}} The American non-profit group [[Tostan]], founded by [[Molly Melching]] in 1991, introduced community-empowerment programs in several countries that focus on local democracy, literacy, and education about healthcare, giving women the tools to make their own decisions.<ref>[[#Diop2008|Diop et al. (UNICEF) 2008]].</ref> In 1997, using the Tostan program, [[Malicounda Bambara]] in Senegal became the first village to abandon FGM.{{sfn|Mackie|2000|loc=256ff}} By August 2019, 8,800 communities in eight countries had pledged to abandon FGM and [[child marriage]].{{efn|The eight countries are Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Somalia, and the Gambia.<ref>{{cite web |title=Female Genital Cutting |date=February 2017 |url=https://www.tostan.org/areas-of-impact/cross-cutting-gender-social-norms/female-genital-cutting/ |publisher=Tostan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190826031944/https://www.tostan.org/areas-of-impact/cross-cutting-gender-social-norms/female-genital-cutting/ |archive-date=26 August 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>}}