Why do people continue harmful social practices?
On female genital mutilation, social dilemmas, and how we can find our way out of coordination traps.
Eighty-two percent of females under the age of seventeen in Egypt have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) (Maged, 2019). This deadly practice involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia – a process that has no religious or scientific backing for any benefit. Yet, it strives. While there are many examples of social dilemmas evident in our daily lives, FGM is a coordination trap - benefitting no one at all, yet it continues because the social benefits of continuing the practice outweigh the social harm of being one of the people who stands up against it.
A coordination trap, much like the name implies, is a case where people are not moving to a better outcome. It is one example of three types of social dilemmas – externalities, commitment problems, and coordination traps. In this particular social dilemma, everyone benefits if no one continues to commit the crime; however, everyone benefits most when they are doing what everyone else is also doing. Meaning that because there is a majority (in the communities that continue to practice FGM) of people who do commit the crime, everyone in these communities is more likely to continue the practice as well. Social scientists have found the best way to deal with coordination problems is through short term solutions - since once more people begin moving to the better alternative, everyone will want to follow, policy makers resolve towards simple solutions. The best methods to fix a coordination problem is through three aspects: leadership to reset expectations, communication, and insurance to balance out the possible consequences of taking action.
There are no benefits to the operation. There are immediate complications that lead to increased health risks, including severe pain, wound healing problems, infections, excessive bleeding, shock, psychological problems – including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder- and even death (WHO, 2020). Some girls may even need later surgeries. The girls do not benefit from this operation, they risk death. The families do not benefit from this operation, they risk their daughters dying. Individuals who live in or near these communities need to advocate louder to put an end to this harmful social practice in order to begin resolving the issue.
Among Middle Eastern countries, Egypt has the highest rate of FGM (Bissada, 2019). In Luxor, for example, ninety-nine percent of women have undergone some type of the operation (UNICEF, 2015). Egypt has been dealing with FGM for decades, with families purposefully taking their daughters to certified or uncertified doctors to commit the operation. Although rural areas continue to practice the procedure more often, more than 43 percent of women (UNFPA, 2017) in urban areas think the practice should continue. This has caused severe harm on the young women involved as well as the hope for stronger women’s rights movements in these areas. Some families even view it as a social activity, going together with their daughters to get the operation done on all of them at the same time.
By increasing awareness about how harmful this social practice actually is, we can begin to move people away from the current situation.
However, this action is condemned in the wider Egyptian population – and the negative views of it have been gaining popularity. Al Azhar, Egypt’s leading religious university, has worked closely with the United Nations in support of ending the practice; meanwhile, the Egyptian government criminalized the act in 2008 – leaving up to seven years in prison for those who perform the operation (and up to three years for anyone who brings the victims to the process). Health professionals everywhere continue denying any benefits to the operation. Furthermore, youth-led initiatives have supported the women in these communities. For example, through the use of theatre, Y-Peer has held trainings aimed at addressing sensitive material. As such, 1080 families in Assiut alone have publicly declared abandonment of FGM (UNFPA, 2017). While this practice may be common in some governorates more than others, it is still common over the entire country – the UNICEF pushes that the rate of decline in the practice needs to be fifteen times faster if Egypt hopes to reach its goal of eliminating FGM by 2030.Through wider condemnation of the practice, increasing awareness of the negatives it holds, and pushing forward the risks that are associated with it, we can begin to dent the operation and hope for more communities to condemn the process entirely.
By increasing awareness about how harmful this social practice actually is, we can begin to move people away from the current situation. There are no benefits to performing FGM – the entire community would benefit from reaching the end of this harmful practice. Through communicating with people about the harm, we can take part in ending the spread of FGM. While leadership and insurance are also positive ways to make change in coordination traps, communication is something everyone, everywhere can take part in. Until we all take part in the movement to end FGM, no one will want to commit against social norms and stop performing the act.
Notes for further understanding:
Let’s talk about game theory.
Normal form games are usually made up of two actors and two decisions.
Game theory is a framework used to model actions and dilemmas of different actors. The basic model consists of two actors, two possible decisions each, and four payoffs – depending on which actor chooses what decision.
The values represented as payoffs refer to each person’s happiness associated with the given decision. To read the given table, note that Actor 1’s payoffs are written first in each box. So, if Actor 1 chooses not to commit the act while Actor 2 chooses to commit the act, they would be left with (6,4), respectively. Meaning, Actor 1 will have 6 units of ‘utility’ (or, happiness) and Actor 2 will have 4 units.
To solve the game, take it one row at a time. We assume that both actors play at the same time. Thinking like A1, we will compare the benefits from each action A2 will take. If A2 decides to commit, A1 will choose to commit as well. If A2 chooses not to commit, A1 will choose not to commit as well – and the same thing happens with Actor 2. As such, we are left with two outcomes for each player to choose between – (10,10) and (20,20). With FGM, people are already born into a society that performs the act – so they are automatically placed into the (10, 10) equilibrium. By increasing awareness and moving more people to the (20, 20) equilibrium, the numbers of people who will stop committing the act will increase exponentially.
Citations and sources for further reading:
“A Father Against the Current.” UNICEF Egypt, www.unicef.org/egypt/stories/father-against-current.
Bissada, Anne-Marie. “The Truth about Female Genital Mutilation in Egypt and Beyond.” RFI, RFI, 9 Dec. 2019, www.rfi.fr/en/middle-east/20191122-egypt-female-genital-mutilation-fgm-torture-middle-east-africa-stop-origins.
Diop, Nafissatou J, et al. “17 Ways to End FGM/C.” Lessons From the Field, July 2017. United Nations Population Fund, https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/17ways-web.pdf.
“Female Genital Mutilation.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation.
“Female Genital Mutilation.” UNFPA Egypt, 3 Mar. 2020, egypt.unfpa.org/en/node/22544.
“Female Genital Mutilation in Egypt: Recent Trends and Projections.” UNICEF, Feb. 2020, https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=18&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjX8sexgajpAhVNXBoKHZVxBpcQFjARegQIBxAB&url=https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/FGM-Brochure-Recent-Trends-Projections-Egypt-English_2020.pdf&usg=AOvVaw20oxzpEhxALI1sPtSHHr2j.
Maged, Mira. “Egypt Ranks First Globally in FGM Medicalization.” Egypt Independent, 7 Mar. 2019, egyptindependent.com/egypt-ranks-first-globally-in-fgm-medicalization/.
Tag-Eldin, Mohammed A. “Prevalence of Female Genital Cutting among Egyptian Girls.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol. 86, no. 4, Jan. 2008, pp. 269–274., doi:10.2471/blt.07.042093.
“Working towards Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation in Sudan.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/working-towards-zero-tolerance-for-female-genital-mutilation-in-sudan.
