“When my mother called to say that the time of cutting had arrived, I escaped to Belgium with my daughter”: Identifying turning points in the change of attitudes towards the practice of Female Genital Mutilation among migrant women in Belgium

Abstract Background: Female Genital Mutilation remains a public health concern with negative consequences on women’s health. It is a harmful practice and recognized in international discourses on public health as a form of gender-based violence of which women are not only victims but also perpetrators. The practice of FGM remains a social norm which is difficult to change because of its deep roots in tradition and how it is embedded in the patriarchal system. However, some women succeeded in changing their attitudes towards it and speak out against it. This study identifies and describes turning points defined as significant and critical events in the lives of the women, that create changes towards the practice of FGM. Methods: We conducted an inductive qualitative study based on the life story approach, where we interviewed 15 women with FGM. During the interviews, the turning points that gave them the courage to change were identified together with the research participants. The analysis drew on lifeline reconstructions and thematic analysis. Results: Six common turning points relating to a change in attitude towards FGM were identified: turning points related to (i) encounters with health professionals, (ii) education, (iii) social interactions with other cultures and their own culture, (iv) experiences of motherhood, (v) repeated pain during sexual or reproductive activity, and (vi) witnessing some harmful consequences of FGM towards loved ones. Conclusion: The turning points identified challenged the understanding of what it means to be a ‘member’ of the community in a patriarchal system, a ‘normal woman’ according to the community and what it means to be a ‘good mother’. Besides, the turning points found were expressed together with some issues related to emotional responses and coming to terms with conflicts of loyalty, which we see as possible common mechanisms to explain the change experienced by the women in our sample.