Using cultural humility to assess affectees of female genital alteration (FGA)

Assessing individuals affected by female genital alteration (FGA) represents one of the most ethically complex, politically charged, and emotionally demanding areas of contemporary social work practice. This area of work sits at the intersection of child protection, gender-based violence, migration, trauma, cultural identity, and postcolonial power relations (Phillimore et al. 2025; Nyashanu and Mguni 2021; WHO 2018). While FGA is internationally recognised as a violation of the human rights of girls and women, professional engagement with those affected demands approaches that are not only legally robust but also culturally humble and reflexively grounded.

Cultural humility in FGA assessment must not be conflated with cultural relativism, nor understood as neutrality in the face of harm. Rather, it requires practitioners to balance an unequivocal safeguarding mandate with a nuanced understanding of the socio-cultural, religious, historical, and structural contexts within which FGA occurs (Shahvisi 2018; Danso 2018; Dominelli 2003). Mururu (2023) emphasises that culturally sensitive engagement is essential not only for ethical practice but also for effective safeguarding, as assessments that lack humility risk reproducing stigma, mistrust, and colonial narratives of rescue (Njambi 2004).