Female Genital Mutilation as a Question of Gender Equality (with Brenda Kelly)

by | Jul 13, 2018

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Interviewee: Brenda Kelly

Brenda Kelly is a Consultant Obstetrician and Clinical Lead for women with FGM in Oxfordshire

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Interviewer: Kira Allmann

Kira Allmann is the OxHRH Communications Director and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Media Law and Policy at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. Her current research focuses on digital inequality, exploring community-driven grassroots solutions to closing the digital divide. She leads several research projects, using ethnographic methods to study the role of community-owned internet networks, local digital skills training, and public internet access points in promoting digital inclusion. Kira is also a research partner of the Whose Knowledge? campaign, which works to center the knowledge of marginalized communities on the web. She completed her DPhil in Oriental Studies (Islamic World) at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship and also holds an MPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies (University of Oxford) and a B.A. in Government and Linguistics (The College of William and Mary).

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In September 2015, the UN adopted the Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all people. For the first time, these goals explicitly aim to bring human rights and economic development into conversation with one another. There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be realised by 2030, each with their own targets. Goal number 5 is to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.’ One of the targets under Goal 5 is to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early, and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation, or FGM. In this episode, we talk with Brenda Kelly, a consultant obstetrician at the John Radcliffe Hospital and a founder of the Oxford Rose Clinic, which specialises in treating women and girls who have experienced FGM. Brenda shares her insights from working with FGM patients about how the law and medicine interact when it comes to achieving gender equality.

**This episode is part of a special series on “Working Together: Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals” a British Academy project led by Professor Sandy Fredman, Fellow of the British Academy and Director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub. As part of this project, the Academy convened a roundtable in January 2018 with academic experts, policymakers and practitioners from the UK and overseas to discuss the ways in which human rights and developmental goals can work together to achieve the SDG agenda and particularly gender equality and women’s empowerment. Brenda Kelly participated in the discussion.**

Produced by: Dr Kira Allmann (University of Oxford)
Interview(s) with: Dr Brenda Kelly (John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford)
Music by: Rosemary Allmann

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