Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting refers to as “...all procedures that involve partial or total removal of
the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.”
(WHO, 2014) This practice is highly performed in 28 African countries as well as some in the Gulf, Sudan
is among the countries with highest prevalence rates. (86.6%) FGM/C has become a very controversial
issue as it has shown to cause health complications from the beginning such as pain, wound infections,
injury to nearby organs as well as complications during birth, sexual intercourse and even leading to death.
Due to the physical and psychological traumatic nature of the practice lacking medical requirement, it is
also perceived as a violation of Human Rights, the right to health and bodil y integrity and many criticise it
as a type of violence against women and girls. Adding to the controversy are the difficulties of its
eradication due to its nature as an ancient cultural practice and a social norm, hence is deeply engrained
and valued by various societies. (WHO 2014, Population Reference Bureau 2014, MICS 2010) Cultural
practices are said to be essential for human identity (Kymlicka in Okin, 1999), more specifically FGM/C is
believed to be essential in forming and outlining feminine sexuality and gender (Abusharaf 2001), hence
providing girls and women with gender cultural identity. This makes the practice even more difficult to be
abandoned. Therefore, this paper aims at examining the recent methodology used in Sudan to attain the
abandonment of this practice, more in particular a strategy led by UNICEF Sudan using community
dialogue within a larger communication project called Saleema Communications Initiative. The structure
of the paper will be as follows, firstly a brief overview of the situation of FGM/C in Sudan will be given to
set the context. After explaining its strong rooted nature as a social norm and reasons behind the practice,
the theoretical framework on social norms and the dynamics of change follows. A general introduction to
the tool of community dialogue is presented, then the Saleema Communications Initiative is illustrated.
Subsequently, the specific mechanism of community dialogue of the Saleema programme is explained in
detail, drawing from the Saleema toolkit, a guide for the community facilitators, in charge of the
structured and efficient dialogue in the community. Also abstracts from interviews with Samira Amin,
consultant at UNICEF and “mother of Saleema” as well as Eklhas El Tayeb, a community facilitator, who
has been working with FGM/C for decades, and is part of the Babiker Bedri Association, a very dedicated
organisation in the abandonment of FGM/C, are used to illustrate and explain the Saleema community
dialogue. Finally, a short overview on the characteristics of communities and the process of their selection
is presented, followed by the concluding remarks.