Jools was a baby when her adoptive mother saw her touching herself and decided to cut her.
Her adoptive parents were “conservative Christian fundamentalists”, she says, and regularly abused her.
Now, as a survivor of female genital mutilation (FGM), she is one of many calling for access to clitoral restoration surgery — not readily available for Australia — to restore her sexual function.
“As an emotional and psychological aspect of it, it goes to the core of your identity and how you identify with your body and how that affects your life,” she said.
There are no hard figures on how prevalent FGM is in Australia; the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health said the evidence was more anecdotal than statistical.
However, a recent report from the National Education Toolkit for Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Australia (NETFA) found it was declining and there was no evidence of it occurring in Victoria.
With the falling numbers, the focus for Australia has been prevention, though campaign group No FGM Australia said the priority should also be on the restorative surgery.
“I think it’s a human right for women to have access to this surgery if they want it,” Paula Ferrari, the managing director of No FGM Australia, said.
“And at the moment there are some barriers to having the surgery being made available to Australian survivors.”
According to the UN, the surgery was developed in 2004 by French urologist Dr Pierre Foldes.
It reduces the pain associated with FGM and can allow women to regain clitoral sensitivity.
Dr Foldes operates on about 200 women a year and No FGM recently lobbied the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) to bring him to Australia.
But in an emailed response — seen by the ABC — Greg Jenkins, an obstetrician and gynaecologist from the NSW branch of the college wrote: “My understanding is that after reviewing the literature on clitoral reconstruction in women who have been subjected to FGM ... there is no clear evidence of benefit.”
A Federal Department of Health spokeswoman said clitoral restoration was “technically covered under the umbrella term ‘vulvoplasty’” and was available under Medicare.
“The Australian Government believes Australians deserve a world class health system with affordable access to services provided by highly skilled doctors, nurses and allied health professionals,” she said in a statement.
‘No religion condones this’
Ranzcog said it was open to surgeons learning new techniques that would better the lives of survivors.
According to the college, there are four dedicated hospitals in Australia that specialise in FGM care through holistic approaches.
They are Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and provide survivors with psychological and ongoing care.
“We have identified that there is a need and we’re working towards that,” Dr Nesrin Varol, a gynaecologist and obstetrician who works with the college, said.
The college also rolled out a new e-learning module dedicated to FGM care earlier in July.
Dr Varol said FGM was a symptom of poverty and gender inequality, and global data showed a lot of men and women want the practice stopped.
“It predates all major religions — Islam, Christianity, Judaism — so no religion condones this, and I think it’s important to understand that, because it’s a common misconception.”
For Jools, one of the pressing problems is the preconceived notion that FGM only occurs in certain communities.
FGM, she said, was a form of child abuse and can occur across society.
“What are the chances of me being the only woman in the history of this country, and being white, that it’s happened to?”