Non-hegemonic di̇scourses on female genital mutilation

Female genital mutilation (FGM), which is practiced for cultural, religious, and aesthetic reasons and has significant consequences for women's health and lives, has been documented in communities around the world, including among the indigenous community in Colombia. Since FGM in Colombia was publicized in 2007, many organizations, including academics and activists, have been working toward the elimination of FGM as a violation of human rights and gender-based violence. In Colombia, the practice is carried out by women from an indigenous community, one of 115 ethnic groups that are struggling against internal conflict and discrimination. One of the debates in transforming this practice concerns the ethnocentrism of institutional discourses. The categories and concepts used often do not refer to local voices and actions outside the dominant discourse. This study aims to identify categories and concepts within the discourses of indigenous women that can contribute to the transformation of practices affecting women's health and lives, which are often overlooked by epistemological hegemony. To this end, by incorporating the theoretical propositions of decolonial feminism within a feminist epistemological and methodological framework, fieldwork and document reviews were conducted to identify the discourses of indigenous women and the foundational systems of thought through which they approach FGM in their communities. The findings lead to the conclusion that indigenous women's knowledge is a valuable source that provides a legitimate framework for addressing this practice in relation to their individual and collective lives. Keywords: indigenous women, cultural practices, female genital mutilation, postcolonial feminism, hegemonic thought.