The United Nations declared February 6 of each year to be the day set aside to protest against the practice of female genital mutilation. This practice has gone on for centuries and is preformed in various parts the world but we mostly know it as an African cultural practice.
Female genital mutilation involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia. The practice is forbidden in the West because of the obvious mutilation and the risk factors involved. Besides medical reasons, female genital cutting becomes an ethical issue. The practice of female circumcision is performed on a child who has no say over what happens to her body. Her parents must give their consent but the child is often too young to even know what is happening to her.
I can only imagine why any woman would agree to this procedure or have their girls go through it. Are the children afraid or do the willingly go along with what their parents decide for them? After all aren’t parents supposed to have the best interest of their little girls at heart?
The practice of female genital mutilation carries many names, female genital mutilation, female genital cutting and female circumcision, but the former two are the preferred terms by the International Associations that oppose this archaic and horrendous practice.
It is good to know that not all African Countries still practice female genital mutilation. Ninety percent of the women in the small and impoverished East African Nation of Eritrea are circumcised. However the women are now against it, realizing the dangers involved in this unnecessary procedure. The National Union of Eritrean Women has helped to convince the government to ban this life threatening procedure and treat women’s bodies with the respect they deserve. The government of Eritrea proclaimed in 2007 that, “Female circumcision is a procedure that seriously endangers the health of women, causes them considerable pain and suffering besides threatening their lives,” Anyone now engaged in this practice of female circumcision in Eritrea will be fined and or jailed.
The unfortunate situation still remains that female genital mutilation is banned in several African countries at this time but rarely enforced.
Religion and Female Genital Cutting
The Islamic community is divided on this issue; female genital cutting is practiced in some parts of the Arabian Peninsula as well as African nations. However the controversy is based on whether or not female genital cutting is sanctioned or condemned by the Qu’ran.
The practice of female genital cutting is forbidden in Judaism. It was however practiced by a small group of Ethiopian Jews formerly known as the Falasha and who are now living in Israel. A female Jewish doctor could only do the operation at the time it was practiced. Now that Ethiopian Jews live in Israel they no longer practice female genital mutilation. Judaism holds that the body belongs to God and cannot be defiled by humans, with the one exception being male circumcision.
Christianity has never adhered to the practice of female circumcision but some African Christians still practice female genital mutilation as a custom that predates the missionary involvement in Africa.
Types of Female Genital Cutting:
- Hoodectomy - the removal of the tip of the clitoris
- Removal of the clitoris and labia
- Infibulation which is the removal of the clitoris and labia, sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening for urine and menses to flow through
Infibulation is so severe that women must be opened up for their husband’s penetration on their wedding night and then they are cruelly sewn up again. This brutality is just unconscionable. It sickens me as I write this article.
Why are female circumcision done, especially infibulation?
As you may have already suspected the only reason it is done is so that the man can feel assured of his virgin bride. Young women who have not been circumcised would not find a husband. The other women in the village treat them as if they were whores and some men are afraid to have their penis touch a clitoris. This area on the woman’s body is considered unclean. Furthermore some African cultures believe that when the baby is delivered if it touches the clitoris it will die.
Some doctors advocate for this procedure defending that males get circumcised for hygiene and the same holds true for the female. Others defend that masturbation is greatly diminished after the female circumcision. They claim that masturbation causes insanity and so they are enhance general female well being by performing the surgery. Still others claim that female genital cutting enhances the beauty of the woman, and makes her spiritually clean so she can prepare food for the members of her household.
Age of Females who Undergo Female Genital Mutilation
General as young a three years old go through female genital mutilation in some African countries. Most of the time there is no anesthesia administered. I don’t know how the “so called doctors” can stand listening to the screams of these poor defenseless children.
Risk Factors Associated with Female Genital Cutting
Where the doctors are concerned
- The use of unsanitary cutting rooms
- The use of un sterilized knives, scissors, needles, razor blades and pieces of glass
- The practice of using the same cutting utensils on several girls without being cleaned
Risks to the girls
- Obstruction of urine and menses
- Long term bladder and urinary problems
- Difficulty in birthing
- scarring
- Painful sexual intercourse
- Death of the girls because of hemorrhaging, septicemia and shock.
Thankfully the practice female genital cutting is falling out of favor in such places as the Sudan where some young girls (22 percent) are not going for the operation. African governments are demanding that the procedure be done in a clean hospital setting when done at all, and places like Egypt have eliminated the practice altogether.
Sources:
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Eritrea-Bans-Female-Circumcision-19673-1/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_cutting
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Comments: 63
The world does not know what to do with women's sexuality. I'm convinced of that. Look at all the morality plays we see -- Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, etc. They all end badly.
cultural differences are fine but cruelity to women or anybody passes the line, modern anthropologists know when to except a difference and when it is totally archaic barbaric and wrong,
even the african governments are realizing this practice has to stop and they were the pertpetrators, the west has done its share of awful things too, but just because something has always been that way does not make it right.
Unfortunately we are talking about the UN, that toothless tiger. There are a whole lot of things that go on in parts of the world that aren’t sanctioned by the religions of those areas but they still go on anyway and they will probably continue to go on until the people are convinced of the moral wrongness of those actions. That, unfortunately, is something the UN is incapable of doing; it must come from within or it will not come at all.
Are you aware that the USA also used to practise female circumcision? Fortunately, it never caught on the same way as male circumcision, but there are middle-aged white US American women walking round today with no external clitoris because it was removed. Some of them don't even realise what has been done to them. There are frequent references to the practice in medical literature up until the late 1950's. Most of them point out the similarity with male circumcision, and suggest that it should be performed for the same reasons. Blue Cross/Blue Shield had a code for clitoridectomy till 1977.
One victim wrote a book about it:
Robinett, Patricia (2006). "The rape of innocence: One woman's story of female genital mutilation in the USA."
Nowadays, it's illegal even to make an incision on a girl's genitals though, even if no tissue is removed. Why don't boys get the same protection?
If people are serious about stopping female circumcision, they also have to be against male circumcision. Even if you see a fundamental difference, the people that cut girls don't. The sooner boys are protected from genital mutilation in the west, the sooner those peoples that practice fgm will interpret western objections as something more than blindly hypocritical cultural imperialism.
Thank you for bringing this to the light of day. I used to work with a woman from East Africa, who immigrated here about 15 years ago. She is one of the sweetest, most beautiful women I have ever laid eyes on, but she was never in a long term relationship in the time I knew her, about 5 years. One day she told me sex was the reason she was still alone. She had had the procedure as a toddler, and it left her genitalia mutilated. She did not want a relationship with a man from her region, as they do not treat their women well by our standards, , and she was afraid American men would find the appearance of her genitalia unappealing.
As for their ability to have orgasm after this procedure, it is rare. Vaginal orgasm is very hard to achieve in some women, and to be honest, most men cannot even find "the G spot" with a map and a flashlight..lol
From a medical standpoint, the male circumcision is more hygienic than not. You can argue till the cows come home about the ability to maintain proper hygiene on a foreskinned penis. Its all well and good until the man reaches an age when he can't properly cleanse himself. I'm a geriatric nurse, and have seen firsthand several times how the foreskin can adhere to the penis and strangulate the circulation, requiring surgery.
BTW, Christopher - calling the UN a toothless tiger, while possibly true, is to speak irrelevance. What do you want them to do - start shooting people?
See: http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_genitalmutilation.html
http://www.unfpa.org/gender/practices1.htm
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=29811&Cr=female&Cr1=mutilation
http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/fgm/index.html
http://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/pages/female_genital_mutilation.html
Thanks for this posting Carol.
Oh, that makes it ok.
Have to agree with the general above. Isn't it all barbaric?
I know there are crude insults for intact women in the countries where they cut girls, but I can't help wondering if the geriatric nurses complain about having to look after intact elderly women. Let's face it, women's genitals are harder to clean than men's. Which parts do you think should be cut off to make the nurse's lives easier in 80 year's time?
I am really enjoying all the comments, this is very good threat.
none of these people died from it, none of them even remember ever feeling pain, no of them were spoiled for life with no woman wanting to marry them,
and as far as beauty I think it penis is much better looking circumcised and not the other way around.
it is not the same as a woman being forced to have it done,
if you don't want your children circumcised they don't have to be.
And many men and boys end up having to have it done because of medical reasons anyhow.
but have you ever had to deal with a man that had to get operated on later in life because he was not circumcised and had a bad infection, go ask them what they went through there are plenty of them out there.
glitter-graphics.com
What makes you think that circumcision later in life is worse than doing it to a baby? If you wait, it's safer, hurts less, and the results are cosmetically better. The only person I know who's had it done said it wasn't a big deal. In the UK though, only 1 in 140 males ever needs to be circumcised for a medical reason (and it's getting rarer). That means you have to circumcise 139 babies unnecessarily to prevent 1 circumcision later.
And guess what, people die from male circumcision too. 22 last year in just one province of South Africa, at least 2 in the UK in the last two years, and at least one in New York about 4 years ago and 2 cases of brain damage.
The record payout for a botched circumcision is $22.8 million. It was said at the time that the victim "will never be able to function sexually as a normal male and will require extensive reconstructive surgery and psychological counseling as well as lifelong urological care and treatment by infectious disease specialists."
Sure, cases like that are very rare, but why should they happen at all?
Why don't we just stop cutting parts off people's genitals? The sooner boys are protected from genital mutilation in the west, the sooner those peoples that practice fgm will interpret western objections as something more than blindly hypocritical cultural imperialism.
why do I think well for what I have known men that have had to have it done late in life, and it was awful so they told me, though for babies it hurts too but they forget it,
that is the only comparison with the three types of circumcision for women,
the other two varieties, cutting the clitoris off no way is a man's entire penis cut off
and sewing a woman up and ripping her about again for sex, this is the focus of this article, horrendous mutilation
also would you please stick to the conversation of women genital cutting this was never meant to be a contest of which is worse for a male or a female it was meant to bring to light a horrendous act.
the men were not against it, if you don't feel it is right for your family that is fine, but his article is about female circumcision and all the women that have suffered far more and the research is out there, then men in comparison,
my sisters son's are not circumcised that is fine with them, that was a decision that they made, but one of her son's had to get circumsized after the a medical issue arose the other one didn't. The one that had to be done for medically reasons has too sons now and they are both done,
If you don't feel like arguing with me, try arguing with the women that are in favor of female circumcision. The ones that are on the Internet are generally used to the mild forms with surgeons and anaesthetic. They get *really* upset if you use the word mutilation, and they insist that it has improved their sex life, and that it is better for all sorts of other reasons. They say that it's nothing to do with anyone else, that westerners don't know what they're talking about, and they invariably point out the fact that male circumcision is allowed in the west (they also mention things like labiaplasty, breast augmentation, and even dental braces btw).
Until you start talking to them, it's hard to understand just how the notion that FGM could be a bad thing is completely alien to them. Remember that only 50 years ago, doctors were openly promoting female circumcision in the USA.
Infibulation is indeed horrific, but fortunately quite rare btw.
I mentioned a group in this very article.
I am neither for or against male circumcision,
you can also take what ever side you want on that issue as well.
I have sited my reasons why I am against it,
and I certainly like other people hear know african women on both sides of the issue,
stated my position and you can either agree or disagree as you wish, but my position is this one looking at both sides of the coin.
I suggest you read up on articles of female oppression
and you will understand perhaps the sides that just about everyone in this article is bringing up.
I am happy to hear that you do find the second two forms of female cutting not right,
I am less concerned with the first of the three, but I still do not agree with it but not as strongly as the second more deadly forms
You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control Your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be Mastering change rather than allowing it to master you."
Female mutilation is abhorrent to me. I find it very hard to believe that the men in those countries are O.K. with it. You would have to kill me first before attempting to do that to my daughters and expect to get away with it.
http://newsite.vday.org/