Female Genital Mutilation

The traditional practice of female genital mutilation, which marginalizes women, is a controversial practice that the people of East Africa and Middle Eastern countries still partake in today. This painful practice is continuous there because of male domination that has embedded in the social and cultural structures. This procedure is a clear violation of women’s’ rights to their own bodies, nevertheless due to the social expectations of women in East African and the Middle Eastern countries, women are to be submissive and uncomplaining as young women are ‘operated’ in a demeaning and horrifying procedure called female genital mutilation. However, through educational programs female genital mutilation can be eliminated.

The term female genital mutilation (FGM) describes the cultural practice of cutting and/or stitching genitalia. The minor form of female genital mutilation, clitordectomy, is when the clitoris is removed. Excision, is when the clitoris and libia are removed. The most severe form of female genital mutilation is inflibuation, when all external genitalia are removed and the vaginal opening is stitched nearly closed, leaving only a small opening left for urine and menstrual blood. “The partial stitching of the labia is to prevent intercourse (Fisher 54).” There are several other forms of female genital mutilation such as “pricking, piercing and scraping that are also used throughout the world in symbolic rituals (WHO | Female Genital Mutilation para. 4).” These symbolic rituals are violations against children’s rights as they are often done at infancy to 15 years old. These procedures are conducted when children are powerless to their cultures rituals, leaving them vulnerable to their cultural uneducated traditions.

Female genital mutilation is practiced in 28 countries and performed on 2,000,000 women, out of which 600,000 are in Africa (Kaiev 339). “Female genital mutilation was even performed as late as 1945 in the United States and England, as a ‘cure’ for masturbation, promiscuity and nymphomania (Many Muslim Girls Endure Female Circumcision 347)”. Since the 1990’s several states have made laws stating that female genital mutilation is an act against women and children (348). Female genital mutilation may be culturally based in East Africa and the Middle Eastern countries, but with more and more people migrating to the west, so will female genital mutilation. Unless people are educated on the effects that female genital mutilation can cause before they get to the west, the traditions of other cultures can generate into the American population again as well, leaving children everywhere vulnerable to female genital mutilation.

Female genital mutilation is considered to be an essential part of the social expectations of appropriate parental behavior in preparing girls for adulthood and marriage that not practicing it is perceived as bringing more harm than benefit to a family (Community-based education programme on abandoning FGM 309). Social isolation and difficulty in finding marriage partners for uncut daughters are powerful reasons for families to continue to conform to this practice. Social isolation could become obsolete if neighboring villages also abandoned this archaic method of preparing their daughters for womanhood. “Mothers who have their daughters operated on seem to share a loving belief that the operation is beneficial and even necessary, just as do western mothers who have their infant sons circumcised (Fisher 54).” This commonality is often the subject of debate as religion can be a barrier between a son and daughter. In Holy Scripture it is viewed as unclean to not have a son circumcised, which is a debatable issue in itself. Female genital mutilation has no benefits, plain and simple.

The surgery is typically performed by a ‘midwife’ often in unsanitary conditions with no anesthetic. (Kaiev 339) In Kurdistan, Iraqi midwives often perform the operation with unsterilized instruments or even broken glass on girls ages four to twelve. The extent of the mutilation will depend on the experience of the midwife and the luck of the girl. The wound is then treated with ash or mud, forcing them to sit in a bucket of ice water afterwards. With a procedure that is conducted in such unsanitary conditions risks are sure to follow. Female genital mutilation can cause short term effects such as pain, bleeding, infections, and hemorrhages. These short term effects are extensive enough without adding the long term effects such as the spread of AIDS, infertility, loss of sexual feeling, psychological trauma, prenatal death, cysts, and a later need for multiple surgeries. Operations are often conducted with the infibulations procedure because it must be cut open later to allow sexual intercourse and childbirth, and then stitched for a second time after childbirth (“Many Muslim Girls Endure Female Circumcision” par. 11, 2). With short and long term effects such as these, the question that could be ask is why would parents put their daughters though this. The answer is simple, control.

In these countries, women have little rights to their own bodies. For the majority of women who live in these areas, live as minors all their lives, under their fathers, their husbands, their brothers or whatever male that is in their lives, but never having the right to their own body. In spite of “eighteen African countries enacting laws criminalizing” female genital mutilation. With “penalties ranging from a minimum of three months to a maximum of life in prison (Kaiev 339).” These laws are a wonderful start to the end of female genital mutilation, however, with these law, there are little law enforcement involvement, therefore, leaving females vulnerable to the uneducated control of men who view women as inferior. Furthermore, with the practice of female genital mutilation men are able to continue on with these ideals.

A common belief is that by participating in this practice it is controlling sexuality by removing one of the main sources of the women sexual pleasures which is “believed to reduce a women’s libido linking it to premarital virginity and fidelity which enhances their chances of marriage. This would also enhance their beauty, as genitalia is viewed as ugly and considered too ‘male’(WHO | Female Genital Mutilation par. 11).” Sexuality and genitalia being too male for females, is a recurring ideal in many cultures female genital mutilation are sacred in. The Nandi people of East Africa regard female genital mutilation as a sacred initiation into womanhood. It is believed that if a girl is not initiated her clitoris will grow long and have branches. The Nandi people believe that unless a person has been through the ceremony she technically still is a ‘child.’ “Some even go as far to say that the initiation prepares women to bear the pain of childbirth, as the inflicted pain on children will toughen them (Fisher 54).” With superstitions behind reasoning’s why mothers regard mutilating their daughters as an initiation into womanhood, an acceptable occurrence, it is hard to overcome such ideals without educating not only the women but the men, as it is often the men that have the final and only say on what happens in their families.

Educating the people on basic human rights such as the Tostan Program, which was developed by the Senegalese’s non-governmental organization, consisted of three, two hour classes per week for six months. Through the Tostan Program, 30 women and 10 men from several different villages learned negative aspects of female genital mutilation as part of a broader curriculum that covered human rights, women health, and basic hygiene (Ball par. 2). “As the study concluded, the Tostan program changed attitudes about female genital mutilation and helped reduce the practice in participating villages (par. 9).” In the course of the Tostan Program, “the daughters aged five to ten, who had not been cut increased from 21% to 49% and the proportion of women who approved of female genital cutting declined from 72% to 16% (par. 1).” These results show that through education, a culture can still be preserved without rituals that harm their people are actually producing a change in ideals and culture.

As a result of programs such as Tostan families in some Kenyan villages have replaced female genital surgeries with verbal ceremonies called ‘cutting through words’ since 1996. These ceremonies often last a week, where girls are given lessons about roles as women, hygiene, health, reproduction, self esteem and communication skills. At the end of the week, the village celebrates the girls graduation into womanhood (Fisher 55). Education is changing opinions on century old traditional rituals but until other villages pledge not to carry out the operations as well, it will always be a challenge for parents to not partake in the cutting of their daughters. As Mary Fisher stated in Women in Religion, “only when groups of neighboring villages pledge not to carry out the operations can families be confident that there will be a sufficient pool of men willing to marry their daughters (Fisher 55)” will the challenge be obsolete. The violence against women is rooted in global culture of discrimination which denies women the equal rights with men and which legitimizes the “appropriation of women’s bodies for individual gratification (Thomas par. 1).”

Female genital mutilation is a procedure that intentionally alters or injures female genital organs for non-medical reasons. This procedure takes away human rights from girls and women, as it discriminates against them. It is a “violation of rights of children and a person’s right to health, security and physical integrity.” As this practice is often done at such an age a little girl could not fight for her right as a child, and with no one to speak for her rights, the act of mutilation will continue to thrive without education. A violation against health with a long list of short and long term effects are reasons enough to find a secondary option like the families of Kenya provided.

As equal human beings we have the right to be “free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments (WHO | Female Genital Mutilation par. 3)” After the Female genital mutilation ‘operation’ the pain does not end there, the torment that is afflicted is continuous throughout their lives. “Living free from violence is a human right, yet millions of women and girls suffer from violence both in peace and in war, at the hands of the state, home and community. Across the globe, women are beaten, raped and mutilated (Thomas par. 2). ” The pain suffered by the girl by female genital mutilation is marginalized as she learns that her body does not belong to her but to cruel traditions.



Work Cited
Ball, H. “Prevalence Of Female Genital Cutting Declines In Senegalese Villages Following Educational Program.” International Perspectives On Sexual & Reproductive Health36.1 (2010): 49. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. “Community-based education programme on abandoning FGM, Senegal.” Reproductive Health Matters May 2010: 181. Academic OneFile. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
Fisher, Mary Pat. “Genital Surgery.” Women in Religion. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 53-55. Print. Kaiev, Henriette Dahan. “Cultural Rights Or Human Rights: The Case Of Female Genital Mutilation.” Sex Roles 51.5/6 (2004): 339. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 23 Nov. 2011.
“Many Muslim Girls Endure Female Circumcision” by Thomas von der Osten-Sacken and Thomas Uwer. Women in Islam Diane Andrews Henningfeld, Ed. At Issue Series. Greenhaven Press, 2011. Thomas von der Osten-Sacken and Thomas Uwer, “Is Female Genital Mutilation an Islamic Problem?” Middle East Quarterly, Winter 2007, pp. 29-36. Copyright © 2007 The Middle East Forum. Reproduced by permission.
Thomas, J. “Female Genital Mutilation Complications Lead To Lost Lives And High Costs.”International Perspectives On Sexual & Reproductive Health 36.3 (2010): 161.MasterFILE Premier. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. “Violence Against Women Information | Amnesty International USA.” Amnesty International USA | Protect Human Rights. Amnesty International USA, 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.
“WHO | Female Genital Mutilation.” WHO. World Health Organization, Feb. 2010. Web. 16 Nov. 2011.