~ F G M ~ PART ONE ~
PREFACE:
The accumulation of shocking facts
presented here is quite extensive.
Whatever else you read
~ do not fail to read ~
the two personal experiences
related at the end in
FGM ~ PART TWO.
The final one by Waris Pirie
is especially important
to your understanding of
the continuing FGM problem.
Thank you for caring.
FGM
stands for
~ Female Genital Mutilation ~
but what is it precisely?
FGM
covers three main varieties
of female genital mutilation.
~ ONE ~
~ Sunna Circumcision ~
which consists of
the removal of the prepuce
and/or the removal of
the tip of the female clitoris.
~ Sunna in Arabic means tradition ~
~ TWO ~
~ Clitoridectomy or Excision ~
which consists of
the removal of the entire clitoris
~ both prepuce and glans ~
and the removal
of the adjacent labia.
~ THREE ~
~ Infibulation or Pharaonic Circumcision ~
is the most extreme form of circumcision
consisting of the removal of the clitoris,
the adjacent labia
~ majora and minora ~
and the joining of
the scraped sides of the vulva
across the vagina,
where both are secured with thorns
or sewn with catgut or thread.
A very small opening is left
to allow the passage of urine
and the passage of menstrual blood.
An infibulated woman
must be cut open
to allow intercourse
on the wedding night,
and is sewn closed again afterward
to insure fidelity to the husband.
FGM is done mostly
under unsanitary conditions
during which a midwife
uses unclean sharp instruments
such as razor blades, scissors,
kitchen knives and pieces of glass.
These instruments are frequently
used on several girls in succession
and are rarely cleaned each time
causing the transmission
of a variety of germs including
the HIV virus
and other types of infection.
Antiseptic techniques and anesthesia
are generally not considered an option
and are, in point of fact,
unheard of by anyone involved.
This is the same as if a doctor
used the same surgical instrument
on a number of women at the same time
without cleaning the instrument
before or after each woman.
Beyond the obvious
initial pain of the operation,
FGM has long-term
physiological, sexual
and psychological effects.
The unsanitary environment
under which FGM takes place
results in infections of the genitals
and surrounding areas
and often results in
the transmission of germs
and any number of
communicable diseases.
Other health consequences of FGM
include primary fatalities
as a result of shock, hemorrhage
and septicemia.
In order to minimize the risk
of the transmission of the germs,
some countries like Egypt
made it illegal for FGM
to be practiced by practitioners
other than those trained
as doctors and nurses in hospitals.
While this seems to be
a more humane way
to deal with FGM
while trying to reduce its health risks,
more tissue is apt to be taken away
due to the lack of struggle by the child
when anesthesia is used.
Long-term complications include
sexual frigidity, genital malformation,
delayed menarche, chronic pelvic complications,
recurrent urinary retention and infection
and an entire range of obstetric complications.
The fetus is exposed
to a range of infectious diseases
as well as facing the risk
of having its head crushed
as it moves through
the damaged birth canal.
In such cases
the infibulated mother
must undergo yet another operation
whereby she is opened further
to insure the safe birth of her child.
Girls undergo FGM
when they are around three years old,
though some of them are much older
when they undergo the operation.
The age varies depending
on the type of the ritual
and the customs
of the local village
or region.
There are,
in various cultures
many justifications
for these practices.
A girl who is not circumcised
is considered unclean by society
and therefore unmarriageable.
A girl who does not have
her clitoris removed
is considered a great danger
and ultimately fatal to a man,
if her clitoris touches his penis.
Perhaps the most common
explanation of FGM
is local custom.
Women are often heard saying
that they are unwilling
to change these customs
since they have always done it this way
and are not about to change.
Oftentimes the practitioners
are kept ignorant
of the real implications of FGM
and the extreme health risks
that it represents.
Family honor, cleanliness,
protection against spells,
insurance of virginity
and faithfulness to the husband,
or simply terrorizing women out of sex
are sometimes used
as excuses for the practice of FGM.
Some people believe that
FGM is a barbaric practice
done to girls and women
in some remote villages
in foreign countries of the world;
however, up until a few decades ago,
it was still believed that the clitoris
is a very dangerous part
of the female anatomy
throughout the world.
Who can forget Sigmund Freud�s
monumental blunder
when he stated in one of his books entitled
Sexuality And The Psychology of Love
�The elimination of clitoral sexuality
is a necessary precondition
for the development of femininity.�
There are between
eight to ten million women and girls
in the Middle East and in Africa alone
who are at risk of undergoing
one form or another of genital mutilation
even as you read these words.
In the United States
it is estimated that about ten thousand girls
are at risk of undergoing this practice.
Awa Thiam,
the Senegalese writer and activist,
notes that FGM in a variety
of its forms is practiced
in Middle Eastern countries including
the two Yemens,
Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan,
Syria, and Southern Algeria.
It is practiced in Africa
in the majority of the continent
including Kenya, Nigeria, Mali,
Upper Volta, The Ivory Coast,
Egypt, Mozambique and Sudan.
Even though FGM is practiced
in mostly Islamic countries,
it is not an exclusively Islamic practice.
FGM is a cross-cultural
and a cross-religious ritual.
In Africa and the Middle East
it is performed by Muslims,
Coptic Christians,
members of various indigenous groups,
Protestants and Catholics.
FGM has often been referred to
as female circumcision
and compared to male circumcision;
however, such comparison
is often misleading.
Both practices include the removal
of healthily functioning parts of the genitalia
and are quite unnecessary.
Both rituals serve to perpetuate customs
which seek to regulate
and keep control over
the body and the sexuality
of the individual;
however, FGM is far more drastic
and damaging than male circumcision.
A more appropriate analogy
would be between
clitoridectomy and penisdectomy
where the entire penis is removed.
FGM enters other countries
with some immigrants
who are holding on
to their customs and identity.
Because of the large number
of cases of FGM
and the deaths it has caused,
FGM is now outlawed
in some European countries including
Britain, France,
Sweden and Switzerland
and the African countries of
Egypt, Kenya and Senegal.
It is also important to note
that even though FGM
is currently illegal
in many countries
in Europe, Africa
and the Middle East,
this has not reduced
the number of girls
that are mutilated every year.
The governments of these countries
have no way of monitoring
the spread and practice of FGM.
The United Nations, UNICEF
and the World Health Organization
consider FGM to be
a violation of Human Rights
and have made recommendations
to eradicate this practice;
however, trying to fight FGM
on legal terms is ineffective
since those who practice it
simply do not report it.
FGM is also widely practiced
in villages and remote places
to which the government
does not have an easy access.
A better and more effective approach
would be a cooperation
on the national level
as well as the international level.
The United Nations
and the World Health Organization
have already taken the first step
in abolishing these practices.
Countries need to have rigid laws
that deal with FGM cases,
which is also insufficient by itself.
Anthropologists, educators,
social scientists, and activists
have to go into these villages and areas
and educate the people
as well as the practitioners
of the dangers of FGM.
Female Genital Mutilation
can only be abolished
by a grassroots approach
which would take into consideration
all aspects of a particular culture
and try to work
within that system of beliefs
to eradicate this, no less than,
torturous practice.
On the United States level,
The National Organization
of Circumcision Information
Resource Centers,
a networking organization
have brought together social scientists
and medical practitioners
from all over the world
who are fighting FGM
as well as male circumcision.
The Washington Metro Alliance
Against Female Genital Mutilation
in Washington DC
has also been targeting FGM risk groups,
and provides peer education
for African Women by African women
in WA Metro Community
and interfaces with
western health care providers
and policy makers.
In addition, Si-Kata has begun efforts
to bring together the efforts
of researchers and organizers
around the United States
in the hopes of exposing this practice
on a national level
as well as changing policies.
Congresswoman Patricia Shroeder
introduced H. R. 3247,
a bill to outlaw FGM in the United States
in the fall of 1994.
The bill was then combined with
The Minority Health Initiatives Act,
H. R. 3864.
This bill was then combined with H. R. 941
on February 14, 1995
which was to be cited as
The Federal Prohibtion
Of Female Genital Mutilation Of 1995.
Some overdue effort
is being made to abolish FGM,
but there is still much work to be done.
Education of ourselves,
as well as of others
is a way that we can begin
acting upon the convictions
that human rights should not violated,
and that violence against women
will not be tolerated.
Many people are still unaware
that practices such as FGM
are still widely practiced,
and only that awareness
can bring this inhumane practice
to a long overdue halt.
It is important to remember
that Africa and the Middle East
are not the only countries
to practice FGM.
It is important to point out
that the United States
was commonly using FGM
as a means to deal with unruly,
insane or temperamental women.
As a form of social control
it fell out of fashion
some time in the 1930's or 1940's;
however, it has continued
to be present in some form or another
in unpublicized instances.
Circumcision is often performed
simply because it was done
to the mother and the father.
"Of course I shall have them circumcised
exactly as their mothers, grandmothers
and sisters were circumcised.
This is our custom."
This sort of reasoning
is not for the benefit of the child,
rather for the benefit of the parent
who has been circumcised.
After all, are we to place scars
on the bodies of our children
simply because we have had
scars placed upon ours?
Circumcision is often considered
an enhancement of
an individual's sexuality.
"We are circumcised
and insist on circumcising our daughters
so that there is no mixing
between male and female.�
�An uncircumcised woman
is put to shame by her husband,
who must call her ~
�you with the clitoris.��
�People will say she is like a man.
Her organ would prick the man.�
FGM practicing communities
consider the woman's unmutilated genitals
to be ugly and bulky.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
and it is largely influenced
by cultural standards; thus, this is
another instance
of circumcision happening
simply because it has happened.
In the Victorian Ages,
it was believed that a raging libido
led to social discord and it was
theorized that circumcision
would benefit civilization
by weakening the sex drive,
thereby preventing rape, infidelity
and laziness.
"Circumcision makes women clean,
promotes virginity and chastity
and safeguards young girls
from sexual frustration
by deadening their sexual appetite."
Mrs. Njeri, a defender of
female genital mutilation in Kenya
"Male and female circumcision
cure excessive masturbation
and while we may not be sure
that we have done away
with the possibility of masturbation,
we may feel confident that
we have limited masturbation
to within the danger lines."
In some FGM-practicing societies,
unmutilated women are regarded as unclean
and are not allowed to handle food and water.
"I'm in favor of circumcision.
Everyone in my large family
and my husband�s family
was circumcised and
my pediatrician recommends it.
I say do it."
It is impossible
to deny the similarities
between male and female circumcision.
Reasons for this practice
are viciously defended,
but before you choose
to have your child circumcised,
you must ask yourself ~
if these reasons are valid
and why is circumcision
virtually always performed
on the unwilling.
The truth,
when you find it,
will reveal circumcision
for what it really is ~
a crime against nature.
PLEASE CONTINUE
FOR TWO INCONCEIVABLE
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES