Warning: This article contains detailed accounts of female circumcision. Not for the weak or faint hearted.
The most sensitive part of a woman’s body is the clitoris. It has the most nerve endings concentrated in a small area of tissue. One could never imagine the excruciating pain that would be felt if a razor blade, broken glass, a pair of scissors or a knife was to be taken to that area, and the clitoris and surrounding labia “forcibly cut,” and the rest of the vagina sewn up, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstrual blood.
But the inconceivable fact is that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is widely practiced in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Though some cases are not as severe as the aforementioned illustration, there are three kinds of FGM and all are traumatic experiences for those forced to go through them. In Sunna circumcision, the tip of the clitoris and/or its covering (prepuce) are removed. A Clitoridectomy is where the entire clitoris, the prepuce and the adjacent labia, are removed. Infibulation (a.k.a. Pharaonic circumcision) is a Clitoridectomy followed by the sewing up of the vulva.
FGM affects 100 million of the world’s women, and even more shocking is that this “right of passage” into womanhood is becoming more prevalent in first world nations, including Europe, Australia, Canada, and the USA. Immigrants bring their ancient cultures with them when they move, and sometimes families in suburban areas band together and raise money to fly in a professional cutter from their country of origin. In most cases young girls are flown home on “vacation” in order to facilitate the procedure.
According to the London School of Tropical Hygiene and City University a leading school in London, 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated. Although the procedure has been officially banned in the U.S. since 1996, the CDC estimates that between 150,000 to 200,000 girls in the United States are in danger of being taken overseas during their time off from school to get circumcised.
The reasons for this practice seem justifiable to those who subscribe to this ritual. Some say that it increases sexual pleasure for husbands to be. Mothers believe that going through this makes girls agreeable for marriage. Apart from proving a girls virginity as this is done when girls are around the age of four, it stops them from being promiscuous and thus limits the spread of STD’s or AIDS. But what is not taken into consideration is the fact that these older women who cut young girls professionally are not certified doctors and have no access to any kind of sterilization for their reusable equipment. A World Health Organization report on FGM says, “the immediate physical effects—acute infection, tetanus, bleeding of adjacent organs, shock resulting from violent pain, and hemorrhage—can even cause death.” Not only is it life threatening through complications such as septicemia, or cysts, but sexual intercourse becomes an agonizing obligation.
In the documentary Warrior Marks by Pratibha Parmar, women who have experienced circumcision, performed circumcisions, and those who have escaped it are interviewed. Even though this is a taboo subject among them, some want their voices to be heard whether they are for or against the issue.
For those circumcised their stories seem to have the same chilling details and sentiments about their botchy clitoridectomy procedures. It all starts with a lie: “you’re going to see your grandmother” or, “we going out to play with a friend.” Then once the girls realize they are not at the said destination, they are held down to the ground, floor or kitchen table, by a band of women, but not just any women- women they trust: mothers, aunts and long time family friends. Then the cutter appears, knife or razor blade in hand, ready to mutilate.
It seems to go on forever they say, but the screaming, crying, and shouting does not trigger any remorse. Even babies that are just weeks old can get circumcised, but the repercussions are just as tragic. Because this custom is highly controversial, especially for those in the first world, the girls are forbidden to talk about it. This results in feelings of isolation and oppression. They have lost their trust in their families, and their relationships are permanently severed.
That is the foremost reason why this human rights violation is so little known. There is not much documentation to prove it, and not many are willing to go on record and expose this customary ceremony, which continues to be passed down. Charities working to end the practice include The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund. For more information on the subject, or if you want to join the movement and stop the horrors of FGM, you can partner with the following organizations:
Stop FGM now: www.stop-fgm-now.com/who-is-fighting-fgm
Sign a petition to stop FGM at: www.petitiononline.com/fgm2003/petition.html
WAAF: www.jca.apc.org/~waaf/pages/english/english.html World
World Health Organization: www.who.int/en/” http://www.who.int/en/
Amnesty International: www.amnesty.org/