Gina Ponzi
February 18th, 2009
12:00 AM
Female genital clipping (known as genital mutation by its opponents), involves the cutting of the clitoris; it can be as mild as clitoral piercing or as drastic as removal of the entire external genital region. The wound is then stitched up with course thread, and in the most traumatic cases girls are left only enough room for urination and menstruation. The practice, generally performed on girls as young as 3 or 4 and up to age 18, is believed to restrain female sexuality and to therefore make girls more appealing for marriage. It is appalling to many human rights activists; the girls have no choice in the matter, procedures are unsanitary and performed with blunt, dirty tools, and the effects are dire. In the most hopeful cases, sexual feeling is only temporarily lost; in the worst cases, hemorrhaging and abscesses occur, sexual feeling is permanently lost, and, occasionally, girls die from infection.
In Sierra Leone, it is estimated that 94% of women and young girls have undergone genital mutation. This number is troubling, particularly in light of the practice itself. According to its government, the practice was to be stopped as of last year, but improvements are unobserved. Just last week, four female journalists were kidnapped, stripped, and forced to march the streets because of their anti-mutilation views. Locals accused the women of insulting their cultural practices and challenging traditions.
It is difficult to imagine life in a society where genital mutilation is so common that, standing in a group of ten female friends, where you not circumcised you’d be the odd one out; it might make you feel impure and dirty. What’s perhaps more infuriating is the fact that this atrocity is practiced not to benefit or protect these young girls at all; it is merely an easy way for men in the society to maintain their gender superiority and patriarchal power.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7879889.stm
4 comments:
I am absolutely amazed by this article! I have never heard of this practice before! I find it so disgusting and inhuman! I cannot imagine living in a society where a practice like that is the norm. I am so amazed that the outcomes of the surgery are so drastically different. If 94% of the women had undergone genital clipping, I would have thought that they would have the surgery down to an art and they would know how to prevent severe symptoms.
I think it is very difficult to talk about this topic. We as people coming from the "Western, Industrialized World" call this practice not human and condemn it. However one has to be aware of the values and cultures where this practice takes place. There are some cultures where eating dogs for breakfast, or marrying with the age of 8 years is normal.
Of course it is neccessary to abolish this practice, however we need to look at both sides of the coin.
I think it is unfair for the 3 to 4 year olds who have no choice what so ever. At that age they do no know what they are doing and what it is for. And for some dieing from the procedure is deffinatly inhumane, if people are gettin infections and hurt from procedures, even if it is part of their culture it is not right.
I do not agree with what is being done but that is how certain cultures are. We are all so very different. I mean many people dont agree with what many americans do but yet we cant understand why.
Culture is a very interesting thing and its makes you wonder why people do what they do.
I do not agree with this, and what they do to these poor women. It breaks my heart that girls actually have to go through that but I dont feel that there is anything that can be done about it
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