BLog 3: Africa: U.S. Taking Steps to Stop Female Genital Mutilation

    One form of violence towards women is concerning female genital mutilation and cutting. In other countries, such as Africa, this is a huge issue that affects girl’s and women’s healthy genital tissue. Once mutilated, natural functions that these women were once capable of are no longer ideal, comfortable, or even doable anymore. The World Health Organization states that after female genital mutilation is done, child birth is extremely difficult and more uncomfortable that it is already, menstruation is more painful, intercourse is more difficult, and simply using the bathroom is unbearable. Over 140 million women each year are affected by genital mutilation and about 3 million young girls are in danger of it happening to them.  The U.S. is trying to regulate gender based violence through developing a strategy that reduces the ability for countries to do such practices. One way they are trying to do this is through the law they passed in January. Now it would be a federal crime if families sent their child outside of the U.S. in order to engage them in genital cutting. Another attempt at reducing this practice was in the United Nations. They encouraged other countries to reprimand people for engaging in this practice against women. A village in Senegal composed a group of women who were against this act and tried to come together and make change happen. The women gained the approval of their village chief and local leader and they together conducted efforts to switch from a traditional norm to start engaging in things that are more proactive for women’s health.
    I think that this article shows that there are still some pretty severe acts of violence happening towards women all across the world. Genital mutilation wouldn’t happen to a female here in the United States, so I don’t think people here understand the severity of the situation in other countries. The article ended with saying how the practice of female genital mutilation is not only a human rights issue, but also a health, social, and economic issue as well. I agree with the fact that this tradition in other countries reflects more issues and problems than can all be addressed in a prompt manner. It will take time, as everything does, to get a movement started to prevent future occurrences from happening to innocent women in Africa and other parts of the world.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201302071676.html

Lauren Doss, 11:38 AM, 2/11/2013