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The Abolition of Female Genital
Mutilation
The abolition of female genital mutilation has become
a worldwide human rights cause
—Borgna Brunner
In 1994, when a 17-year-old girl from Togo sought asylum in the United
States to escape genital mutilation, few Americans understood the brutal
nature of this ancient and widespread African ritual. Fauziya Kassindja
ran away from home the day she would have been forced to undergo ritual
genital cutting in preparation for an arranged marriage. She eventually
made her way to the United States, but instead of granting her asylum,
immigration officials arrested her for illegal entry and sent her to
prison for a year and a half, where she was sometimes shackled and placed
in solitary confinement. Although human rights advocates sought her
release, the courts found her story “not credible.” Only when the media
exposed her plight was she freed.
Legislation and Media Awareness
Kassindja's case became a lightning rod for growing legislative and
media attention, awakening the nation to a dangerous and painful practice
that is the social norm for women in many central African countries.
Representative Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), now retired, advocated
banning the practice for twenty years before getting a bill through
Congress, and remarked that some members of Congress simply could not
believe such a practice actually existed. Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
fought for a ban although “all my staff advised me to stay away from it,”
considering it a squeamish subject for a male politician. When Stephanie
Walsh was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1996 for her photographs of a
genital mutilation rite in Kenya, the inhumanity of the procedure was
exposed to the general public, helping to legitimize a subject that many
found uncomfortable to discuss.
Genital mutilation, also referred to as female circumcision, genital
cutting, or excision, is a coming-of-age ritual that signifies a girl's
entry into womanhood. It is accompanied by public celebrations and is
often a source of pride for the girl. For some it also carries religious
significance. Usually performed on girls between the ages of 4 and 12, but
also on teenagers, it involves the partial or total excision of the
external female genitalia. It is performed by a female elder using a
razor, knife, or piece of glass, usually without anesthetic, while several
women hold the girl down. Agonizingly painful, it robs her of sexual
pleasure and frequently causes medical problems, including hemorrhaging,
infection, urinary incontinence, infertility, and complications in
childbirth.
Countries Practicing Genital
Mutilation
- Benin
- Burkina Faso
- Cameroon
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Ethiopia
- Gambia
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- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Ghana
- Ivory Coast
- Kenya
- Liberia
- Mali
- Mauritania
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- Niger
- Nigeria
- Senegal
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Tanzania
- Togo
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Genital mutilation is practiced in 25 countries in central Africa,
ranging from Somalia in the east coast and stretching westward to Senegal
on the Atlantic. The rite is believed to have originated more than two
thousand years ago in Egypt or the Horn of Africa (what is now Eritrea,
Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia). The World Health Organization estimates
that more than 130 million women have undergone the procedure. Although it
is most often associated with Islam, it is also practiced by Christians,
adherents to traditional African religions, and one Jewish sect.
Three Types, Varying in Severity
There are generally three different types of circumcision:
clitoridectomy, the amputation of the clitoris; excision of the labia
minora as well as the clitoris; and infibulation, the removal all external
genitalia including the labia majora, after which the edges of the wound
are stitched together, allowing for only a tiny opening. The risk of
infection and problematic childbirth are naturally greatly exacerbated by
infibulation, and it is estimated that 20% to 25% of sterility cases in
the Sudan have resulted from the procedure. The prevalence of circumcision
and the type of procedure vary enormously from country to country.
According to a study by Demographic and Health Survey, 93% of women in
Mali and 98% in Djibouti and Somalia undergo genital cutting, whereas in
Uganda and the Congo the number drops to 5%. Clitoridectomy is the most
common procedure. Infibulation accounts for about 15% of women, with an
estimated 80% to 90% of all infibulations occurring in Djibouti, Somalia,
and the Sudan. The only country where the genital mutilation is noticeably
decreasing is the Central African Republic, where the practice was not
widespread to begin with.
“We have done it, we do it, and we will
continue to do it.”
Genital cutting is seen as a way of ensuring that a woman is clean,
chaste, and ready for marriage; uncut women are associated with
promiscuity and lack of social respectability. Deadening the woman's
sexual pleasure is a way of guaranteeing her virginity and fidelity.
Because it is a valued social rite, most girls are willing to succumb to
the pain and the subsequent health problems. But whether they wish to be
excised or not, the choice is not theirs. Living in a staunchly
patriarchal world, they are dependent on men for social and economic
survival. As a father from the Ivory Coast told the New York
Times,“ If your daughter has not been excised. . . . No man in the
village will marry her. It is an obligation. We have done it, we do it,
and we will continue to do it. . . . She has no choice. I decide. Her
viewpoint is not important.”
An Ancient Tradition Resists Reform
For the past ten to fifteen years, France has criminally prosecuted
immigrant parents who have had their daughters excised, and in October
1996 the U.S. Congress outlawed female genital mutilation in this country.
The U.N. announced a global campaign in 1997 to eradicate the practice,
and a growing number of refugee, women's, and human rights organizations
in Africa and around the world have called for its prohibition. But
progress has been slow. Western reform movements are sometimes
counterproductive, with Africans resisting the dictates of patronizing
outsiders. Outlawing the practice had already been attempted by colonial
governments in Africa during the first half of the century, provoking only
resistance and protests. African governments have also been ineffective.
Kenya, Sudan, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, and Egypt have passed laws
limiting the practice, but they are not enforced.
The World Health Organization estimates it will take a minimum of ten
years to reduce the prevalence of genital mutilation, and three
generations to eradicate it. It will take time to transform awareness of a
firmly entrenched ritual that is valued by the local culture but
considered dangerous and demeaning by outsiders.
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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