There are an estimated ninety to a hundred million women and girls living today in African countries, had some form of female circumcision. Circumcision occurs for a number of cultural reasons, such as religion, tradition, preserving virginity, and cultural identification. Female Genital Mutilation FGM is a destructive, invasive procedure performed on girls before puberty. Part or whole of the clitoris is surgically removed which leaves them with reduced or no sexual feeling. Among individuals and groups opposed to the mutilation, is seen as a method of reducing the sexual response of women in order to make them less likely to become sexually active before marriage or to seek an extra-marital affair after marriage. To some who promote the operation, it is seen as a cultural requirement that has health benefits and makes women more physically beautiful.
The operation is forced on approximately 6,000 girls per day, worldwide about one every 15 seconds. Since FGM is practiced when the girls are young, they are unable to give their informed consent. There are about 100 to 140 million women who have been circumcised. An average of about four girls a minute continue to be mutilated. Their clitoris is partially or completely removed. This inhibits or terminates sexual feelings. Orgasms are sometimes impossible to experience later in life. Many health problems result from the surgery. (Robinson B.A. 2005)
This mutilating operation is often associated mainly with the religion of Islam, which is incorrect. Female genital mutilation predated Islam. It originated in Africa and remains today mainly as African cultural practice. Although FGM is prevalent in Muslim countries in Africa like Egypt, FGM is rare or nonexistent in many other Muslim countries like Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. There is misperception by many people that the practice is a religious one. That belief has led to unjustified religious intolerance against Muslims. (Robinson B.A. 2005) Female circumcision practiced for centuries in parts of Africa, as a rite of passage preparing young girls for womanhood and marriage. Lay practitioners lacking in knowledge of human anatomy and medicine perform circumcision without anesthetic. Female circumcision can cause death or permanent health problems as well as severe pain. Despite these grave risks, its practitioners look on it as an integral part of their cultural and ethnic identity.
Circumcision is performed during infancy, during adolescence or even during a woman’s first pregnancy; the procedure is usually carried out on girls between ages 4 and 12. There are three basic types of genital excision. In the first type, Clitoridectomy, part or total clitoris is amputated, while in the second often referred to as Excision, both the clitoris and the labia minora are removed. Infibulation, the third type, is the most severe. After excision of the clitoris and the labia minora, the labia majora are cut or scraped away to create raw surfaces, which are held in contact until they heal, by stitching the edges of the wound or by tying the legs together. As the wounds heal, scar tissue joins the labia and covers the urethra and most of the vaginal orifice, leaving an opening that may be as small as a matchstick for the passage of urine and menstrual blood. (A.Z. Mustafa1966) The overall proportion of women who have undergone each type of circumcision is not known, although clitoridectomy appears to be by far the most common procedure.
It is estimated that about 15% of all circumcised women have been infibulated, although an estimated 80-90% of all circumcisions in Djibouti, Somalia and the Sudan are of this type. (Althaus, Frances A 1997)
It is practiced in twenty-eight out of fifty-three countries (Lightfoot-Klein, 1989). In the conditions under which female circumcision is generally performed in Africa, even the less extensive types of genital cutting can lead to potentially fatal complications, such as hemorrhage, infection and shock. The inability to pass urine because of pain, swelling and inflammation following the operation may lead to urinary tract infection. A woman may suffer from abscesses and pain from damaged nerve endings long after the initial wound has healed.
Consequently, the young girls and women who undergo circumcision do not have individual legal status and rights apart from those of their communities and cannot challenge the collective wisdom of their communities. Such an exercise amounts to serious deviation from the norms of society. Circumcision is an issue that goes beyond gender, being affected by age and class and power. The clitoris holds a massive number of nerve endings, and generates feelings of sexual arousal when stimulated. The justification for the operation appears to be largely grounded in a desire to terminate or reduce feelings of sexual arousal in women so that they will be much less likely to engage in pre-marital intercourse or adultery.
Uncircumcised women in countries where FGM is normally performed have difficulty finding a marriage partner. Men typically prefer a circumcised wife because they are considered more likely to be faithful. Other claims in support of FGM are that the clitoris is dangerous and must be removed for health reasons. Some believe that it is a poisonous organ, which can cause a man to sicken or die if contacted by a man’s penis. Others believe that men can become impotent by contacting a clitoris, or that a baby will be hydrocephalic born with excess cranial fluid if its head contacts the clitoris during birth. Some believe that the milk of the mother will become poisonous if her clitoris touches the baby during childbirth. Bad genital odors can only be eliminated by removing the clitoris and labia minora. FGM prevents vaginal cancer. An unmodified clitoris can lead to masturbation or lesbianism. FGM prevents nervousness from developing in girls and women. FGM prevents the face from turning yellow. FGM makes a woman’s face more beautiful.
If FGM is not done, older men may not be able to match their wives’ sex drive and may have to resort to illegal stimulating drugs. An intact clitoris generates sexual arousal in women, which can cause neuroses if repressed. These claims appear to have little support outside of countries where FGM is common. Sex in most African societies serves procreation, not necessarily the satisfaction of emotional needs. It is conceived as a sacred act and a spiritual experience with emphasis on spiritual compatibility of partners. It is believed that sexual urge depends on the nature of existing relationship between women and their spouses largely.
Matias, A S Director Women’s Studies says in her article that some practitioners of FC state its functions as “It is our culture,“ It is our religious obligation, All normal (our) people have done it, or It makes you clean, beautiful, better, sweet-smelling. Or “You will be able to marry, be presentable to your husband, able to satisfy and keep your husband, able to conceive and bear children”. In such communities, those women who are not circumcised are traditionally prostitutes or members of outcast or formerly “slave” groups. Intermarriage with non-circumcised men or women is usually not allowed or is extremely rare. Female circumcision is often thought to purify and protect the next generation from dangerous outside influences, to bind all youth to their peers or age set. As part of intensive group socialization, it also firmly establishes age set relationships, generational respect and authority patterns. At marriage, the authority over the bride is transferred to the spouse’s patriline. The respect and economic value of the bride to her patriline and to her spouse is dependent upon her unquestioned virginity as demonstrated by the intact circumcision. (Matias, A S, 1996)
Other obvious functions include the control of female sexuality and marital chastity. At or before marriage in many circumcising societies, their prospective to-be in laws. female inspected brides. Their mothers, aunts, and other older female relatives often inspect their circumcision. Moreover, to insure marriage in a society in which men have been taught that only circumcised women make good wives. It also serves to implant fear of pain and being shamed and cast out if not a virgin girl or chaste wife. The actual day of circumcision is one of fear and pain, but also accomplishment and recognition as a full adult marriageable member of society. The girl gets more recognition, including attention, special beautiful clothing, special food and jewelry, after this coming of age ritual than at any other time in her life except on her marriage day. (Matias, A S, 1996)
Psychological Aspects: Because of the dangerous nature of the FGM process, many spheres of a girl’s life are affected when she undergoes the procedure. The main categories of FGM’s effects are physical, psychological, and sexual. Some of the common effects of FGM are the spread of HIV and other infections (vaginal and urinary tract), bleeding, nerve tumors, lack of menses, scar tissue, cysts, infertility, and pelvic infections that can cause sterility. Unfortunately, for the girls experiencing FGM the after-treatment plan does not involve any professional care. An older woman attends the girls for at least a week, applying healing leaves and washing the wounds. These actions are not sufficient because a cut of this magnitude needs stitching and disinfectants that prevent infection or worse, the fly eggs planted on the raw skin. No one but a trained physician should be assisting the girls but the girls are not offered the choice of what person will assist in the aftercare any more than the societal pressure that places them in the precarious position of being mutilated in the first place soothes the girls.
As scary as the physical portion of the procedure is, the psychological pressures before and after the mutilation are infinitely more severe. The girl is not allowed to show fear or emotion during the cutting, afterwards, she is almost forbidden to express any sense of grief or loss. Any time and individual loses a part of her body that she was used to having even a part as hidden as the sexual folds the person suffers loss and shame internally and externally because of the aftereffects of the body’s endorphin rush to prevent the pain. The process is much like what a woman endures when she goes through menopause. The woman’s menopausal body mourns the loss of the fertility it once possessed.
No girl should be forced to endure something so harrowing and unalterable. The girl is not given the choice later of whether she wants to change her body back to the way her body existed before the mutilation. The girl will never know what sexual pleasure might have been for her without the mutilation. An unfortunate side effect of FGM is that the females living with the affliction are filled with anxiety, depression, and other effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSD). Consequently, women are unable to function sexually beyond being receptacles for the overbearing men in their lives. Rather than the sexual act being a mutual consummation, sex becomes a duty, where the woman is torn open by her husband who removes the thorns holding the remnants of her vulva together and sewn shut when he is through with her.
Black woman publishing in New York Ifeyinwa Iweriebor (1996) in her article discuss and defends the cultural and social implications of FGM from an African perspective. There has in recent times been “a hue and cry” about the practice of genital surgery on women in Africa. The prevailing perspective in America has been absolute condemnation. What is bothersome is not so much that people have a negative opinion of the practice, but that the issue is misrepresented as a form of child abuse or a tool of gender oppression. The language and tone of the outcry in most cases reflects a total lack of respect for the culture of other peoples. Even more bothersome is the false portrayal: the falsification of statistics and a successful demonisation of the practitioners. There may be an on-going debate about the effects or necessity for the procedure, but the essential truth is that the practitioners do not perform genital surgery on their girls, nor on their sons for that matter to oppress them or do them any harm. For them the procedure is for the noblest of reasons, the best of intentions and in good faith. The fact that it is performed in public in the countries that permit it demonstrates that the practitioners do not consider it dirty laundry or a dark hidden secret.
Ifeyinwa Iweriebor states the varied reasons for FGM procedure on women. For some cultures, it is a component of a rite of passage to socially acceptable adulthood. For others it is a nuptial necessity. For yet others, it is a mark of courage, particularly where it is carried out on older people. For some it is a reproductive aid, increasing fertility. For others, it enhances sexuality. Many parents want surgery done on their daughters because it protects them from would-be seducers and rapists.
Social pressure: In many cultures, considerable social pressure is brought to bear on families who resist conforming to the tradition of female circumcision. Girls’ desires to conform to peer norms may make them eager to undergo circumcision, since those who remain uncut may be teased and looked down on by their age mates. In addition, the ritual cutting is often embedded in ceremonies in which the girls are feted and showered with presents and their families are honored. A girl’s wishes, in any case, are often irrelevant it is her family often the father or elder female relatives who decide whether she will undergo circumcision. Indeed, girls have very little choice. Given their age and their lack of education and resources, they are dependent on their parents, and later on their husband, for the necessities of life. Those who resist may be cut by force. If they remain uncircumcised and their families are therefore unable to arrange a marriage, they may be cast out without any means of subsistence.
Because of their lack of choice and the powerful influence of tradition, many girls accept circumcision as a necessary, and even natural, part of life, and adopt the rationales given for its existence. A variety of justifications are given by respondents who favor continuation of the practice, including preservation of virginity before marriage, fidelity after marriage, enhancement of the husband’s sexual pleasure, enhancement of fertility, prevention of infant and child mortality, cleanliness and religious requirements, but tradition is by far the most commonly mentioned reason. Efforts to eliminate female circumcision have often been unsuccessful because opponents of the practice ignored its social and economic context. In some cases, external intervention has strengthened the resolve of communities to continue their genital cutting rituals as a way of resisting what they perceive as cultural imperialism. Substantial change is likely to occur only with improvements in the status of women in society.
Mothers are directly responsible for arranging the genital mutilation of their daughters. However, without a male authority, (marital dissolution, separation, sickness, labor migration or death) mothers are likely to have second thoughts about subjecting their daughters to genital mutilation. In most countries, women with higher levels of education and those who have income of their own are less likely than other women to have been circumcised have and are less likely to have had their daughters circumcised. As Toubia (1993) comments, “this one violation of women’s rights cannot be abolished without placing it firmly within the context of efforts to address the social and economic injustice women face the world over. If women are to be considered as equal and responsible members of society, no aspect of their physical, psychological or sexual integrity can be compromised”.
In overview, the majority of women with genital mutilations came from modest and low socio-economic family status (SES) illiterate and partially educated parents (although the majority of daughters who were subjected to genital mutilation had a high school or college education (79%) and came from rural regions, particularly southern communities. Girls of urban/rural areas (living in urban areas but raised in rural areas) remain at a higher risk for genital mutilation than urban/urban girls. Girls of rural/rural families remain at the highest risk for genital mutilation. Regional factors involving peer and ancestral pressures influence the family’s decision to have their daughter’s genitals mutilated.
The biggest concerns of the World Health Organization and ones opposing the practice is the level of physical and emotional trauma being inflicted upon children and the high level of medical risk associated with the procedure. There is no concrete data as to how many children die from complications related to this procedure, but it is extrapolated that one-third of girls undergoing FGM will die. Some go into shock, others hemorrhage, and others succumb to infection. Soon this may have to change however. The World Health Organization, and many other organizations, are working hard to educate populations and to encourage governments to pass tougher laws designed to eradicate the practice.
Summary
Female genital mutilation is a common and popular practice throughout Africa where every day thousands of young girls are subjected to this torture and mutilation. Religious institutions and ancient social customs are primarily responsible for the genital mutilation of female children. The full social and psychological consequences of mutilating the genitals of female children have yet to be evaluated. Preliminary evidence, however, suggest that the psychological consequences of female genital mutilation is very similar to that of rape victims. To bring an end to female genital mutilation in Africa and other countries educational programs that are directed to families, the agents that perform the genital mutilations, midwives, doctors, barbers and the social-political and religious leaders on the harmful and devastating effects that these procedures have upon women will contribute significantly to the elimination of female genital mutilations. Specific attention to be given to the effects of genital mutilations upon reproductive processes, the birth of the child and the marital sexual relationships. Men need to understand that their marital sexual relationships and happiness is to be enhanced when the female genitals are not mutilated. Finally, the education of women incorporated if these objects are to be realized. Female Genital Mutilation is harmful and needs to be halted on a global scale as it is damaging and has profound psychological effects on females and their communities worldwide. Before complete banishment of FGM is accomplished, people must be educated about What Female Genital Mutilation is? and What preventive measures can be taken in order to halt the cruel procedure?
Bibliography
Althaus, Frances A. (1997) Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage or Violation of Rights? International Family Planning Perspectives Volume 23, Number 3, September 1997
Apena Dr. Adeline (1996) Female circumcision in Africa and the problem of cross-cultural perspectives History Dept., Russell Sage College, Troy NY
A.Z. Mustafa, (1966) “Female Circumcision and Infibulation in the Sudan,” Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the British Commonwealth, 73:302-306, 1966.
Robinson B.A. (2005) Female Genital Mutilation Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Ifeyinwa Iweriebor (1996) Brief Reflections on Clitorodectomy Black Women in Publishing, New York
Lightfoot-Klein, H.(1989) Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey into Female Genital Mutilation in Africa.
Matias, Aisha Samad (1996) Female circumcision in Africa Director Women’s Studies, CUNY
Thiam, A (1989) Black Sisters, Speak Out: Feminism and Oppression in Black Africa.
Toubia. N (1993) Female Genital Mutilation. A Call for Global Action
