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FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

" In many FGM-practising societies, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for a woman to marry if she has not undergone mutilation."-Amnesty International

Gender

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is practiced in most regions in Africa. Most women go through this experience at a very young age. Usually this procedure is done between the ages of 6-14 years old. When FGM is performed on a woman, part or all of the woman’s genitalia is removed.

When looking at FGM from a gender perspective, one can see that it is a way to perpetuate the power and the control of the male. FGM is a way to control a woman’s behavior because it controls her sexuality by preventing her to engage in any sexual act before marriage. It is a way of maintaining her virginity. Due to this control that men have over women, females in communities that approve FGM must remain virgins until they are married or else a male will not consider her a good wife. It also keeps the female faithful after marriage.

In addition, the act of FGC is considered to introduce the female into womanhood, which also marks the role and differentiates the role women will play after they marry. When the clitoris and labia are removed from the female, the woman is also viewed as becoming more feminine. In this and many other cultures femininity is sometimes synonymous to being docile and obedient, which is how a woman is expected to behave after she marries. She should obey her husband.

Also, since, FGC is considered to be an initiation rite into womanhood, and is often performed by women; the procedure must also come with a lesson of her role as a woman as well as how she should act in her society.

Links:

www.feminist.org/global/issue.asp?issue=fgm

www.unfpa.org/gender/faq.fgchtm#23htm#23

www.feminist.org/global/issue.asp?issue=fgm

www.unfpa.org/gender/faq.fgchtm#23

www.feminist.org/global/issue.asp?issue=fgm

www.unfpa.org/gender/faq.fgchtm#23

Sexuality.

Links:

The World Health Organization

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/

en/index.html

Amnesty International:

http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/femgen/fgm1.

htm#a5

Feminist.org

http://www.feminist.com/violence/spot/fgm.html

Race and Class

Female Genital Mutilation or FGM is a broad category that describes several different procedures that are carried out with varying degrees of severity in certain cultures of the Middle East, Asia and Northern Africa. Most often the origin of FGM is believed to have begun in Egypt and then spread to its surrounding regions. Many of the women who are classified within these races do not subscribe to the belief that FGM is necessary. Female Genital Mutilation is more closely related to religion and culture rather than race as defined by conventional standards. However, specific tribes that do see themselves as an independent race feel that FGM is part of their racial culture.

The most alarming part about pan-social practices which are rooted in religion and culture is the lack of consistency in how they are practiced. While an upper class family of Middle Eastern, African or Asian heritage may be forced/compelled to have this procedure performed for their daughter just as an impoverished nomad family of desert tribe, they will have very different experiences. The wealthy girl in most circumstances may have the procedure(s) performed in a sterile medical environment by a medical professional with anesthesia, post operative care and antibiotics. The desert girl, on the other hand, will be held down by relatives and cut with a knife or razor blade that may have been used several times. The wound will be then be dressed only enough to stop the bleeding and further medical attention will be unavailable.

Class in many of the regional communities that practice FGM is an issue because becoming a bride is one of the only opportunities available to women. Therefore in order for many women to try to move up in class they must adhere to the social standards put upon them. By undergoing genital mutilation their families are able to drive up their bride price. In doing so, women are permitted to marry into higher class families.

There have been many movements to help stop the act of Female Genital Mutilation. Many of these advances have targeted the lack of available education in several countries where FGM is most prevalent. According to statistical analysis created by DHL in the majority of rural communities there is a higher occurrence of FGM than in urban settings. Although this does not point directly to a class difference it shows a definite correlation between standards of living and Female genital Mutilation. It now also seems that there has been a marked decrease in the popularity of FGM that corresponds directly to increased education of both men and women along with the cultural advancement of those who now blur the lines between tradition and necessity.

Links:

http://www.worldservice.org/issues/junjul96/fgm.html

http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/rhr

_01_17_fgm_student_guide/fgm_student_manual.pdf

http://www.measuredhs.com

http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/first/hosken.html

Women throughout history and around the world have endured physical stigmata from piercing to breast augmentations to foot binding to female genital mutilation. While the severity of certain practices may seem shocking by contemporary standards the difference is degree not principal. Even things such as wedding rings, bras and high heels were and are used as ways for women to become bride prizes in male dominated societies. In Bali, the practice of filing the teeth, known as metatah, is considered to be a mark of beauty for woman. They have this procedure done as a right of passage into womanhood before they are married or as part of a wedding ceremony. In Muslim cultures women observe the act of hijab to honor Allah.

In the Chinese culture woman had their feet bound in order to obtain small feet. It was used as a restraining device for women because men feared that a woman would leave her home. Many men would not marry women who did not have their feet bound because, foot binding represented dignity and showed that a woman had good family values.

Within our own society there are many things that women endure in order to be marriage material. Women in the united states are held up to an ideal of beauty that most represents the body of a 12 year old boy with large breasts. While there are some people who naturally have this body, most don't. In order to achieve this women go trough breast augmentation, tummy tucks, yoga, and any number of other work out regiments in order to have the perfect size 2 body. The American culture is obsessed with beauty. More and more people each year or running to the plastic surgeon in order to fix, their nose, teeth, cheek bones, you name it someone can fix it. The need for the perfect body lies far more in the hands of women then men. This billion dollar industry is dominated by female clientele.