Female Circumcision Female Circumcision, also known as Female Genital Mutilation is the cutting partial/ total removal of the external female genitalia (Clitoris, sometimes the labia of girls or young women). It’s done for non-medical reasons, being that different parts of the world still practicing it, it’s consider a part of tradition, cultural beliefs and is religious. Female Genital Mutilation, FGM is usually performed on females from the age of infancy to young women, mainly done before the first menstrual period. FGM is generally being done in the Middle- Eastern part of the world and mainly in many parts of Africa. With the World Health Organization, WHO signed with nine United Nations including The United States have eliminated FGM. …show more content…
The tradition does not adapt to changes as a result of outside influences of their culture. It’s a belief that existed for a long time. It’s a habit that’s considered tradition and is practiced over and over (one every 15 seconds, at least 2 two million infants, girl-children and women). If people are brought up believing that it is a way of life, the main justifications that they follow is morality, virginity, honor and must be done for marriage and told to be a way ladies will be ‘faithful’ wives to their husbands. It’s been done for so long that it’s going to be practiced depending on how strong a person stands for their traditional …show more content…
It’s a crime in the United States under section 116 of Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. The United Nations have declared the elimination of FGM through policies that include education, empowerment of women and is enforced by the law. Most countries that commonly perform it don’t have laws the prohibit FGM. And if a country does enforcement it, it’s often weak. Africa doesn’t take FGM as a serious actions against the law. A person who performs FGM in Africa could be fine up to 50 dollars and three years in prison. The laws against it aren’t as serious as if it’s done in the United States and other parts of the United
Everyone dreams of the day they will meet their children. From a young age, you can hear people saying the plans and desires they have for their future boy or girl. Our society is constructed in such a manner that everything operates under this male-female dichotomy. However, this system of operation is not always applicable. Cases where this is evident is when intersex babies are born. Intersex babies are born with genitalia that do not pertain entirely to either males or females, hence the term, intersex. Parents are unsure of what to think about their child. What should they name it? What colors shall they dress them in? Will they raise it as a boy or a girl? They are consumed with questions that are normally answered by assignation to a sex category.
Despite its popularity in Africa, FGM is under scrutiny by members of the international human rights community. In 1993, female circumcision was deemed harmful by the international Human Rights Conference in Vienna . The World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the UN Population Fund have planned programs designed to “completely eliminate [female genital mutilation] within three generations” , on the basis that FGM is a human rights violation. This gives rise to the obvious question as to whether human rights activists and organizations should be sensitive to the cultural practices of the people of Africa. Some human rights activists have even professed FGM as a “knock-down counterargument to cultural relativism”, and use the practice as an example of how hum...
According to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, “state parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members”(1). It is generally believed that the fundamental rights of every human being should be respected; but unfortunately that’s not the case with FGM. Children are made to past this ordeal at an early age. A child as young as 10 years or even younger is subjected to this inhuman act without seeking her consent or most times telling flimsy stories to subdue her infant mind. On the other hand, the perpetrators believe that the child is too young to decide and being parents automatically places them in the rightful position to decide her faith. Contrary to that notion, is the provision in article three (3) of the same UN convention which states that “[i]n all actions concerning the ch...
Change. A word that frightens our culture. People are afraid of change because they are comfortable with tradition. Most people have been taught that tradition is something that is not revised; moreover, people are apprehensive to change tradition. Lemony Snicket once said, “Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course.” Change in one’s life can relate to anything. With culture and society constantly progressing in many directions, more and more topics are being discussed and questioned. Religion marks a significant role in constant controversy over traditional topics. Certain topics are being debated because people are beginning to think like Lemony Snicket: what is the reason behind these traditions? Celibacy is defined as the state of being unmarried and/or sexually abstinent by choice, especially for religious reasons. It is demonstrated as a vow for men becoming Catholic priests.
Female genital circumcision (FGC) is a cultural ritual that is performed to the vast majority of women within the countries of Sudan, Kenya, Mali, Benin, Togo, and parts of the Middle East. Female genital circumcision also termed as female genital mutilation is used based upon a person’s beliefs. This ritual has been highly controversial for many years especially in the western society, due to the health risks that women may have to go through. Doctor Gruenbaum, and anthropologist who studied FGC in Sudan, has researched this topic and believes that outsiders need to have an open mind about diverse cultures. I believe that this procedure should not be illegal; however, education about the risks of the procedure should be enforced in the countries where this takes place, in order to create a safer environment for the ritual to be performed in. The goal of this essay is to know what Female Genital Circumcision is and different types of FGC and why this is performed and why it is important for outsiders to not have ethnocentric views when dealing with this. This essay also deals with why it should be medicalized instead of enforcing laws to ban this years long tradition in all African countries. When challenging female genital circumcision, we are also challenging the people who perform this procedure, their culture, values and beliefs.
...tradition today want to stop it themselfs . However others involve in this culture don't accept it because religion and their social acceptance is greater than their desire stop this cruelty to woman.
A hot button issue in our society over the years has been the topic of male and female circumcision. This issue has been portrayed in both ethical and political paradigms. “It is estimated that about 30% of males are circumcised worldwide for religious, cultural, and health reasons, most of whom live in major parts of the Middle East, Central Asia, West Africa and Israel, as well as in the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand,” according to Demuth (1). Male circumcision is the medical process of the removal of the foreskin that covers the head of the penis. In continuation, the article “Prevalence of Female Genital Cutting among Egyptian Girls,” estimates that between “100 and 130 million girls and women now alive in at least 28 African countries and the Middle East have been subjected to female circumcision or female genital mutilation (FGM)” stated by Tag-Eldin (3). The female genital mutilation is a bit different than a male’s circumcision, generally consisting of three types. “Type 1 is the removal of the clitoris, Type 2 is the removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, and Type 3 is the removal of all parts of the external genitalia, which includes: the clitoris, the labia minora/majora, and then sewing the rest of the tissues,” according to Pauls (4). The origin of circumcision is currently unknown, but according to the article “Circumcision”, there is a theory that in Ancient Egypt, Egyptians men were circumcised and eliminated all of their body hair for probably hygienic reasons. In addition, in the “Book of the Dead” it describes the sun god, Ra, to have circumcised himself (40). This suggests that it may have also been for religious reasons.
Female genital mutilation (also known as female circumcision) is the cutting of female clitoral hood and removing clitoris. Following the cutting of female genital organ, there are many short-term and long-term health risk problems, and even death due to some complicated infections. The reasons for performing female genital mutilation are connected with socio-cultural beliefs, attitudes, values and customs, transition of girls into womanhood, tradition and cultural heritage, the fear of not having access to resources and opportunities as a young woman, perception to reduce sexual desire of females; hence, will sustain premarital virginity, and maintain marital fidelity. Actions have taken at international, national and regional levels since the past many years and have begun to bear fruits, but the practice is still undergoing in many countries in the world and highly prevalent in Africa. To continue and motivate further reduction in changing the society’s attitudes towards female genital mutilation in the countries where the prevalence has remained stable so it’s therefor...
How do you end a tradition that a culture has had around for centuries? Every culture has a different and original tradition. What happens though when the tradition is a horrible and painful one? Female Circumcision is a procedure that is a tradition to many cultures. The purpose of this procedure is to make women stay faithful to their husbands and not become promiscuous, as they get older. This procedure is not safe and has many side effects. Female Circumcision is a shocking procedure that cause women pain and suffering for the rest of their lives.
Females as a general population have been faced with discrimination across the ages. In recent history, women have begun to assert their freedom and independence from the male oriented traditions that have spanned generations. In industrialized countries the discrimination of women has diminished, but a serious form of violation of human rights occurs sometimes in parts of the world, such as Africa, the Middle East, and even sometimes the United States and other industrialized countries in North America and Europe. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is an umbrella term for three subtypes of crimes committed against women as a part of various coming of age rituals for young girls in certain patriarchal communities in Africa, spreading through migration of a populace through Northeastern and Western Africa and some spread into the Middle Eastern countries. These communities integrated this practice into women through marriage into these cultures, spreading this practice into their daughters and so forth. FGM has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) into three basic subtypes, each growing more and more disturbing. Subtype number one is a clitoridectomy which is the complete or partial removal of the clitoris, while subtype two it includes the clitoridectomy plus the removal of the labia minora of the young girl. Alone, these two types of FGM composed approximately 90 percent of female genital mutilation. The third subtype is the most gruesome that is the narrowing the vagina opening by sealing the orifice with the use of the labia majora. These medical procedures have been described the WHO working in conjunction with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Un...
Many question whether female circumcision (FGM, genital cutting, etc.) is a form of abuse, is it a humane and morally acceptable practice and how can we fix this horrendous practice? These assumptive thoughts are typically made through the eyes of outsiders, female circumcision is many things and must be looked at through such a lens. Despite, all of this female circumcision is still framed very commonly between these three views, female circumcision is abuse, is a result of patriarchal societies, and is a cultural and religious practice.
Rites of passage, specifically circumcision, are the focus of study for multiple theorists. Circumcision as a ritual of passage encompasses various theories on the function of these ritualistic passages. Arnold Van Gennep, Vincent Crapanzano, and Victor Turner each approach the ritual of circumcisions’ function differently, specifically they question whether the ritual can be considered in stages.
In my culture a male owns a girl until she is dead. First she has to obey everything her father says and then she has to obey her husband. The women are supposed to basically worship the men. If the men want sex she cannot say no to him. Women cannot express her sexuality openly like a man can. I also think that the clitoris is seen as inferior to the penis. Women are there so that men can gain sexual desire from them.
culture, they only serve to be wed and bear children. When women are growing up one of the
Female genital mutilation is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons". The practice is more prevalent in countries with limited health care facilities and limited resources for health research. Current estimates reveal that approximately 100-140 million African women have undergone some form of FGM worldwide. Each year another 3 million are at risk just in Africa. FGM is practiced globally as a result of immigration, but is most prevalent on the continent of Africa. The majority of cases are recorded to be within a group of twenty-eight African countries. In countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan rates reach as right as ninety-eight of the female population. Its prevalence has been estimated at 61% in Lower Egypt and 97% in Upper Egypt. (El-Gibaly)