Female Genital Mutilation also called FGM is a destructive operation. The procedure consists of the female genitals being partly or entirely removed or injured with the goals of inhibiting a woman’s sexual feelings. Before the girls hit puberty is usually when it is performed. This often happens to girls between the age of four and eight, but recently it is increasingly performed on nurslings who are only a couple of days, weeks or months old. The female clitoris is anatomically analogous to the male penis and plays a central role in women’s sexuality. The equivalent of mutilation performed on the male will be amputation in various degrees of the penis. In its comparable extreme form, of the penis will be stitched together so as to make sexual intercourse and …show more content…
The tools that are being used are knives, razor blades, scissors, sharpened rocks, and fingernails and pieces of glass. There are health issues that come with this procedure such as intermediate complication. That includes fatal bleeding, acute urinary retention, UTI, wound infection, HIV, and etc. Late complications can depend in the type of FGM performed. Long term issues as scars, keloids, urethra/bladder/pelvic infection, painful periods, cysts, pain during sexual intercourse, and infertility. Lastly there are psychological complications that include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, feeling of shame and betrayal can develop when the women goes outside of their tradition and learned that their condition in not normal. Sexual feelings are reduced but it doesn’t necessarily destroy sexual desire in women. In fact, some women said that they were able to enjoy their sex life, though their risk of sexual dysfunction was
It examines questions about cultural practices and why some/all people accept them and whom that might be benefitting or harming (ibid). In other words, it examines the behaviors, consequences, social factors, and above all the power structures in play. In Althaus’ article, she postulates that one reason that female circumcision is used is to increase the sexual pleasure of men (Althaus, 131). Here we can see the strong presence of a patriarchal society. Recall the purpose here is not to actually criticize this practice but rather seek the underlying interests or motivations of implementing it. The strong presence of a patriarchy indicates that women in a way are indeed used as means to serve the interests of men both sexually and also by providing a child. This brings about the winners (men) and the oppressed
Internationally, issues revolving around the female body and reproduction are extremely controversial. For a woman, her body is a very private matter. At the same time, however, a woman's body and her reproduction rights are the center of attention in many public debates. Several questions regarding women's reproductive rights remain unanswered. How much control do women have over their bodies? What kind of rules can be morally imposed upon women? And who controls the bodies of women? Although the public continues to debate these topics, certain conclusions can been made concerning women and their reproductive rights. An undeniable fact is that government has a large degree of control over female reproductive organs. All around the world, time and time again, several national governments have implemented policies, enacted laws, and denied women control over their reproductive organs. Several governments have crossed the border between intimate and public matters concerning women's reproductive organs, by making laws about contraceptives, abortion, and family planning programs.
Some fear that the removal of the healthy part of an organ is a purely
In America, women are allowed to have an education poor or rich. In Fatima’s society women are not always educated and a lot of the times not able to attend schools. Yasmina says that Fatima will be educated and the first step toward that occurs when nationalists create schools that accept young women and encourage girls to attend. Fatima's mother immediately petitions her husband to allow Fatima to transfer to that school and the family council permits all the girls to go. In Fatima’s society, women are forced to do things they don’t want to do and they don’t have a choice to do it or they could be killed. They also have public baths Sidi Slimane Krishna took members of Yasmina's harem to this location to
At that time in the early 1990’s, the U.S. was the only superpower country left in the world. The Soviet Union collapsed after the Cold War and the left the U.S. at the top. With the U.S. being the only superpower left, it meant that they were the only ones who could try to keep peace between other countries and hopefully end violence in the world. At the time, Somalia was a complete disaster and still is to this day. They have no structural government and warlords rule parts of the country.
Female genital cutting is often termed as female genital circumcision or female genital mutilation. This includes partial or complete removal of external female genitalia for non-medical reasons (WHO). Woman who undergo this procedure generally range from the ages five to fifteen years old. This process is known to have no actual health benefits however; it is practiced la...
The women in Nampossela lack the social and economic rights to make many significant decisions about their life. Due to her simultaneous position as an outsider and a member of the group, Holloway becomes an unbiased outlet that Monique and other woman can speak with regarding their difficulties. One such difficulty amongst women in Mali that Holloway discovered was female circumcision. Holloway, prior to her visit to Mali, was aware of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in rural villages. However, the intense birth of Korotun’s daughter causes Holloway to question the reasoning behind the traditional cutting. In response to Holloway’s mention of FGM, Monique explains her painful experience of circumcision at nine or ten and her thoughts on the subject, “Here we say that koloboli helps girls become good wives and bear children…it does not help the baby pass through…”(114). The practice of FGM in Mali occurs often enough that Monique had never met an uncut woman prior to Holloway, whose western background does not practice FGM.
Infanticide is a way to alter the reproductive stream before the child has the status of a real person, which is culturally defined (source). The deaths of weak, illegitimate, excess, deformed and unwanted infants are not defined as murder when the infants have not yet been born into the social world. Infanticide occurs cross-culturally for a multitude of causes. The reasons for infanticide can be summed up into three categories: biological (including the health of the child and twin stigmas), economical (relation to other children, women's workload, and available resources) and cultural (preferred gender, illegitimate children). This essay will examine cross-culturally the biological, economic and cultural factors for infanticide.
However, when the civil war broke out she was forced to leave everything behind and make a dangerous trek with my father and brother, all desperately seeking asylum. Before the civil war, Somalia was a hotspot for tourist attraction. It was a coastal town, famous for it's ancient and modern architectural design. It had beautiful white sandy beaches and clear blue oceans that fused with the color of the sky. My mother’s shop was located in an open market alongside of 20 other venues. It was always bustling with people trying to buy the freshest food because refrigerators were mainly used for keeping ice. Constant honks of cars, everyone pushing and shoving one another, and customers yelling at merchants, bargaining for a lower price, are all too common when going to the market. The call to prayer silences all of that. Merchants leave their stores unprotected and head to the mosque. There was a strong level of trust in Somalia that's been robbed when the civil war
knew what would happen to her the day her mother called her out of her
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is an ancient traditional non-therapeutic surgical procedure that involves total or partial removal of the external parts of female genitalia. This paper aimed to define and classify FGM, identifies the prevalence, describes reasons for performing the practice, and concentrates on the problems associated to this practice with regard to women’s health, religious beliefs, and socio-cultural, behavioral and moral consequences. Researches and survey reports that the global actions have been taken to reduce or abolish the prevalence of the practice will be assessed.
Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage Or Violation of Rights?" Guttmacher Institute: Home Page. Frances A. Althaus. Web. 15 June 2010. .
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...
In the Maasai society, genital cutting is a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, and both men and women go through the process of circumcision. As society ages, opinions on cultural norms change. This is true for the Maasai society, where the views on female circumcision have and are changing. Female circumcision is classified into three categories, and defined by the World Health Organization, Type I is the removal of the foreskin on the vagina, Type II is the removal of the clitoris, and Type III is the removal of all external genitalia with the stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening (“New Study”). Traditionally in the Maasai society, women underwent Type II or Type III circumcision. Written in 1988, “The Initiation of a Maasai Warrior,” by Tepilit Ole Saitoi, and is an autobiographical story of Saitoti’s circumcision in his initiation to a warrior. Though his story mainly focuses on the male circumcision part of the Maasai society, women’s circumcision and other basic traditions are discussed. Throughout the short story, the topic of circumcision and the rite of passage, both long- standing traditions in the Maasai society, are central themes.
Gender reassignment is a very controversial topic. Does it really work, can surgery really change your gender? People will always tell you about all the things that go right with surgery, but does anyone truly pay attention to the significant problems that this surgery can cause? Gender reassignment surgery (GRS) is a surgical procedure by which a person’s physical appearance and function of their existing sexual characteristics are altered to resemble that of the other sex. It is said that this surgery is used to treat gender identity disorder (GID), which describes the condition in which an individual identifies with a gender inconsistent or not culturally associated with their assigned sex. Having surgery performed can cause both physical and mental tribulations. While death is an unlikely result of complications, things do go wrong, as with all surgeries there are risks. There are also major mental, physiological, social and emotional side effects. Surgery will not fix the underlying psychological problems that cause the request for surgery. Anyone considering surgery needs to proceed with caution, as it can result in irreversible damage.