There is a practice in this country which is becoming increasingly alarming for those of us who were taught to respect the female body. This procedure, imported from the Middle East, is called Female Genital Mutilation, and is practiced as a means of "sanitation" and control over the girl or woman. This practice consists of taking a girl to a doctor, or more frequently, a home of a relative or friend, where the girl's clitoris,and/or labia are completely cut off, often with no anesthesia. Sometimes the girls are as young as 3 or 4 years old. This practice is sometimes worsened by the additional pain of sewing up the vagina, until only a hole the size of a matchstick is left. This practice often leaves the child in shock, some die, and if the girl is not traumatised enough, then when she gets her periods, she is often left sterile or with recurrent Pelvic Inflammatory Disease,urinary incontinence, vaginal and rectal fistulas,cancer, and many other gynecological problems. The procedure and its aftermath can leave the woman isolated and shunned by her family.
In the Muslim world, there is a saying, something like this: A woman has 3 sorrows,
If, after undergoing the first, without either her previous knowledge or consent, then enduring( they must be saints!) the second, why would anyone want to torture her more by the third?? In what is supposed to be the highlight of a woman's life, her childrens' births, why would a man or men torment her like this? And what female relative or friend would try to encourage this Barbarianism? Control? Power? A false sense of authority? And what kind of god must Allah be to allow his most beautiful creatures to suffer at the hands of their husbands and mothers like this?
People, this is inhumane. A girl, an innocent child should not have to be dragged screaming into a bedroom and be tortured in the name of "cleanliness", only to be dragged out later, scarred permanently--,emotionally,mentally,spiritually, and physically.It is the leading cause of sterility and death from infection in countries that allow this.This practice MUST be stopped, in the US if not in the Middle East and Africa. And it should be stopped there, as well. There is no shame in a woman's body parts any more than there is a man's, and if Allah thought a man should be left whole, to "have his pleasure" then so should the woman. There is NO brinkmanship in heaven. The woman was designed to have pleasure as well as the man. So a man who allows this torment to befall his daughters or his wife, is less than a man and not a protector. Maybe Male Genital Mutilation should be practiced as well, cutting off the entire Penis and Scrotum. Then, would things be better?
For more information here are some websites to look up:
