Urzula Urzua

Female Genital Mutilation

Female genital mutilation is sometimes referred to as female circumcision. This is not the equivalent of male circumcisions. If you were to compare the two, FGM is more like a penisectomy than a circumcision and the reasons for FGM are more sinister.

There are different degrees of female genital mutilation. Every article for this paper had it’s own description of the process but the following is from an article written by Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan entitled "The International Crime of Genital Mutilation". From the least severe to the most severe there is Sunna Circumcision, which is the removal of the prepuce and/or the tip of the clitoris; a clitorectomy, which is the removal of the entire clitoris plus the adjacent parts of the labia minor; and infibulation, which is the removal of the clitoris, the labia minor, and the labia major with the scraped sides of the vulva pulled across the vagina and sewed together. A thin piece of wood, like a match stick, is placed inside the wound during healing so that when the wound scars over, there will be a tiny hole where urine and menstrual blood can be eliminated. Women or girls who have this done to them must be cut open before having intercourse or giving birth. Some of these women are then sewed back up every time after intercourse or giving birth (Steinem, 330-340).

In a book entitled The Falling Dawadawa Tree: Female Circumcision in Developing Ghana, there were pictures of a little seven day old girl having her genitals mutilated over a big white pan, to catch the blood. At the end of the procedure, the pan was a reddish black. I could not believe that all that blood came from that tiny body (Knudsen, 127 -129).

The practice of female genital mutilation is done for several reasons. In our current times, most of this activity is going on in Africa and the Arabian peninsula. But these acts are not restricted to certain religions. They are practiced by some Islamic peoples, indigenous tribes, some Catholics and Protestants, and the Fellasha - an ancient Jewish sect in Ethiopia. This is touted as a religious practice, though nowhere in the Koran is this mentioned (Steinem, 332). In arguments about banning this practice in the United States, the issue of the freedom of religion is always brought up as a main obstacle to outlawing this practice. But it is not a religious practice. It is a way to control women (Hughes, 357). According to a pamphlet distributed by Uzima Press the biblical arguments are unsubstantiated. In the Bible, Mark 9:43-48 states that to conquer envy, the eyes must be removed; for theft, the hands; and for slander, the tongue. But we do not do this. "No one suggests that male promiscuity can be conquered by removing the male organ (Josiah, 21). "When Jesus met a woman who had been caught committing adultery, he said to her; ‘Go, and do not sin again’ (John 8:11). He did not say to her, Go, [sic] and get circumcised so that you will not be tempted any more’ " (Josiah, 22).

This procedure as seen by some as the only way to keep women "marriageable". Men are more or less guaranteed a virgin if she has had FGM done to her because this "surgery" make sex painful. In the case of infibulation, the husband is assured a virgin until he cuts her open himself on their wedding night. "[T]he smaller the artificial passage is, the greater the value of the girl and the higher the brideprice" (Hughes, 322). FGM is thought to prevent female promiscuity and reduce or terrorize women out of sexual desire. When women are seen as property, something to be bought or sold, they are dehumanized. When women are seen as a commodity only, it makes it easier to mistreat them, mutilate them and abuse them. According to U.S. News and World Report, there are no countries in which women are treated as well as the men in that country (MacFarquhar, 1).

Thankfully, this procedure has been outlawed in many countries (Burstyn, 29). But this has served to push the practice underground. Mothers and aunts are doing the clitorectomies and infibulations themselves in unsanitary conditions and without anesthetic. This can lead to any of the following physical repercussions: sterility from infection due to rusty razor blades or dirty hands, shock, hemorrhage, septicemia, genital malformation, delayed menarche, dyspareunia - pain during intercourse, chronic pelvic complications, incontinence, calcification deposits in the vaginal wall, recto-vaginal fistulas, vulval cysts and abscesses, recurrent urinary retention and infection, scarring and keloid formation, infertility, and death (Steinem, 332).

There are mental repercussions as well. This procedure is widely practiced for the specific intent of controlling women, as previously mentioned. FGM is meant to control them sexually. This procedure serves as a biological chastity belt. It makes sex painful, even unbearable. Women may become frigid. It can be temporary or permanent. It may even lead to psychoses (Steinem, 332-333).

Many countries have banned the practice of FGM. "The United Kingdom has a full-fledged and longstanding anti-FGM movement that involves the country’s social-service agencies. France, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, and Belgium all have outlawed the practice" (Burstyn, 29). But here in the U.S. the Congress has just recently decided to protect women against this heinous act. "The first attempt to prohibit FGM here died in the previous Congress. . . [However, three] states, New York, Minnesota, and North Dakota, have passed laws making the practice of FGM a felony. . ." (Burstyn, 30). But more was needed. We should have been following the lead of countries like England and Canada. There it is against the law to do the actual mutilations and it is also illegal to take children out of the country to have this done (Burstyn, 32). Though some would argue that FGM falls under child abuse, there were few preventive measures in the US, besides the previously mentioned states (Burstyn, 32).

It is ambiguous laws like these which made obtaining asylum not a cut-and-dry issue for the United States. Let us examine the story of Fauziya Kasinga, the Togo woman who was granted asylum in the U.S. to escape FGM. In March of 1996, when her story was first reported in The Washington Post, she made news because she was asking the U.S. to see that FGM is really torture, a reason for granting asylum. She had run away from her home in Togo because she was to have the procedure done to her before she was to be (without her consent) married into a polygamous relationship. At this time, Canada had already granted asylum to two women because three years previous it had categorized female circumcision as a "legitimate claim for female asylum seekers" (The Washington Post, March 17, 1996). In following this story, both the Washington Post and The New York Times kept abreast of the story. In May of 1996 they reported that the Senate had approved an immigration bill amendment criminalizing FGM if performed on a girl under the age of 18. Unfortunately, the specific language that would have "offered political asylum to women fleeing their home countries to escape the practice" had to be removed (The Washington Post, May 2, 1996). Then, in June of 1996, the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, "the highest administrative tribunal in the U.S. immigration system" granted asylum to Fauziya Kasinga (The New York Times, June 14, 1996). The ruling contained a quote for an immigration service report saying that "It remains particularly true that women have little recourse and may face threats to their freedom, threats, or acts of violence, or social ostracization for refusing to undergo this harmful traditional practice, or attempting to protect their female children" (Ibid). This ruling, "which is binding on the 179 U.S. immigration judges across the country, is the first to recognize the threat of FGM as legitimate grounds for asylum" (Ibid).

Now that we have asylum in some countries does not mean we are free from danger. FGM goes on everyday. According to Warrior Marks, a film concerning FGM, about 10,000 female children in the U.S. are at risk. It degrades our young female children. They think that their genitalia is dirty (Parmar). The World Health Organization (WHO) states that "at least 75 million women and children in Africa are victims of the gruesome practice of female circumcision" (UN, 1988). We must work to eradicate it entirely. To begin to eradicate this problem, we must first understand what keeps the practice going. It has already been discussed that traditions and religion are touted as the main keepers of the practice of FGM. "Female circumcision is based in indigenous religious beliefs in which myths, rituals, rites and taboos play important parts" (Knudsen, 192). "The metaphorical sacrifice of a ‘baby’ and the getting rid of a ‘penis’ in women is a common phenomenon" (Knudsen, 212). Knudsen recommends, among other things, that the institution of marriage in Ghana needs to be modified. "[The] ‘Marriage Under Ordinance" has to be abolished. . . At present monogamy and polygamy . . .exist side by side in the jungle of a myriad of different kinds of church and traditional modes of marriages (Knudsen, 215). Other practices also need to be changed. "It should be a criminal offence to employ a child under eleven [and]. . . It should be a criminal offence for any person to take girls under eighteen years old outside Ghana unless . . . there is evidence that the girls are going to continue their education" (Knudsen, 219).

Others have also spoken out about the strong belief structure behind FGM. "Raqiya Haji Abdalla of the Somali Women’s Democratic Organization says about FGM; ‘Women are victims of outdated customs, attitudes and male prejudice. This results in negative attitudes of women about themselves. There are many forms of sexual oppression, but this particular one is based on the manipulation of women’s sexuality in order to assure male domination and exploitation’" (Toubia, 163). A clear beginning step comes from Asma Abdel Haleem who "calls for a feminist re-interpretation of religion. She says; ‘With regards to female circumcision, it is important that there be a final religious announcement clearly stating that it is a form of mutilation and therefore forbidden. It is not sufficient for religion to shun the practice. Religion should be used as a tool for condemning and preventing its occurrence. The participation of women in the reinterpretation of religion will be crucial’ " (Toubia, 163).

Along with these women, Dr. Nahid Toubia was saying that FGM is a violation of the following :

"1) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

2) The Convention to Eliminate all Discrimination against Women.

3) The Convention of the Rights of the Child.

4) The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.

5) The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child." (Toubia, 166). These women were specifically asking that laws be passed "to prohibit the practice" (Toubia, 167).

It has been brought to the attention of the UN on several occasions, as early as 1977 by the Sub-Committee on the Status of Women, that this is a practice which needs to be eradicated (UN, 1987). This committee believes that "female circumcision is a harmful practice with no beneficial consequences to the health of women and children" (Ibid). They also stress the need "for Governments to include education on female circumcision and other such traditional practices in their national health programmes . . . [and to] spare no effort in supporting the efforts being made by Africans to eradicate the practice of female circumcision" (Ibid).

Recently the threat of AIDS and HIV transmission has also become an issue. "One of the modes of transmission of this disease had been identified as cutting with unsterilized instruments and blood letting. Female circumcision is normally performed under the most unhygienic circumstances using razor blades, pieces of glass, kitchen knives, etc., and in most cases girls are lined up and the same instrument is used from one to the other" (UN, 1988). Education and finance are key. It has been recommended to the UN that "UNICEF . . . should openly support efforts by concerned countries to end female circumcision in ways sensitive to their own cultures, [and] . . . include discussions of the health effects of female circumcision in its training of health workers and in all health programmes to improve the status of women and girls in all concerned countries (UN, 1992).

This may seem like an incredibly far away problem to some, but it does go on in the United States. What can one person do to help eradicate the problem? The following is a partial list of Female Genital Mutilation Advocacy groups in the United States. This is not a complete list. There are advocacy groups all around the globe. These groups can be contacted and they will help with the next step.

Action for Children

UNICEF House

3 UN Plaza

New York, NY 10017

Atlanta Circumcision Information Center

David J Llewellyn, Director

2 Putnam Drive, NW

Atlanta, GA 30342

Human Rights Internet Newsletter

1502 Ogden Street, NW

Washington, DC 20010

Physicians for the Rights of the Child

George Denniston, M.D., MPH

2442 NW Market Street

Suite 42

Seattle, WA 98107

RAINBO - Research, Action & Information Network for Bodily Integrity of Women

915 Broadway

Suite #1603

New York, NY 10010-7108

UNICEF - United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund

United Nations

331 East 38th Street

New York, NY 10017

For a more complete list please see

http://www.hollyfeld.org/fgm/eradic/advocacy.html

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The Washington Post - March 17, 1996. Togo Woman Seeking Asylum Tangled in U.S. Immigration Bureaucracy.

The New York Times - April 15, 1996. May 2nd Trial Set for Woman Seeking Asylum

The Washington Post - April 24, 1996. INS To Argue Female Genital Mutilation Grounds for Political Asylum

The New York Times - April 25, 1996. Fauziya Kasinga Released From Jail

The Los Angeles Times - April 30, 1996 and The Washington Post - April 30, 1996. Togo Woman Speaks of U.S. Prison Conditions Upon Release.

The Washington Post - May 2, 1996 and The New York Times - May 2, 1996. Senate Votes to Ctiminilize Female Genital Mutilation.

The Washington Post - May 3, 1996. Immigration Board Hears Togo Woman’s Asylum Plea.

The New York Times - June 14, 1996. Togo Woman Granted Asylum to Escape Female Genital Mutilation.

The New York Times - October 12, 1996. Congress Outlaws Female Genital Mutilation.

The Washington Post - June 27, 1997. U.S. State Department Denounces Egyptian Ruling Allowing Genital Mutilation.

Knudsen, Christiana Oware. The Falling Dawadawa Tree: Female Circumcision in Developing Ghana. Smyrna Press. 1994.

Steinem, G. & Morgan, R. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. "The International Crime of Genital Mutilation". Penguin Books pg. 330-340.

Toubia, Nahid. Presenter for "Subcommittee on International Security, international Organizations, and Human Rights" Congress of the United States Committee on Foreign Affairs House of Representatives. September 28, 1993.

United Nations April 20, 1988. Statement [on the practice of female circumcision]/by the International Movement for Fraternal Union Among Races and Peoples. UN document No. E/ICEF/1988/NGO/5

United Nations January 7, 1987. Implications of the Nairobi forward-looking strategies for the advancement of women programme planning in the United Nations system. UN document No. E/CN.6/1987/NGO/3

United Nations June 16, 1992. Recommendations on female genital mutilation, also referred to as female circumcision : NGO statement / by the Population Crisis Committee. UN document No. E/ICEF/1992/NGO/8.

Burstyn, Linda. Female Circumcision Comes to America. The Atlantic Monthly, 276 (4), 28-35. October 1995.

Hughes, Karen. The Criminalization of Female Genital Mutilation in the United States. Journal of Law and Policy. (4) 1995. pg 321-370..

Josiah, Rev. Canon Ephantus Mwaniki. Female Circumcision. Pamphlet distributed by Uzima Press. 1990.

MacFarquhar, Emily, et.al. The War Against Women in Much of the World, Political and Economic ‘Progress’ has been Dragging Them Backward. U.S. News and World Report. 116 (12) 1994 pg 1-9.

Parmar, Pratibha. Warrior Marks. Executive producer Alice Walker. 54 minutes. Color. Distributed by Women Make Movies. 1993.