Female genital mutilation
Bantu_Kelani:
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/femgen/fgm1.htm
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Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the term used to refer to the removal of part, or all, of the female genitalia. The most severe form is infibulation, also known as pharaonic circumcision. An estimated 15% of all mutilations in Africa are infibulations. The procedure consists of clitoridectomy (where all, or part of, the clitoris is removed), excision (removal of all, or part of, the labia minora), and cutting of the labia majora to create raw surfaces, which are then stitched or held together in order to form a cover over the vagina when they heal. A small hole is left to allow urine and menstrual blood to escape. In some less conventional forms of infibulation, less tissue is removed and a larger opening is left.
Genital mutilation is painful, it causes illness and it reduces sexual pleasure...I just don't understand why people think this is okay [smiley=furious3.gif][smiley=bomb.gif]!!
B.K
Poetic_Princess:
Much Blessings Bantu_Kelani
A few months ago I too found out about this Barbaric Practice and researched and had made a post on it.You asked why to people it seems okay,because in their eyes it is a cultural practice and it is done on young girls before puberty to "preserve them for marriage" so honestly they have no say to what is being done to their bodies.
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THE PROCESS OF HELL
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is practiced in many forms:
Sunna circumcision in which the tip of the clitoris and/or its covering (prepuce) are removed.
Clitoridectomy where the entire clitoris, the prepuce and adjacent labia are removed.
Infibulation (a.k.a. Pharaonic circumcision) which is a clitoridectomy followed by sewing up of the vulva. A small opening is left to allow urine and menstrual blood to pass. 1 A second operation is done later in life to reverse some of the damage. In some cultures, the woman is cut open by her husband on their wedding night with a double edged dagger. She may be sewn up again if her husband leaves on a long trip.
Because of poverty and lack of medical facilities, the procedure is frequently done under less than hygienic conditions, and often without anesthetic by other than medically trained personnel. Anesthesia is rarely used. Razor blades, knives or scissors are usually the instruments used. The In the rural Mossi areas of Burkina Faso, group female circumcisions are scheduled every three years in many villages. Girls aged from 5 to 8 are assembled by their mothers into groups of up to 20. The circumcision "uses a knife-like instrument, the barga, reserved specifically for this purpose; after each operation she simply wipes the knife on a piece of cloth, sometimes rinsing it in water first." In some areas of Africa, FGM is delayed until two months before a woman gives birth. This practice is based on the belief that the baby will die if she/he comes into contact with their mother's clitoris during birth. We are unaware of any medical evidence to support this belief.
Why it is Done? The most ridiculous and unlikely reasons known:
The justification for the operation appears to be largely grounded in a desire to terminate or reduce feelings of sexual arousal in women so that they will be much less likely to engage in pre-marital intercourse or adultery. The clitoris holds a massive number of nerve endings, and generates feelings of sexual arousal when stimulated.
Uncircumcised women in countries where FGM is normally performed have difficulty finding a marriage partner. Men typically prefer a circumcised wife because they are considered more likely to be faithful. Other claims in support of FGM are:
The clitoris is dangerous and must be removed for health reasons. Some believe that it is a poisonous organ, which can cause a man to sicken or die if contacted by a man's penis. Others believe that men can become impotent by contacting a clitoris, or that a baby will be hydrocephalic (born with excess cranial fluid) if its head contacts the clitoris during birth. Some believe that the milk of the mother will become poisonous if her clitoris touches the baby during childbirth.
Bad genital odors can only be eliminated by removing the clitoris and labia minora.
FGM prevents vaginal cancer.
An unmodified clitoris can lead to masturbation or lesbianism.
FGM prevents nervousness from developing in girls and women.
FGM prevents the face from turning yellow.
FGM makes a woman's face more beautiful.
If FGM is not done, older men may not be able to match their wives' sex drive and may have to resort to illegal stimulating drugs.
An intact clitoris generates sexual arousal in women which can cause neuroses if repressed.
These claims appear to have little support outside of countries where FGM is common.
The fear of AIDS has been used by both sides of this issue. Shiek Badri stated in 1997-JUN: "Those who are not circumcised get AIDS easily" But opponents to the practice sometimes claim that AIDS is spread by the unhygienic practices during the procedure itself.
The procedure has been banned in several African nations, including Burkina Faso, Djibouti, the Central African Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, and Togo yet it goes on and still is very much present today as it was in the past.
Very few brave girls get away from being mutilated they have to run for their lives for instance
Philister Akenda, 16 from Kenya
"My parents said I was a big girl so I must be circumcised and get married.
"They wanted me to be married to a 65-year-old man who was already a grandfather.
I had finished my primary education and got a place at Masai Secondary School.
I wanted to be educated first and I thought I was still young."
It is sad and hard to swallow the hardships and tribulations many women all over the world have to go through, when will this be stopped completely, when a young girl dies from the operation but that too may have happened but yet no one cares about it and all the ills and pain gets from this act such as hemorrhage, shock, painful scars, keloid formation, labial adherences, clitoral cysts, chronic urinary infection, and chronic pelvic infections. Later in life, it can cause kidney stones, sterility, sexual dysfunction, depression, and various gynecological and obstetric problems.
All these things happen due to an act which is cultural and not as told by others as being religious, an act which claims to protect it's young women from committing adultery for all those who support, I don't know how they that support such a thing can live with themselves, one who does such a thing lives and dwells within a very sicken and ignorant mind.
Also to mention there is a Dr.Omar Abdulcadir who wants this barbaric process too be done legally in the hospital where he works calling it a "Symbolic Mutilation".
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Doctor suggests 'symbolic' mutilation
Dr Abdulcadir's operation involves withdrawing blood from the clitoris
A Somali-born doctor now practising in Italy is seeking to be allowed to perform a "symbolic" operation as an alternative to female genital mutilation (FGM) for African immigrants in the country.
Florence-based Dr Omar Abdulcadir has proposed that the hospital where he works should allow him to perform the operation, to prevent women taking their children back to Africa to have it done illegally.
Genital mutilation, a traditional practice amongst many African communities, has been linked with a number serious injuries and malformations - including a risk of death in childbirth.
"We see the complications with genital mutilation, we see little babies go back to their countries and have mutilation," Dr Abdulcadir told the BBC World Service's Outlook programme.
"This is the only way that we can help."
'No pain'
Dr Abdulcadir's proposed operation is to withdraw blood from the clitoris using local anaesthetic.
"We break in with the needle, and we have one or two drops of blood," he explained.
"We don't have an injury, no pain, and we save the condition of these people."
He added that this type of operation was very different to traditional female genital mutilation, which, in the most extreme cases, can involve the complete removal of the clitoris and labia and the sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstrual blood - a process known as infibulation.
Dr Abdulcadir said that his operation was "not mutilation" but a "symbolic alternative."
Female circumcision is a highly controversial issue, which raises many conflicting and heartfelt views.
Many women's groups, particularly in the West, are horrified at a practice that can leave girls with serious injuries and malformations, including dysmenorrhoea - when women are unable to have periods - sterility and infertility, and other complications during pregnancy.
But others view it as a religious requirement in order to keep girls chaste.
And women in some traditional societies say that girls who haven't been subjected to the practice may be shunned and unable to marry.
We are working against FGM and of course, as African women, we are against this operation on girls' bodies
Marian Ismail
Association of Somali Mothers and Children
Dr Abdulcadir said that there was a real problem with women taking their children to be mutilated - and that it was happening in Italy.
"Some of them want to do the genital mutilation. They either want to go back home, or they try to get someone to perform this tradition in Europe," he stated.
"I see many people that now have children who are 10 or 11 years old. They came to Europe five or six years ago. They are mutilated. I think somebody has done this."
Opposition
However, other women's groups have attacked Dr Abdulcadir's plans, arguing that female genital mutilation should not be allowed in any form.
"We are very angry about this," Marian Ismail, president of the Milan-based Association of Somali Mothers and Children, told Outlook.
"We are working against FGM and of course, as African women, we are against this operation on girls' bodies."
She added that, while it was important to preserve the differences between African and Western culture, this did not apply to FGM.
And she argued that her group had been explaining to Somali women that FGM was not a part of Islamic tradition.
Changing attitudes
This had met with some success, she said - in 1990, 99% of female babies had FGM performed on them, but that figure was now 60%.
She said that the Somali community it Italy had "really changed their mentality.
"There are not more than 100 girls at risk in Italy," she added.
Dr Abdulcadir said that he himself would be happy to see the practice disappear.
"My proposal is one of 1,000 proposals," he said.
"If they have some other proposal, I will accept. I want only to save these children, only save these little babies."
With his help now this practice will be able to continue with less input from the innnocent girls who it will be done on for stupid and ignorant reasons.But as this doctor boast of it causing "no pain" with or with out pain i still see it barbaric as how a mother,father or any tribe could allow this to happen to their women and daughters.
It cause me to wonder have they no heart [smiley=heart.gif]
This practice is one of the few that happen to many women around the world because along with gential mutilation which is done to preserve a young girl for marriage and to make sure she is a virgin.
There is Foot Binding which is done in China to make the girls have small feet and give them the myth that is makes them more beautiful and also so that they can be married because a girl with normal feet which hasn't being binded is deemed ugly and cannot be married.Foot binding began between the ages of four and seven. A strip of bandage ten feet long and two inches wide was wrapped tightly around the foot.The four small toes were broken and bent under the sole.The arch of the foot was bowed to make the foot shorter.
Foot was made 3" long to fit this shoe
The End result
The wearing of golden coils around one neck The Padaung tribe of Burma considered a long neck beautiful. About
age 5, girls were introduced to the first neck ring. As they grew, ringswere added. Their shoulders were pushed down, making the neck look longer. Also, this showed off the family's valuable metal rings,
indicating wealth.A woman wore up to twenty pounds of rings on her neck and even more on her calves!
And even going further back into History The Wearing of Corsets A girl started to wear corsets around age 14. After years of pulling corsets tighter and tighter, they dislocated internal organs-- constricting the lungs and heart, putting pressure on the liver, pushing up the stomach , squeezing the small intestines and bowels, and compressing the bladder.All for the look of a smaller perfect waist which in that time was of 18-19 inches all around.A women who wore a corset could not sit down straight, fainted easily, had heart ailments and digestion problems, and died in childbirth and of organ failure.
In all this going back into history and coming to present one sees many of this torment and ill acts were done to women to achieve one main thing at that was Perfection and Purity, If you wasn't mutilatied you were not worthy or pure, if you didn't have small perfect feet you were ugly and couldnot be happy, if you didn't have a long neck you was expelled from your tribe and class as an outkast and if you didn't have a small perfect waist you was seemly either too poor,ugly and fat.
All the Horrid things done to women and women did to themselves and children to achieves Perfection and Beauty.
Saddhu_Yogi:
OHM.but eventhough i bring a word-sound of peace,DID U SEE THAT GIRLS FOOT!just like how people look good on the outside,but are nasty in the inside,whats the sense of that,she has to take off her shoes sometime!how come theirs NEVER those ancient practices for men,i dont overstand.alot of this is STILL going on today,just in NEW FORMS.Namaste
Bantu_Kelani:
Very interesting articles Poetic Princess, thanks for posting them. My flesh creep anytime I think about female genital mutilation. FGM is not part of Islam but this practice is done in predominately Muslim countries for custom or a cultural observance and the women who do not go through with it are shunned from their tribe, they can never marry and never have children that's insane. See also compulsory FGM of babies, now and in the past, stoning of unwed women and violent killings in the name of Allah in Nigeria etc. Muslim based countries want to make women the property of their husbands and I'm outraged of the apathy of Western governments since the women affected are Black or Brown and since they live in predominately non-Christian nations. Even the Western Feminist Organizations are not saying a whole lot. Nobody cares.
I read the history of cutting women's heads off because they happen to have a baby out of wedlock, or because they happen to say that Mohammed liked it in the [censored] once and these barbaric practices are no more or no less that a form of slavery. When I think of slavery, I am hard pushed to see which is worst, being a slave on a cotton plantation or being a woman in a country that practices abuse of women's reproductive rights, mindset, and true sense of self. Also, there is silence and complacency on the part of women while a bunch of men from their communities decide that they should go through the nightmare to preserve their patriarchal authority and control of women sexuality and fertility. Even women themselves would rather take part in the practices than face a life outside of their homes and families [smiley=huh.gif].
Political aggression and violence against women ignored is growing fascism in this world. The war against women continues and alas has included a complacency of the women's long ago. Because of this female political power has not expanded and is insufficient to protect women's rights. So, one significant change in leadership must be done: an intellectual battle for justice and empowerment of females worldwide because patriarchal authority movements worldwide today dissolve it. And we conscious Black women who support the male liberation Movements are being betrayed over and again. So, I'm neither surprised nor confused by the few responses in this thread. This is definitely not the topic that interests the so-called philanthropists because the world does not care what is happening to women or people in the poor parts of the world.
Bantu Kelani.
Poetic_Princess:
It seems if women aren't mutilated some what they are deemed not beautiful and i just find that part sickening. I dont know who told them are gave them the so called brillant idea that mutilating in any form,style or fashion is A OK. How can a man abuse, or mutiliate the woman he claims to love, how could he even call his self a man, it just sickens me to the stomach when men get all into their high n mighty "macho" talk.
How could anyone torture a womb which brings forth life, a heart of gold and of tenderness and care.
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