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Hope for our Sisters: Ending Female Genital Mutilation

By Nada Khader
In Tantra Yoga, it is generally known that in order to overcome an unhealthy or destructive habit, it is wise to gradually replace the existing habit with a more positive one. It is also wise to nurture this new pattern of behavior with persistence and dedication. An abrupt termination of a very old, ingrained habit without a healthy replacement may spark an immanent reaction, causing a return to the original behavior. This precise psychology is behind a new approach that deals with female genital mutilation (FGM) in Kenya and Uganda. It is an alternative rite of passage known as “ntanira na mugambo” or “circumcision through words” and is gaining popularity amongst the rural communities of East Africa.1 It transforms a torturous rite of passage into a communal celebration, an occasion for dancing and music.

Before exploring this new rite in any detail, it is important, here, to place female genital mutilation in its proper context, to define its various forms, and to delineate its damaging physiological, psychological and human health components.

Discussion of female genital mutilation did not reach the mainstream public attention until the September 1994 United Nations Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo, Egypt. During that conference, Christiane Amanpour, a CNN reporter who was covering the conference, “wandered off on her own and somehow convinced an Egyptian man to let her film the circumcision of his five-year-old daughter by two men in a barbership.”2 CNN broadcast this footage while the conference was still in session, and it was seen not only in Egypt but all over the world. The footage did not depict the graphic details of the procedure but did show this little girl being held down by the two men and it did record her ensuing screams of agony.

This broadcast caused an immediate worldwide public outcry and put the spotlight on the issue of FGM, making it impossible to ignore. A document came out of the conference in Egypt that contained a number of passages condemning FGM as a violation of reproductive health and human rights. The ongoing response and sustained media attention to the issue also prompted countries around the world, including the United States, to start examining their own policies regarding FGM.3

What is this female genital mutilation (euphemistically known as female circumcision) and why is it so harmful? There are three different forms of FGM. The most common form is “Sunna” circumcision where the prepuce and the tip of the clitoris are cut away, often with razor blades or broken glass, and rarely with anesthesia. Clitoridectomy (also referred to as excision) consists of the removal of the entire clitoris and adjacent labia (lips of the vagina). The most extreme form of FGM is infibulation (pharaonic circumcision) in which the entire genital area and outer tissues are cut away. The external sides of the vagina are then sewn together using catgut or thorns, leaving only a tiny opening for the passage of urine and menstrual blood.4

15% to 30% of all girls who undergo this mutilation die from tetanus infection, shock, and uncontrolled hemorrhaging. There are many blood vessels in the clitoris, including the dorsal artery, so that when the clitoris is cut, young girls often bleed to death.5

The long term effects of this procedure include: chronic complications and pain with menstruation, urination, intercourse and childbirth. The highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world are recorded in regions where FGM is practiced. Unassisted childbirth is impossible following infibulation; many women and children die during childbirth as a consequence of this procedure.6 The vaginal area, which is normally elastic, becomes a cicatrix (scarred tissue) area. As a result, many women tear at the top of the vaginal opening during childbirth, causing massive hemorrhaging. The tear can enlarge, extending to the anus, so that the women can no longer contain their feces. The babies are affected too, because the labor process takes much longer and their craniums get stuck in the mutilated birth canal.

Approximately 130 million women and girls have been permanently damaged by this tradition in Africa and Asia. 2 million girls a year (from infancy through adolescence) undergo this ritual; around 6,000 girls every day. FGM is performed in 28 of the 43 African countries and is also performed in the Arabian Peninsula. Certain population groups in Indonesia, Malaysia and India also practice this rite of passage.7 Immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia bring this dangerous tradition with them, resulting in 10,000 girls in the United States also being at risk of undergoing a forced FGM.

What is the purpose of female genital mutilation? This cruel rite of passage is estimated to be six thousand years old and coincides with the advent of an extensive patriarchal social system. It is a ritual that forcibly controls women’s sexuality and ensures male dominance. Genitally mutilated women do not experience pleasure during sexual relations; intercourse becomes a painful condition for them. An infibulated woman has to be cut open on her wedding night so that her new husband can penetrate her. It is a patriarchal tradition that seeks to ensure a woman’s chastity and virginity. It cannot be compared to male circumcision where only the foreskin is removed. To compare FGM with male circumcision, you would have to cut off a part of the actual penis, including the associated glands. Intercourse is not painful for a circumcised male; he has no difficulty in experiencing orgasm. His reproductive processes are not permanently damaged and his urinary and sexual functions remain intact.

FGM emerged during a very bleak period in human history. Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, the founder of PROUT, writes about patriarchy that “a handful of unprincipled, power-hungry men propagated these doctrines in order to paralyze women’s reasoning, and to inflate men’s vanity.”8 He explains that “the predominant psychology behind this restriction of her rights was: let her realize her dependence at every step; let her realize that at home, in the society at large and within the state, she is dependent on the men folk in every sphere of life.”9 The cutting off of female genitalia is the extension of this psychology taken to the extreme. It is a stark and somber reminder that, even at the close of the twentieth century, we have not been successful at shaking off the entrenched remnants of an unjust social order.

Alice Walker, the renowned author of The Color Purple, Possessing the Secretary of Joy, Warrior Marks and several other novels, writes that “women are blamed for their own sexual mutilation. Their genitalia are unclean, it is said. Monstrous. The activity of the unmutilated female vulva frightens men and destroys crops. When erect, the clitoris challenges male authority. It must be destroyed.”10 Women who refuse to be prisoners of this ritual, who speak out against it, resist it, or run away from it are branded as prostitutes in societies where FGM is practiced.

FGM has nothing to do with cultural relativism. There must be no reluctance to interfere with other people’s “cultures” when ritualized violence has become an intrinsic part of that cultural expression. A reluctance to interfere puts millions of girls at risk of mutilation. In Alice Walker’s words, “If we do not speak out, we collude in the perpetuation of this violence. There is no virtue in upholding, even unwittingly, the tradition of female genital mutilation.”11

Another critical issue that Alice Walker brings up in Warrior Marks is that many documentaries sensationalize the issue and pretend that these practices are outside the realm of Western civilization, something “other”, “remote”, “barbaric”. In reality, mutilations in the West have spread all over the female body. “The psychic and physical mutilations that women in the West undergo are equally devastating: unwanted hysterectomies, endless face-lifts, liposuction, bulimia, anorexia, silicone breast implants – all in the pursuit of youthfulness and an ever-changing notion of the ideal woman.”12 Western nineteenth-century medical texts encouraged genital mutilation as an accepted treatment for nymphomania, hysteria, and masturbation. Let us not forget, after all, that it was Sigmund Freud who declared: “The elimination of clitoral sexuality is a necessary precondition for the development of feminity.”13

Given this context, where is the hope for our sisters? Several NGOs have been working very diligently in trying to educate people about the dangers of FGM. Senegal very recently outlawed the cutting of female genitals.14 The success can be attributed to a local Senegalese women’s organization that originally did not set out to fight FGM. The group started out by offering basic literacy classes and holding human rights discussions at the grassroots level. The push to ban FGM came as a result of the ordinary citizen of Senegal becoming aware of her rights.

Along these lines, tribal elders in East Africa are deciding that FGM is a destructive ritual and are replacing it with “Ntanira na mugambo” or “circumcision through words”. This new rite grew out of the collaboration between a Kenyan group called “Maendeleo Ya Wanawake” and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH). It consists of a week of seclusion for female adolescents where the girls are taught basic concepts of anatomy, human sexuality and reproductive health and hygiene. These girls are also counseled on gender issues, as well as dealing with peer-pressure and self-esteem. The mothers, who sometimes act as the peer educators, invite the fathers and the rest of the family members to join the camp on the last day. This celebration into womanhood offers a much more attractive alternative to FGM than a “blunt prohibition” against it. As of date, several hundred girls have undergone this alternative rite and have been spared permanent reproductive damage.15

As a woman, I can say that the discussion of FGM revisits an ancient wound that has not healed. This rite captures the worst aspect of patriarchy’s attempt to subordinate and oppress women. We must not underestimate the pain, the suffering and the agony that this social order has inflicted in its various forms over the last few thousand years. We must recognize patriarchy when we see it active today, and we must not fear speaking out against rituals or customs that involve violence against men, women and children. Everyone suffers under an unjust social system. Through persistence and dedication, we can nurture these new rites of passage that will elevate us to higher levels of mutual respect and understanding.

Copyright The author 2001