Argumentative Essay On Female Circumcision

All over the world female cutting, or circumcisions, are being performed for various reasons with numbers currently reaching around 140 million alive and affected (Crockett 2015). With that high of a number and the numbers increasing around three million more affected per year a large world-wide controversy has been started (Crockett 2015). In most circumstance the reasoning for female circumcisions is religious and part of one’s culture and heritage (Crockett 2015). Some are required to have it performed and the procedures and after effects are painful (Crockett 2015). That hasn’t stopped some countries from banning it like others have, deeming it an act of violence towards girls and women (Crockett 2015). So is female cutting actually an act of violence or should the bans be lifted and why is it performed exactly?
The procedure is carried out by a medically untrained women, in a majority of cases, and no anaesthetics are used (NHS 2014). The utensils customary to the procedures are sharp objects such as razor blades, knives and sometimes even glass shards (NHS 2014). Currently there are known to be four different types of procedures, clidorectomy, excision, infibulation and genital trauma (Pauls 2015). A clidorectomy is the process of removing all or a portion of the clitoris (Crockett 2015, NHS 2014, Pauls 2015). An excision is the same as a clidorectomy but the labia minora is also removed (Crockett 2015, NHS 2014, Pauls 2015). An infibulation surgery consists of the removal of all external parts of the genitalia in order to sew up the area and create a smaller opening in the vagina (Crockett 2015, NHS 2014, Pauls 2015). Type four is considered not as extreme as the others and can be any nicking, scraping or burning of the genital area (Crockett 2015, NHS 2014, Pauls