Female Genital Mutilation Analysis
My intended audience is my allies who agree that Female Genital Mutilation is an inhumane practice and it should be eradicated.
FGM: An Inhumane Practice "The child, completely naked, is made to sit on a low stool. Several women take hold of her and open her legs wide. After separating her outer and inner labia, the operator, usually a woman experienced in this procedure, sits down facing the child. With her kitchen knife, the operator first pierces, and slices open the hood of the clitoris. Then she begins to cut it out. While another woman wipes off the blood with a rag, the operator digs with her sharp fingernail a hole the length of the clitoris to detach and pull out the organ. The little girl, held down by the woman helpers, …show more content…
screams in extreme unbearable pain; but no one pays her the slightest attention," writes Fran P. Hosken of Female Genital Mutilation: Strategies For Eradication. Paul van Zyl from Female Circumcision: Cultural Right or Human Wrong describes the three different types of female circumcision, also known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), as a clitoridectomy, infibulation circumcision, and a clitoridotomy. He states that a clitoridectomy is the removal of the clitoris and adjacent labia. Infibulation circumcision is the removal of the clitoris and the labia majora and minora, followed by the securing of the scraped sides of vulva across the vagina. A clitoridotomy consists of the removal of the tip of the clitoris, sometimes performed by cutting a hole in a piece of cloth and placing it over the area to be cut, limiting the size of the area. I think this procedure is very barbaric and unnecessary and should be eradicated on the basis of its health risk and ethical issues.
"Female genital mutilation is practice that has been prevalent in Africa for centuries and due to increasing mobility of African and Middle Eastern immigrants to Europe, and the United States, and Australia, these mutilations are being exported all over the world" reports Fran Hosken. This practice has left women physically and psychologically scarred. She goes on to emphasize "all the operations are performed on the ground, under septic conditions, with the same knife or tool used on all the girls of a group operation, which is still the custom among many ethnic groups in rural areas." Fran Hosken declares that operators most commonly perform circumcisions in unhygienic conditions with unstable instruments with no medical or anatomical knowledge. Paul van Zyl reports that female genital mutilation has resulted in such severe injuries such as shock, tetanus, severe hemorrhage, septicemia, fractured bones, severe scarring, and infertility. Women also experience severe complications during childbirth, they suffer from dyspareunia (continual severe pain during intercourse) and hematocolpos (retention of menstrual blood). Due to these side effects alone this procedure should be eliminated. What woman should have to go through a "surgery" in which the complications are dyspareunia, fractured bones, severe scarring, and even death all for the pleasure of their husbands and for respect in the community? Having to endure childbirth should be enough. These women face hardships every day including starvation, sexism, and oppression they shouldn't have to go through genital mutilation as well. This procedure is unnecessary and there are more cons to the situation than pros.
Fran Hosken illustrates the procedure as "the use of thorns to hold the bleeding sides of the vulva together, or a paste of gum Arabic, sugar, and egg is used. The entrance to the vagina is thus obliterated which is the purpose of the operation. The legs of the girl are tied together immediately after the operation, and she immobilized for several weeks, until the wound of the vulva has closed, except for a small opening that is created by inserting a splinter of wood or bamboo." Female Genital Mutilation has been practiced on girls as young as six-months-old. Fran Hosken also reports that at least 84 million women and girls are mutilated today in the Continental Africa, the Persian Gulf, and the southern part of the Arab Peninsula. The mortality rate due to female genital mutilation is extremely high; but no accurate records are kept comments Fran Hosken. Women and young girls are forced to undergo this experience for numerous reasons. One of the major reasons is for acceptance because a woman is considered dirty and polluted unless she is mutilated. These myths are constructed to validate and continue the female genital mutilations, from which men derive power and control over women as a group reveals Fran Hosken. "Research shows that genital mutilations are increasingly performed in the modern sector in Africa, including hospitals, often on small babies, stripped of all traditional rites," writes Fran Hosken. Women of no age should have to undergo this tortuous procedure. This procedure is used to place value on young women. Young women in underdeveloped countries are often married off to families with money to bring wealth to her
family.
On the contrary people tend to argue in favor of female genital mutilation. Nowa Omoigui from HB 22 Bill And Genital Mutilation writes, "that advocates for the mutilation of innocent young women declare that the procedure raises a woman's status in her community, both because of the added purity that circumcision brings and the bravery that initiates are called upon to show." Omoigui also states "the circumcision ritual is an enjoyable one, in which the girl is the center of attention and receives presents and moral instruction from her elders. They imply that the woman will never have her conscience troubled by lustful thoughts or sensations or temptations such as masturbation." In addition to those reasons Omoigui declares that a husband and wife will have a well-built, secure, and emotional bond because neither will have had sex with anyone else and the relationship will be provoked by love rather than primarily lust, because there will be no physical drive for the women. In conclusion, women are in favor of this practice because of preservation of virginity, cleanliness, religious requirements and greater pleasure of husbands. All of the reasons given in favor of female genital mutilation are irrelevant because a young woman is capable of being pure, brave, clean, and reputable without being mutilated. Young women are competent enough to abstain from sex and lustful thoughts without removing parts of her vagina and stitching together her vaginal opening.
Evidently, female genital mutilation is an inhumane practice that leaves women physically and psychologically scarred. A young woman should not have to undergo this procedure to please her family or her future husband. This procedure is being performed on girls younger and younger and therefore eliminating any argument or contesting to the mutilation. Female genital mutilation dates back centuries and will continue well into the future if something isn't done to eradicate this practice. Young women will continue to be disfigured and sustain life-threatening complications if we don't take a stance now. One of the proposed solutions to this problem is to provide education about the health risks and myths associated with Female Genital Mutilation along with increasing public awareness, encouraging political action, and the implementation of increasingly effective legal measures.
"The activities carried out by No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) are part of a growing international effort for the abandonment of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation," writes No Peace Without Justice. The purpose of the NPWJ is to cultivate and strengthen the joint commitment of governments and civil society to eradicate the practice by planning conferences with the government, civil society, institutions and UN agencies writes No Peace Without Justice. A benefit from this approach is to promote long-lasting relationships, with the United Nations and other organizations, and along with field-based work to gradually affect long-term behavioral changes in society revealed No Peace Without Justice. "A law can be effective only if there is the belief of a crime being committed, a person or persons operate within the law, or if the victim reports the crime" argues Elizabeth A. Estabrooks of Female Genital Mutilation. Consequently, these laws are often ignored. Some of the strategies used by NPWJ to help combat FGM are recognizing that the law is one part of the approach and the second half is the underlying conditions that allow the practice to continue. "This policy derives from our belief that solutions lie in taking a two-pronged approach: bottom up from the grassroots, and top down from Government and lawmakers," comments No Peace Without Justice. In conclusion, the actions of NPWJ proved to be the most effective solution because it involves education in conjunction with legal measures to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation.
Sources
"HB 22 Bill And Genital Mutilation" from the Vanguard Daily (Lagos) by Nowa Omoigui
"Female Circumcision: Cultural Right or Human Wrong?" from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation by Paul van Zyl
" Female Genital Mutilation: Strategies for Eradication" by Fran Hosken
No Peace without justice. International Campaign for the abandonment of Female Genital mutilation. Page 542. 7/5/2005 Towards the abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation.
Female Genital Mutilation Elizabeth A. Estabrooks 50th session issues (model united nations far west)http://www.munfw.org/archive/50th/who2.htm
FGM: An Inhumane Practice "The child, completely naked, is made to sit on a low stool. Several women take hold of her and open her legs wide. After separating her outer and inner labia, the operator, usually a woman experienced in this procedure, sits down facing the child. With her kitchen knife, the operator first pierces, and slices open the hood of the clitoris. Then she begins to cut it out. While another woman wipes off the blood with a rag, the operator digs with her sharp fingernail a hole the length of the clitoris to detach and pull out the organ. The little girl, held down by the woman helpers, …show more content…
screams in extreme unbearable pain; but no one pays her the slightest attention," writes Fran P. Hosken of Female Genital Mutilation: Strategies For Eradication. Paul van Zyl from Female Circumcision: Cultural Right or Human Wrong describes the three different types of female circumcision, also known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), as a clitoridectomy, infibulation circumcision, and a clitoridotomy. He states that a clitoridectomy is the removal of the clitoris and adjacent labia. Infibulation circumcision is the removal of the clitoris and the labia majora and minora, followed by the securing of the scraped sides of vulva across the vagina. A clitoridotomy consists of the removal of the tip of the clitoris, sometimes performed by cutting a hole in a piece of cloth and placing it over the area to be cut, limiting the size of the area. I think this procedure is very barbaric and unnecessary and should be eradicated on the basis of its health risk and ethical issues.
"Female genital mutilation is practice that has been prevalent in Africa for centuries and due to increasing mobility of African and Middle Eastern immigrants to Europe, and the United States, and Australia, these mutilations are being exported all over the world" reports Fran Hosken. This practice has left women physically and psychologically scarred. She goes on to emphasize "all the operations are performed on the ground, under septic conditions, with the same knife or tool used on all the girls of a group operation, which is still the custom among many ethnic groups in rural areas." Fran Hosken declares that operators most commonly perform circumcisions in unhygienic conditions with unstable instruments with no medical or anatomical knowledge. Paul van Zyl reports that female genital mutilation has resulted in such severe injuries such as shock, tetanus, severe hemorrhage, septicemia, fractured bones, severe scarring, and infertility. Women also experience severe complications during childbirth, they suffer from dyspareunia (continual severe pain during intercourse) and hematocolpos (retention of menstrual blood). Due to these side effects alone this procedure should be eliminated. What woman should have to go through a "surgery" in which the complications are dyspareunia, fractured bones, severe scarring, and even death all for the pleasure of their husbands and for respect in the community? Having to endure childbirth should be enough. These women face hardships every day including starvation, sexism, and oppression they shouldn't have to go through genital mutilation as well. This procedure is unnecessary and there are more cons to the situation than pros.
Fran Hosken illustrates the procedure as "the use of thorns to hold the bleeding sides of the vulva together, or a paste of gum Arabic, sugar, and egg is used. The entrance to the vagina is thus obliterated which is the purpose of the operation. The legs of the girl are tied together immediately after the operation, and she immobilized for several weeks, until the wound of the vulva has closed, except for a small opening that is created by inserting a splinter of wood or bamboo." Female Genital Mutilation has been practiced on girls as young as six-months-old. Fran Hosken also reports that at least 84 million women and girls are mutilated today in the Continental Africa, the Persian Gulf, and the southern part of the Arab Peninsula. The mortality rate due to female genital mutilation is extremely high; but no accurate records are kept comments Fran Hosken. Women and young girls are forced to undergo this experience for numerous reasons. One of the major reasons is for acceptance because a woman is considered dirty and polluted unless she is mutilated. These myths are constructed to validate and continue the female genital mutilations, from which men derive power and control over women as a group reveals Fran Hosken. "Research shows that genital mutilations are increasingly performed in the modern sector in Africa, including hospitals, often on small babies, stripped of all traditional rites," writes Fran Hosken. Women of no age should have to undergo this tortuous procedure. This procedure is used to place value on young women. Young women in underdeveloped countries are often married off to families with money to bring wealth to her
family.
On the contrary people tend to argue in favor of female genital mutilation. Nowa Omoigui from HB 22 Bill And Genital Mutilation writes, "that advocates for the mutilation of innocent young women declare that the procedure raises a woman's status in her community, both because of the added purity that circumcision brings and the bravery that initiates are called upon to show." Omoigui also states "the circumcision ritual is an enjoyable one, in which the girl is the center of attention and receives presents and moral instruction from her elders. They imply that the woman will never have her conscience troubled by lustful thoughts or sensations or temptations such as masturbation." In addition to those reasons Omoigui declares that a husband and wife will have a well-built, secure, and emotional bond because neither will have had sex with anyone else and the relationship will be provoked by love rather than primarily lust, because there will be no physical drive for the women. In conclusion, women are in favor of this practice because of preservation of virginity, cleanliness, religious requirements and greater pleasure of husbands. All of the reasons given in favor of female genital mutilation are irrelevant because a young woman is capable of being pure, brave, clean, and reputable without being mutilated. Young women are competent enough to abstain from sex and lustful thoughts without removing parts of her vagina and stitching together her vaginal opening.
Evidently, female genital mutilation is an inhumane practice that leaves women physically and psychologically scarred. A young woman should not have to undergo this procedure to please her family or her future husband. This procedure is being performed on girls younger and younger and therefore eliminating any argument or contesting to the mutilation. Female genital mutilation dates back centuries and will continue well into the future if something isn't done to eradicate this practice. Young women will continue to be disfigured and sustain life-threatening complications if we don't take a stance now. One of the proposed solutions to this problem is to provide education about the health risks and myths associated with Female Genital Mutilation along with increasing public awareness, encouraging political action, and the implementation of increasingly effective legal measures.
"The activities carried out by No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) are part of a growing international effort for the abandonment of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation," writes No Peace Without Justice. The purpose of the NPWJ is to cultivate and strengthen the joint commitment of governments and civil society to eradicate the practice by planning conferences with the government, civil society, institutions and UN agencies writes No Peace Without Justice. A benefit from this approach is to promote long-lasting relationships, with the United Nations and other organizations, and along with field-based work to gradually affect long-term behavioral changes in society revealed No Peace Without Justice. "A law can be effective only if there is the belief of a crime being committed, a person or persons operate within the law, or if the victim reports the crime" argues Elizabeth A. Estabrooks of Female Genital Mutilation. Consequently, these laws are often ignored. Some of the strategies used by NPWJ to help combat FGM are recognizing that the law is one part of the approach and the second half is the underlying conditions that allow the practice to continue. "This policy derives from our belief that solutions lie in taking a two-pronged approach: bottom up from the grassroots, and top down from Government and lawmakers," comments No Peace Without Justice. In conclusion, the actions of NPWJ proved to be the most effective solution because it involves education in conjunction with legal measures to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation.
Sources
"HB 22 Bill And Genital Mutilation" from the Vanguard Daily (Lagos) by Nowa Omoigui
"Female Circumcision: Cultural Right or Human Wrong?" from the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation by Paul van Zyl
" Female Genital Mutilation: Strategies for Eradication" by Fran Hosken
No Peace without justice. International Campaign for the abandonment of Female Genital mutilation. Page 542. 7/5/2005 Towards the abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation.
Female Genital Mutilation Elizabeth A. Estabrooks 50th session issues (model united nations far west)http://www.munfw.org/archive/50th/who2.htm