Female genital mutilation
UNICEF estimated in 2016 that 200 million women living today in 30 countries have undergone the procedures. FGM is conducted from days after birth to puberty and beyond. In half of the countries for which national figures are available, most girls are cut before the age of five.
About Female genital mutilation in brief
UNICEF estimated in 2016 that 200 million women living today in 30 countries have undergone the procedures. FGM is conducted from days after birth to puberty and beyond. In half of the countries for which national figures are available, most girls are cut before the age of five. The practice is rooted in gender inequality, attempts to control women’s sexuality, and ideas about purity, modesty and beauty. Adverse health effects depend on the type of procedure; they can include recurrent infections, difficulty urinating and passing menstrual flow, chronic pain, the development of cysts, an inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding. There are no known health benefits. There have been international efforts since the 1970s to persuade practitioners to abandon FGM, and it has been outlawed or restricted in most countries in which it occurs. The opposition to the practice is not without its critics, particularly among anthropologists, who have raised difficult questions about cultural relativism and the universality of human rights. It is also known in Arabic as khafḍ or khifaḍ. In Somalia, it is known simply as qodob. The procedures are generally performed by a traditional circumciser in the girls’ homes without anaesthesia. When traditional cutters are involved, the older woman has assumed the role of non-barber. The procedure is known as infibulation. In the Bambara language, spoken mostly in Mali, the practice’s many variants are reflected in dozens of terms, often alluding to purification.
Other terms include khifad, tahoor, quodiin, irua, bondo, kuruna, negekorsigin, and kene-kene. In Islam, the term Sunpath or Sunna means the way in which the procedures are required, although none of them are required within Islam. The term infibulations came to be known as pharaonic circumcision in Sudan, and as Sudanese circumcision in Egypt, in Somalia, and in the Igbo language in eastern Nigeria as isa aru or iwu aru. In Africa, the procedure is generally performed in the homes of girls’ fathers, without anaesthetic or without the help of an anaesthetist. In many countries, the girls are not allowed to have sex until they are at least 18 years of age. In some countries, such as Nigeria, this can take place as early as 13 years old. The clitoral hood and clitoral glans are removed, as well as the inner labia; and removal of the inner and outer labia and closure of the vulva. In this last procedure, a small hole is left for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid; the vagina is opened for intercourse and opened further for childbirth. Other English terms include female genital cutting and female genital mutilationcutting, preferred by those who work with practitioners. Until the 1980s, FGM was widely known in English as female circumcision, implying an equivalence in severity with male circumcision. The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children began referring to it as female genitalmutilation in 1990.
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This page is based on the article Female genital mutilation published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 20, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
