Female circumcision is the ritual removal of some parts or all of the external female genitalia. This practice is found in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as in some communities of Muslim countries. This article will tell about the procedure and tradition of female circumcision: what is it and why is it done.
Terminology
Until the 1980s, this practice was widely known in African countries as female circumcision, which implies equivalence with male circumcision.
In 1929, after the missionary work of a representative of the Church of Scotland, Marion Stevenson, the Kenyan missionary council called the practice of female genital mutilation “sexual mutilation of women.”
During the 1970s, circumcision was increasingly called mutilation. In 1975, an American anthropologist Rose Oldfield Hayes used the term "female genital mutilation" in the title of an article in an American scientific journal.
Four years later, Frans Hosken, an Austrian-American feminist writer, described the practice as “mutilated” in his influential report, more precisely, “female genital mutilation.” The Inter-African Committee on Traditions Affecting the Health of Women and Children began to refer to this document and also calls circumcision crippling. The World Health Organization (WHO) followed suit in 1991.
The terms "female genital circumcision" and "female genital mutilation" are also used, which are used by those who conduct explanatory work with practitioners.
Name in African and Oriental languages
UNICEF statistics for 2016 indicate that 200 million women have been circumcised worldwide. At the moment, female circumcision is practiced in Africa and the Muslim East. These are 27 African countries, Indonesia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Yemen and some others.
In countries where this tradition is widespread, many practice options are reflected in dozens of terms. The bambara language, which is mainly spoken in Mali, is known as bokololi (the literal translation is "washing hands"), and the Igbo language in eastern Nigeria is isa aru or iwu aru (in the literal translation is "washing"). The common Arabic term for circumcision has a root used for male and female circumcision (tahur and tahara). The tradition is also known in Arabic as haf or hifa.
Some groups of peoples may call circumcision "Pharaonic" for the type of infibulation and circumcision according to the Sunnah (the Holy Book of Muslims) for all other species. Sunnah means “path or road” in Arabic and refers to the traditions of Islam, although none of the procedures is required in Islam. The term infibulation comes from the word fibula, from Latin it is translated as “fastener”. The ancient Romans, as you know, fastened fasteners to the foreskin or labia of slaves to prevent sexual intercourse. Surgical infibulation of women has become known as Pharaoh’s circumcision in Sudan, but in Egypt it is called Sudanese. In Somalia, this is known simply as qodob - “sewing”.
Types of circumcision
Usually traditionally performed using a razor blade. This procedure can be carried out several days after the birth of the girl. Usually female circumcision can be done right up to the puberty of the girl. In many African countries, most girls spend up to five years on this procedure.
Circumcision techniques vary by country or ethnic group.
The first type: circumcision of the clitoris (clitoridectomy) or clitoral hood:
- subspecies a - circumcision concerns only the clitoris hood;
- subspecies b - the clitoris itself is removed.
Second view — the clitoris and labia are removed:
- subspecies a - only the labia minora are removed;
- subspecies b - the labia minora and the clitoris are removed;
- subspecies in - all the labia and clitoris are completely removed;
- subspecies g - the labia is completely removed.
Third view - infibulation (“Pharaoh’s circumcision”) - an operation in which either the labia minora or the large lips are cut off, then these tissues are closed. After surgery, the clitoris, the opening of the urethra and the entrance to the vagina are closed. After this operation, a small hole remains for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid.
Operation Methods
How do female circumcisions do? The procedures are usually performed by healers in girls' homes with or without anesthesia. This is usually an elderly woman, but in certain countries where there is a male doctor or medical professional, he can also perform the ceremony.
When female circumcision is performed by all kinds of traditional healers, unsterile devices, including knives, razors, scissors, glass, pointed stones and nails, will most likely be used. According to a Uganda nurse, the healer will use one knife for 30 girls at a time.
In Egypt, Kenya, Indonesia, and Sudan, this procedure is often performed at health facilities by doctors. In Egypt, 77% of the procedures, and in Indonesia - more than 50% were performed by medical specialists as of 2016. According to surveys, in Egypt it was reported that local anesthesia was used in their daughters in 60% of cases, general anesthesia in 13%.
History of tradition
Female circumcision - what is it and why is it done? This practice is rooted in gender inequality, attempts to control the sexuality of women and the idea of female purity, modesty and beauty. Why do female circumcisions? Typically, such ceremonies are initiated and performed by women who believe that this will preserve the honor of their daughter and who fear that the absence of circumcision among daughters and granddaughters will lead to the social isolation of girls. This is an attempt to preserve the chastity of a woman, according to practitioners of circumcision.
Health effects depend on the specific procedure. There are a huge number of complications after this operation. These may include dangerous genital infections, difficulty urinating and getting through the menstrual cycle, chronic pain, cyst development, inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding. This operation does not have any health benefits.
Female circumcision: before and after
This tradition harms the physical and emotional health of women throughout their lives. Short-term and late complications depend on the type of circumcision, occur regardless of whether the surgeon performed the manipulation and used antibiotics and sterile or disposable surgical instruments or the healer performed the procedure. In case of infibulation, an important factor is the size of the hole that is left for the passage of urine and menstrual blood, regardless of whether the surgical thread was used instead of agave or Arabian spikes and if the procedure was performed more than once (for example, to sew a hole that is considered too wide or again expand too small).
Reasons for the operation
Why do female circumcisions? The main reasons include the following:
- attempt to maintain physical chastity and innocence;
- a woman does not receive “sinful” pleasure during an intimate act;
- increased enjoyment of men during sex with a woman who has a small vagina;
- the clitoris is the sinful part of the female body;
- desire to purify a woman on a spiritual level;
- part of the patriarchal tradition of many eastern and African countries.
Psychological effect
According to the 2015 systematic review, there is little high-quality information on the psychological consequences of female circumcision. Several small studies have concluded that women who undergo such a procedure suffer from anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. A sense of shame and inferiority can develop when women leave the culture that practices this rite and find out that their condition is not the norm. Within their native culture, they can proudly say that they have passed this ritual, because for them it means beauty, respect for tradition, chastity and hygiene.
Studies on sexual aspects have also been insignificant. In a 2013 analysis of 15 studies involving 12,000 girls from seven countries, women with circumcision were twice as likely to report unsatisfied sexual desire, and 52% reported painful sexual intercourse. One third reported a decrease in sexual feelings.
Circumcision in Dagestan
What is Muslim female circumcision? In principle, the Muslim tradition is not much different from the African one.
In Dagestan, among people who profess Islam, who live in mountainous regions and remote villages, women still practice circumcision. In addition, recently there has been an outburst of false information in various newspaper publications and oral sources about the benefits of female circumcision. Dagestan, therefore, partially preserves this tradition.
A variety of spiritual mentors call for circumcision in women in order to get rid of lust and sinful desires, as well as to prevent fornication and adultery in married life. Legally, any surgical intervention on the genitals is prohibited, except for medically determined causes.
Fighting Cruel Tradition
Since the 1970s, international efforts have been made to convince the population of countries practicing circumcision to abandon this tradition. This practice has been banned or restricted in most countries in which it exists, although laws are poorly enforced. Since 2010, the United Nations has asked health care providers to stop all forms of the procedure, including repeated infibulation after childbirth and the symbolic “bullying” of the clitoral hood. Doctors and scientists are struggling with this brutal tradition of some countries.
Women suffering
Dahabo Musa, a Somali woman, described the suffering of women in a 1988 poem as “three women's sorrows”: the procedure itself, the wedding night, when the woman again suffers, and then the birth, when her genitals are cut again. Confessions of victims of female circumcision are often published and published.
Despite the obvious suffering, it is women who organize all forms of circumcision. Anthropologist Rose Oldfield Hayes wrote in 1975 that educated Sudanese men who did not want their daughters to be circumcised found that the girls were sewn up after grandmothers arranged for relatives to visit. The tradition is associated and associated with ideas about honor, chastity, and fidelity in marriage. Also, this crippling ritual was maintained and transmitted by women.