General News Female Genital Mutilation

There was a documentary about it that I watched a few years ago. It was horrific.

 

I think I might've read something about Muslims doing the female circumcision thing. Then again, maybe it wasn't Muslim but some other religion or race. I obviously don't remember but I have heard about it.

 

It is in certain sects of Muslim culture too. The men do it to their wives who they think are cheating.

 

My mom had a movie about this. It was called "Desert Flower". Very emotional and empowering because it is based on a true story. The protagonist, is a Somialian model who was a victim and has since become an activist. I urge you to check it out! Her name is Waris Dirie.

 

I heard that Nigeria recently outlawed FGM.

 

Pretty abominable practice. Yes, I have heard of it. And screw cultural relativism. FGM is wrong and I'll support any effort to stop it.

 

As someone who's been to many African countries (including Nigeria, the country that most recently banned FGM) I can agree that this and a lot of other practices done there are appalling, but I hate to read people talking about them like they're savages for practicing rituals their people have done for thousands of years. Then when the whites tell them some of the things they're doing are wrong and need to end immediately, they're just expected to hit the binders and stop.

Us in the first world forget that many people in Africa still live in the same housing and live off the same methods their ancestors have since before the birth of Christ, and it'll never be something that can be switched off overnight.

 

It's extremely common in some parts of Africa. I think something like 95-98% of women between the ages of 15-50 in Somalia, Guinea and Djibouti have been subjected to a form of FGM. It's a barbaric, dehumanising procedure and leads to life long complications with sex and childbirth.

According to the NHS, 20000 girls in the UK are at risk of FGM. It's illegal to perform it on UK soil (though some doctors have been accused of carrying out the procedure in secret) but girls have apparently been flown to the country of their ethnic origin to undergo FGM and then flown home. FGM is spoken about quite a bit here because of high rates of immigration from countries where the practice is common, but more awareness will maybe discourage parents from considering it for their daughters. It's a truly repulsive thing to put a young girl through, makes me feel sick thinking about it.

 

It's a savage practice and I don't have any problem calling it out as such.

Sometimes it does take other cultures intervening to get a practice to stop. No one expects it to happen overnight, but if we avoid labeling it what it is, it's not a strong enough condemnation.

 

Concerning bringing up Islam like two members did above. As is clearly stated, it is overwhelningly an African problem, not a Muslim problem.

Astral, I agree with you that condemning individuals and calling them names is not the way to go.
On the other hand, I agree with TENNYSON that the practice of FMG needs to be condemned, and more importantly, dealt with.

 

That's messed up...

 

You clearly don't understand Africa. Their culture is so backwards to what we know here in the first world, you may as well have left planet Earth. Education there on things like this (and most key topics) is next to none, and if you expect them to begin, then where is that funding going to come from? How are you going to convince people who realize they have no economical opportunity and who literally live day-to-day in identical methods to 3,000 years ago that they need to care about this issue specifically? It seems like Boko Haram massacres a new village everyday in Nigeria, what resources they do have are entirely focused on eradicating these terrorist sects within the Northern regions. They don't even have enough money in most of these countries to pave a single street (in fact, in Togo where I saw the practice often, there's only two paved streets in the entire country).

Secondly, I will agree it doesn't have any health benefits, but when circumcision was first introduced it was most definitely not for health reasons. Many cultures only do it for Religious reasons. Many babies have it done at birth without their opinion ever being taken into consideration. Wouldn't you consider that a form of genital mutilation? After all, if all these billions of years of evolution have put that skin there, it quite obviously doesn't need to be removed. The mindset of people in places like West Africa isn't what we have, it's like hopping in a time machine and going back hundreds of years as far as ethics and morals.

I know it can be a hard concept to realize if you've never experienced a world like the one they come from, and pointing the finger is a lot easier than understanding the reasoning behind lack of action and finding ways to constructively help, without constant criticism. That's not the way to get to them, or really most people for that matter.

 

Well, no offense, Astral, but I used to live in Senegal, so I do in fact know Africa and I don't need your condescension. I was not suggesting that we bully and denigrate them into stopping female circumcision. I was just saying that we cannot hesitate to call it out on what it is: a disgusting practice. We can't be tempted by cultural relativism to say "it's just their culture" and ignore it. Obviously there are many reasons why it hasn't been stopped and why it's difficult to enact cultural changes in a place where most people are poor and have little contact with other peoples, let alone other people in their own country.

And yes, I do consider male infant circumcision genital mutilation as well; I am very against all forms of circumcision, whether it's in Africa or the United States. But that's a different issue.

 

I never once said we should ignore it entirely, I was simply stating that media outlets and governments bashing them for their practices isn't going to make them resolve the issue any faster or more efficiently. That will never fix a thing, and talking about them like they're savages will just make the problems and the many, many differences that divide us even bigger. The rest of your post seems to be in agreement with what I said, so I don't have issue with it.

 

Fair enough. I agree that media outlets bashing them won't help. I just wanted to make sure you knew I would never just call them all savages or anything. I'm actually fascinated by Africa and African history. It's a place a lot of people want to give up on and want nothing to do with, but I will never see it that way.

 

I'm sorry if I came off as targeting you specifically with my first post, I was referring to people doing that in more general terms, without any particular comment / individual in mind. I love Africa as well, it's where my heart is, and I hope to be there for good someday soon. I just hate to see people not see the unreal beauty of it like the people whom embrace it do, as you know.

 

I think other factors as well are that FGM isn't just something happening in tribal communities in remote rural African villages (as many seem to believe).

This also happens in sterile doctors clinics across the US, UK and mainland Europe. So even if you had the mindset of disregarding Africa, this is something affecting our citizens here so there is no avoiding the fact this has to be addressed.

Interestingly with you mentioning male circumcision a swell - FGM takes several forms with some (Type IV) actually being less severe than male circumcision. As such it is highly hypocritical I think for our laws to ban FGM on mass whilst leaving cosmetic and ritual circumcision of male infants as a legal practice.

I think again a lot of that stems from a ignorant "Western mindset" of "FGM is something done by savages in Africa, male circumcision is different because doctors do it here in hospitals".

 

Why is female circumcision called genital mutilation while male circumcision is not called genital mutilation? It's incredible how this double standard still persists and how many people defend it. We can sit here and say that these Africans are awful for doing female genital mutilation but are we much better for allowing male genital mutilation.

 

I think parents are awful if the commit MGM. We are having a discussion about FGM.