No Negotiation When It Comes to Our Genitalia
Not a privilege, a basic human right.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female circumcision, involves all procedures that include partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury such as burning or stitching to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. According to a study done by Jewel Llamas at the University of Virginia, the exact origins of this practice remain unclear, although some scholars have proposed that it has first originated in Egypt and Sudan noting the discovery of circumcised mummies from fifth century BC. As the World Health Organization (WHO) states: more than 200 million girls and women alive today of age 0-15 years old have been cut in 30 countries located in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. FGM is often practiced due to beliefs about what is considered acceptable sexual behavior in certain parts of the world, as FGM aims to ensure and enforce premarital virginity and marital fidelity. Even though certain societies and cultures have their reasoning for performing FGM, it can cause medical and psychological problems, as well as violates basic human rights of females.
Starting with some scientific and medical facts about FGM, the WHO states that the practice has no health benefits for woman or girls. Also, FGM can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, infections, complications in child birth and increased newborn deaths. Moreover, the practice can cause genital tissue swelling, pain during intercourse, and at times can even amount to shock and death. This practice might also lead to the need of future surgeries in order to facilitate sexual intercourse and childbirth. Sometimes FGM is practiced in the form of stitching the genital tissue several times, including after childbirth, so the women subjected to this practice go through repeated opening and closing procedures, which might increase both immediate and long-term risks and side-effects.
Besides the devastating physical effects of FGM, this practice can lead to psychological problems. According to a psychiatric diagnoses done by the WHO, “Almost 80% of the women who had undergone FGM met criteria for affective or anxiety disorders, with a high rate (30.4%) of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while only one of the uncircumcised women fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for an affective disorder. The researchers conclude that female genital mutilation is “likely to cause various emotional disturbances, forging the way to psychiatric disorders, especially PTSD””. The WHO also states that: “the high rate of PTSD of more than 30% in the FGM group compares to the rate of PTSD of early childhood abuse (which ranges between 30% and 50%)”.
In addition to the opposing position science takes toward FGM, this practice is internationally acknowledged as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. FGM reflects deeply-rooted social-norms of inequality between the sexes, and an extreme form of discrimination against women’s rights. It is a violation of children-rights as it is often practiced on minor girls. The practice also violates a person's basic right to decide upon their own body, their right to health, security and physical integrity, as well as the right to be safe from torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.
Supporters and practitioners of FGM claim that this practice protects the health of women and their fetus. According to a study done by The School of Medicine at The University of Virginia, “In some cultures, FGM is believed to improve hygiene and increase a woman’s probability of conception with intercourse”. Moreover, a belief that “physical contact between the “toxic” clitoris and a baby during childbirth is thought to be potentially fatal to the fetus”. The procedure is also thought to conserve the recipient’s attractiveness, as the clitoris is thought of as something that could potentially grow until it “touches the ground”. But all these reasons that are alleged, but proven to be scientifically wrong, are not the reasons behind FGM. The social conventions (in other words social norms), the social pressure to abide by what others do and by what ancestors of the culture have been doing, as well as the need to fit in and be socially accepted, and the fear of being rejected by community members and deeply shamed for choosing otherwise, are all strong motivations to perpetuate the practice.
In conclusion, human rights violating practices similar to FGM should not be acceptable in any culture, regardless of the motivations behind them. Putting the physical and psychological, as well as the basic human rights of females to controversy, should be considered a red flag by itself. In the twenty-first century issues like female circumcision should not be a debatable topic, but rather be deemed inappropriate to even think of. At the end of the day, as the great Theresa May said “One girl subjected to FGM or forced to marry, is one girl too many.” Let it sink in, that there is no negotiation when it comes to our genitals.
Sources:
“Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Frequently Asked Questions | United Nations Population Fund.” United Nations Population Fund, https://www.unfpa.org/resources/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-frequently-asked-questions.
“Female Genital Mutilation.” WHO | World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation.
Llamas, Jewel. Female Circumcision: The History, the Current Prevalence and the Approach to a Patient. 2017, https://med.virginia.edu/family-medicine/wp-content/uploads/sites/285/2017/01/Llamas-Paper.pdf.
