Female Circumcision

A young girl may think of ear piercing as a painful and bloody rite of passage.

Imagine what it would be like if she were to live in one of the 28 countries in Africa and Asia that still practice an ancient rite of passage for women! It predates Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

That practice is "female genital cutting" (FGC) or "female circumcision." A more awful name it has been called is "female genital mutilation." Just thinking of the word "mutilation" and the loss switches my mental imagery to a serial killer.

Female Circumcision

FGC is being practiced throughout the world with highest concentration in Africa.
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Maternal and fetal specialist Nawal Nour of the Brigham and Women's Hospital at Harvard Medical School (Boston) reported in the Review of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2008) that more than 130 million women worldwide had FGC.

Reasons for its persistent practice include rite of passage, preserving chastity, ensuring marriage ability, religion, hygiene, improving fertility, and enhancing sexual pleasure for men.

FGC is loaded with medical risks, not to mention legal and bioethical issues. It is "recognized as a violation of human and child rights," the Nour report noted.
The United Nations is so serious about fighting this that the United Nations Population Fund declared Feb. 6 as the "International Day against Female Genital Mutilation." In fact, it is a criminal offense in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, UK, and the US. The Philippines is not known to have a law against it.

World Health Organization classified FGC into three.

Type I involves removing part or all of the clitoris and/or its covering.

Type II involves removing part or all of the clitoris and the smaller folds, cutting or not the larger folds.

Type III is the most severe form. It is the narrowing of the vaginal opening with creation of a covering seal, leaving only an opening at the lower part of the vulva to allow urine and menses to pass when the wounds are healed.

Continuing complications for Types I and II FGC are rare. But women with type III FGC female circumcision face serious immediate (uncontrolled bleeding, fever, wound infection, sepsis, and death) and long-term problems: dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, recurrent vaginal and urinary tract infections, infertility, cysts, abscesses, keloid formation, difficult labor and delivery, and sexual dysfunction problems.

As an afterthought, though, should male circumcision be also recognized as a "violation of human and child rights"? Well, it's just an afterthought. Female circumcision should be banned in all countries. 

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