Dicussion: FEMALE CIRCUMCISION

[buffalosoldier]

Hi,

i watched an absolutely harrowing documentry a few weeks ago on television about female circumcision.

the documentry was filmed in Somalia and contained explicit scenes of mothers circumcising their daughters WITHOUT A DOCTOR present.

this is called F.G.M which stands for 'female genital mutilation'.

i think this is absolutely terrible and insane if you ask me.-they begin by removing the tip of the clitoris,followed by the adjacent labia and then basicallly sew up the vulva,leaving only a small hole present to allow urine and menstrual blood to pass through.and this is done to basically ensure that the female cannot sleep around and is penetrated only by the man she marrys. the people of Somalia also have the idea that the clitoris is dangerous and can cause a man to become impotent if he comes in contact with it,and can even harm an unborn baby if the mother is to touch it. in some instances the husband will cut open his wife with a double ended dagger to have sex with her.- i was practically crying throughout this documentry,it was so horrible. children as young as 3 and 4 years old were being pinned to the ground by their mothers and other women and having their legs tied up with scarves and then having this done to them.-most of the time against their will aswell,you could here them screaming and crying out loud,and as the subtitles would suggest,they were in an enormous amount of pain,having only a small shot of anesthetic injected into their bottoms.

in alot of cases it has caused the women not to be able to have orgasms at all,and nearly all cannot enjoy sex.this must be so very mentally and phsically damaging to this poor girls,i cant imagine why anybody would want to put their child through such an ordeal.

does anyone else have any views on this? i find it very disturbing,and it takes place in so many countries and cultures.if anybody is interested in researching more into this,this webpage has some info: link removed.

sorry for the negative topic,hope for lots of responses!!

[take_the_reins]

heya,

I also agree that this is terrible, but it must be acceptable in some countries, i think they should wait till the child is able to make their own decision! maby 18 or so i dont think it should happen against their will !!! nat x

[neva_black_n_white]

hey,

i think that is an awful thing to display and at that they do it on tv infront of millions of viewers. anyone at any age deserves dignity and i agree with the before post you should be able to do things at your own will.

i hate things such as that it just shows how awful the world is today

 

is there anything we could do about it though?

kel

[buffalosoldier]

im not sure really,probably not,but i think that the american government are trying to cut it down in the middle east(though i might be wrong) but unfortunately this is their culture even though its horrible and completely in-humane but thats how alot of them were brought up.the women should at least be allowed the freedom to reach 18 and then decide for themselves,the fact that it was being done to innocent young girls was the most disturbing thing,they probably wont have much or any idea why that is being done to them.-and i dont expect the experiance ever leaves them either.one girl actually did disown her mother and vowed never to have any contact with her again for doing this to her.its enough to give any girl nightmares,id love to be able to stop it but theres no way really is there?

[sabena]

I too watched a programme in the UK a couple of weeks ago regarding this subject. It is NOT ACCEPTABLE in any country and in a lot of developing countries it is banned. It is this attitude that it must be acceptable because they still carry it out that allows this barbaric act to still continue this day.

 

Buffalosolider, your summary of the procedure is correct but what I will add is that this procedure is done under extremely poor sanitary conditions leading to a lot of girls suffering from horrendous urinary tract problems. Also, because the age of marriage tends to be very young in developing countries where this act is carried out, once the man has forced his way through this tiny hole, the girl is often left heavily scarred. When or if she has children, they have to open her up wider to accommodate the child and because of the nature of the circumcision they are often left with horrid bladder problems leading to a lot of girls having to have their ureters coming out upon their abdomen.

 

And YES, there is something you can do about it. You can get off your chair and protest against this and help re-educate these women. I am a member of Amensty who protest and are setting up re-education programmes in the Gambia and Senegal for these women.

 

Within your own country there are anti-female circumcision groups and if you feel strongly about this you should join.

 

Also, In case you think this only happens in developing countries, think again, it happens in the UK where approximately 3,000 british girls are subjected to this disgusting act every year.

 

You can do something about it!

[charmed]

Hi Everyone,

 

I saw probably the same programme about a year ago on UK tv. Culture is a strange thing to many of us. Be it this Female Castration (I believe it is more then the equivalent o f circumcision), or chopping off someones hand for stealing. There are parts of the world that strange things happen in, and many are attributed to culture. While these places do have the right to their culture, it is very hard as part of the 1st and 2nd world to try to ignore the wrongness of this and say "It's culture".

 

I was not aware however, that these communities have been bringing this cultural practice to the UK and other parts of the world. Surely, in our developed countries, this is illegal regardless of the culture ?