Female Genital Mutilation/Circumcision

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIJ0ExRHsKo

Razor’s Edge: The Controversy of Female Genital Mutilation, July 9, 2010. United Nations. 0:51-1:47

https://www.huffingtonpost.in/vrinda-vinayak/female-genital-mutilation-the-cultural-relativism-argument-just_a_22191858/

https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/health/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-explainer-trnd/index.html

Besera, G, Daniel, I. Goodman D, Goldberg H, Okoroh, E. 2016. “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in the United States: Updated Estimates of Women and Girls at Risk, 2012.” Public Health Reproduction 131(2):340-7. 

Daniel, Sandra. 2013. “Cultural Relativism vs. Universalism: Female Genital Mutilation, Pragmatic Remedies” The Journal of Historical Studies 2(1): 1-10.

Maher, Robin M. 1996. “Female Genital Mutilation: The Struggle to Eradicate This Rite of Passage.” Human Rights 23(4).

Sharief and Toubia. “Female genital mutilation: have we made progress?” International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 82:3. 13 September 2013. 

Schweder, Richard A. “What About “Female Genital Mutilation”? And Why Understanding Culture Matters in the First Place.” Daedalus 129:4 (209-232).

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Type I: Clitoridectomy

Type II: Excision

Type III: Infibulation

Type IV: Other harmful abuses to the female genitalia

Cultural Pluralism:

Cultural Relativism

I chose to study the topic of Female Genital Mutilation due to the nature of its name and how such a concept could be discussed in contemporary society. Genital mutilation,  also known as circumcision is a ritual ceremony for many cultural affiliations in society, mainly within African and Asian communities. It’s a pertinent component in coming of age as well as gender-identity ceremonies. Understanding the practice of FGM is multi-faceted and I found many articles to be anti-“FGM,” stating it to be a human rights issue; while others expressed anti-“FGM” efforts as being exaggerated and neglectful of cultural pluralism. 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) states that as “human beings we are born free and equal in dignity and rights; we possess the inalienable right to freedom of religion in practice and the indispensible social and cultural rights for the dignity and freedom of an individual’s personality.” The theoretical notion of cultural relativism plays a imperative role that can ultimately be for the benefit or detriment of an individual or a society. FGM is in direct violation of three fundamental universal human rights under the UNDHR: the right to health (Article 25 s.1), the right to life liberty and the security of personhood (Article 3), and the right to an adequate education that includes proper knowledge of the cultural practice (Article 26 s.1). Simply abolishing the practice without pragmatic remedies would also be in violation of Article 18 which states that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. It would also violate Article 27 which notes the right to freely participate in the cultural life of a community. Respect for the rights of culture is imperative when seeking potential remedies for the long-standing cultural practice.

Defining Cultural Relativism:

Holds no particular culture as superior to another when examining issues of ethics, morality, law or politics. It is a philosophical notion that all cultural beliefs are equally valid and that truth itself is relative, depending on the cultural environment. Cultural relativism holds that all religious, ethical, aesthetic, and political beliefs are completely relative to an individual within a society of a particular culture. 

Universalism asserts that all people are linked together by a common cause that is human rights. As people we all share in being equal in dignity and in rights and thus we are united together against any form of discrimination, inequality, or any violations of human rights and advocates for the greater development of peoples, a movement of humanitarian rights on a global scale.

Universal feminists recognize the dangerous health related concerns of FGM and see it as a violation of a woman’s right to health. The reasons given for the cultural practice, that is to preserve a woman’s sexuality and virginity until she is married by the cutting or removal of her genital organs, also defies the sexual rights of women. The very fact that a female must undergo such a painful and harmful procedure to curtail her sexual desire by making her more appealing to a man is another issue of itself.

Female genital mutilation is a classic example of a practice that is proscribed in some cultures, but permitted in others.  The historian Herodotus described the contrasting practices of two cultures towards their dead. The ancient Greeks cremated their dead, while the Callatian Indians would eat the bodies of their deceased fathers. Members of both cultures were horrified when they learned of the other’s apparently barbaric way of treating their dead.In some cultures FGM is a major right of passage for young women. The idea is that certain practices have value by virtue of their practice over a long period of time, their inclusion in historic texts and art forms, their association with cultural identity. It is contingent whether or not something is valued, or how it is valued. Moreover, it is entirely possible to deliberately change the rituals. We can keep parts of rituals that connect us with our forebears, while rejecting others.

The US Congress passed a law in 1996 that mandated the practice of FGM/C to be illegal. The methods included an estimate of the number of females at risk of undergoing FGM/C women and girls affected by the risks and consequences of the practice by applying “country-specific relevance” to the estimated number. As a result, approximately 513,000 females in the US were at risk as of 2012. The rapid growth was due to the increase in immigrant populations that practice FGM/C.

Fuambi Ahmadu's observations are imperative to research on FGM in that Americans have remained “politically correct” in their own nature by simply disapproving and condemning the practice with a general lack of evidence. Anti-FGM advocacy groups established over many years carry the same oblivion to the practice and its culture, some have illustrated African parents routinely “disfiguring, maiming, and murdering their female children and depriving them of capacity for a sexual response…” (Schweder, 2000), However, these groups have not been critiqued by “freethinking minds” nor has there been any reliable evidence to debunk such notions of the practice. 

The “good-guys” are what Ahmadu express to be self-evident enough to the capacity that solely presenting the rhetorical question: “what about FGM?” Is satisfactory in retorting cultural pluralism; dynamics seen in societies in which minority groups are encouraged to preserve their culture and uphold their customs while participating in society.

Research/sampling methods must be stated.

Must be a population sample.

Statements formed must be well-supported by the evidence gathered.

Obermeyer reported that medical complications of genital procedures are the exception rather than the rule and that female genital alterations do NOT result in the loss of sexual arousal.  Essentially, it is necessary for communities outside of those that practice female circumcision to understand the nature as well as the culture that encompass these societies.

Fuambai Ahmadu, an African scholar who was born in Sierra Leone and raised in the United States submitted a groundbreaking ethnographic paper to the American Anthropological Association in October of 1999. She expressed her concerns for women and men enduring this procedure as well as how prominent it is in African culture in that it determines one’s status and power they retain in their society.

Female Genital Mutilation is ritualized particularly for coming-of-age and gender-identity ceremonies often involving genital alterations. The procedure is deep-rooted and exalted in African countries as well as places throughout Europe and the United States and countless women undergo the procedure as it is an expectation of their cultures. Generally, women keep the event to themselves; An estimated 80-200 million African women in contemporary society have participated in the practice. Ahmadu is included in this alarming number, a Kono woman from Sierra Leone and anthropologist. 

Ahmadu expresses that most Kono women sustain the practice of both female and male circumcision and approve of the consequences it entails for their spiritual, psychological, social, and physical well-being; she goes on to forward that many women feel empowered by the ceremony of initiation. 

Carla Obermeyer, Epidemiologist and medical anthropologist at Harvard University published a comprehensive literature review on existing medical material concerning female genital procedures in Africa. She would form an interesting conclusion from her review that expresses: claims formed by the anti-“FGM” movement are highly fabricated and exaggerated.

The UN general assembly adopted the resolution “Intensifying global efforts for the elimination of female genital mutilations” reveals an increased effort to end the practice on a global scale. The key findings from the surveys conclude that 125+ million girls and women today have endured some form of cutting throughout these 29 countries and 30 million girls are at risk of being cut in the coming decade. In Africa countries such as Somalia, Eritrea,Niger, Senegal among others one in five girls have undergone one of the forms of FGM known as infibulation which consists of cutting and sewing the genitalia (UN and Gupta, 2013).  The concentration of this practice is no coincidence in that it’s closely associated with ethnic groups, which in turn suggests that it is tied into social norms, shared beliefs, and expectations within communities. Egypt for example, a country where the practice of FGM/C has yet been medicalized, experienced a striking increase of females being cut by health officials with a huge influx from 55 percent in 1995 to 77 percent in 2008. In many countries with corresponding social structures such as Somalia, Chad, and Central African Republic, the procedure is covered by a wide-range of health care providers. In contrast to some countries that indicate an increase of FGM/C being carried out, overall support by members of the community has decreased. Changes in attitudes towards the practice varies by region for instance: FGM/C in Kenya has steadily declined amongst particular ethnic groups, in a region where it was once universal and continues to persist among others.