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I really like the way my vulva looks, including my labia. In fact, I think my lips are quite kissable – and I’m not talking about the ones that frame my mouth!
Why am I discussing my most intimate bits and pieces, you ask? Because of a recent absurd “study” by a Texas TV News station that proclaimed 80 percent of women have larger than average labia, and that they suffer medical problems as a result.
This was such a spurious report that I feel compelled to comment. I have included the full report below, along with a portion of a blog post by the brilliant Dr. Petra Boynton, who flays the account with real science.
But, before I give my friend the doctor her say, I want to have my own. The report provides no information on how they arrived at this ridiculous percentage – and just what exactly, is an “average” sized labia?
This type of non-science only serves to pressure women into unnecessary surgery to “correct” an imperfection that doesn’t exist, and it further erodes a woman’s self-esteem and body image!
Women’s vulvas are as different and unique in appearance as are their faces – there is NO average. Some women have symmetrical labia that barely raise above the skin, while others have glorious a-symmetrical labia “wattles” that spread up and out like the wings of a magical butterfly. Their colors are as varied as their shape, and generally deepen spectacularly when the woman becomes sexually aroused. (In fact, many women enjoy having their labia stroked, licked or pulled during sex because it can provide a great deal of pleasure.)
It is these symmetrical labia that we women are now being told are the only beautiful variety and thus should be sought after, and that anything else “down there” should be considered ugly and surgically altered cosmetically. ABSURD!
I am old enough to have lived through a lot of negative sexual imagery aimed at woman. While much has changed, we still live in an extremely misogynistic culture that minutely scrutinizes every part of a woman’s body, literally from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. The result almost always finds each and every woman lacking in some minor to major area. Women are told that they just don’t measure up. They are not attractive enough and need makeup or cosmetic surgery – or, they are too attractive and need to tone it down.
Sadly, even though this is 2010, a lot of women have never seen their nether regions, and many believe those unseen bits and pieces are ugly, vulgar and even dirty. How can we ever hope to evolve into a sex-positive society if that type of female self-loathing continues to be passed down to each succeeding generation of girls? If you are a woman and have never looked, do so already! If you’re embarrassed, do it alone, maybe in the privacy of a shower; if not, then enjoy the exploration of your own body with your partner.
Just think for a minute, can you even imagine a society in which men subliminally tell their sons that their penises are ugly, and should be hidden away from view at all costs except to pee – and even then, that they should not look at or touch them because they are loathsome?
Dr. Betty Dodson (Sex for One: The Joy of Selfloving
; and Orgasms for Two: The Joy of Partnersex
) pioneered an approach for women to learn to accept and then to love the body that they have, exactly as it is – whole, totally individual and without exception, beautiful. Dodson, who has worked in the sexual health field for decades and continues to do so (Betty Dodson: My Sexual Revolution
,) even took photographs of women’s vulvas to use in her practice. Those photos are gorgeous. She is also a talented artist, who rendered the images of these precious vulvas into breathtaking black and white drawings.
It is high time for women to reject marketing and cosmetic companies efforts to define what we should look like simply to line their own pockets with gold. Take pride in being female, in having an amazing body that only other women have! Embrace your sensuality and sexuality, and just refuse to allow anyone, or any company, to belittle your body or appearance. It doesn’t matter what color you are, how tall, short, heavy, thin, able-bodied or disabled, you remain a woman – innately beautiful and gloriously unique, even sacred. The rest is truly just so much hateful bullshit!
The following is the ridiculous “report” that started it all, read it below or at the TV’s website:
Nip/Tuck: Don't Like How Your Vagina Looks?
Women Turning To Elective Surgery For a Cosmetic Fix
CW Dallas Fort Worth TV News
Shana Franklin, The 33 News
For the first time since she was a teenager, one Dallas woman in her 40's can now bend down and twist without discomfort. She said, "It completely changes your life. Now when someone says, 'Do you want to go and do something?' I don't give it any thought."
We're withholding the woman's name to protect her privacy about a something that may affect as many as 80% of women. It's an enlarged large labia majora and or labia minora. With it comes genital pressure, friction and chaffing that can make sitting or doing sports nearly impossible. And sex, well forget about it being fun or sexy.
Dallas Ob/Gyn Dr. Otto Huertas said, "I have a lot of patients that come in basically ashamed of their bodies. I mean they don't even want to show their body, their body parts to their partner."
Dr. Huertas has done of hundreds of surgical corrections. It's an outpatient procedure called Labioplasty. The extra genital tissue is trimmed with a laser, sometimes under just a local anesthesia. Dr. Huertas said, "You have to take into consideration that the with the media and the magazines, a lot women are looking at these perfect pictures of women, including the genital area. So their self-image changes a little bit."
After having Labioplasty, all the activities the Dallas woman we introduced you to earlier couldn't do are now only a memory. Among them, she said, "sitting on a plane, rides at Six Flags, water slides, things like that . It effects every part of your life."
Now, "Let's go" is her motto and peace is a reality. She said, "I think that leaves you feeling very empowered. First of all you own your body again. Nothing else owns it. You have the right to make all the choices you want to make."
And enjoy them.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Below, are excerpts of an excellent blog post by Dr. Boynton. You can also read it in its entirety at her always outstanding website:
Dr. Petra Boynton
Even with my dubious maths skills this doesn’t make sense. Because if such a large majority of women report large labia then presumably this becomes ‘the norm’ rather than ‘a problem.’
Merely an assumption that science has shown us 80% of women have larger labia. So we don’t know how many women were studied to make up this figure, who they were, when they were studied, or whether they actually considered themselves to have a problem. We don’t know who did the research, or whether it was even published. We’re given no clue about how ‘enlarged’ labia must be before they become unwieldy. The statistic becomes even more ludicrous if we’re assuming ‘enlarged’ to mean ‘larger than average’. In which case we seem to be being told that 80% of women have larger than average labia.
Had any research been undertaken the journalists may have learned there is no clear evidence for the effectiveness of cosmetic genital surgery in well women, but there is a growing trend within the cosmetic surgery industry to pathologise the female body as a means to creating a wider market in ‘enhancement.’
Although uncritical media reporting on genital surgery is not unusual there is fortunately an antidote.
THE NEW VIEW CAMPAIGN announces its THIRD Conference, to be held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Sunday, September 26, 2010.
FRAMING THE VULVA: GENITAL COSMETIC SURGERY AND GENITAL DIVERSITY
While the vulva surgeons are holding a conference on the Las Vegas strip, the New View, in collaboration with the UNLV Women’s Studies Department and Petals, will hold a counter-conference to examine the personal and political complexities of the new female genital cosmetic surgeries.
Our one-day event will include a morning plenary session on the emerging issues in genital scholarship, activism, and art, and an afternoon of experiential and discussion workshops for participants to share strategies and build connections. The event will conclude with an evening reception, photography and craft exhibition, and film showing at the Erotic Heritage Museum.
Areas covered will include:
• Cosmetogynecology and the new genital perfectability industries
• The rhetoric vs. the realities of Western genital surgeries vs. “FGM” (Female Genital Mutilation)
• Collaborative models of activism
• The revival of “cunt art” in craft, film, photography and painting
• Sex education and feminist-owned sex shops
• The latest body modification trends, from Vajazzling to Vatooing
• Disease-mongering, marketing, and body surveillance
• Critical health studies perspectives on cosmetic genital surgery
Confirmed plenary speakers include:
• Virginia Braun, University of Auckland, New Zealand
• Leonore Tiefer, NYU Medical School, NYC
• Vanessa Schick, Indiana University, Bloomington
• Lynn Comella, UNLV, Las Vegas
Full registration, hotel, and contact information here.
Please share information widely and if you’re a health worker, activist, therapist or sex educator do try and support the event if you can – either by attending the conference or donating to the New View Campaign. Journalists may particularly want to attend to learn more about celebrating women’s bodies and accurate reporting on the growing trend for medicalisation.
In the meantime go on – love your labia! Or love someone else’s.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to Dr. Boynton for such a great post, and for providing the information on the up-coming conference.
Oh yeah, before I forget, enjoy the following vulva photograph gallery that I compiled from the web. I also have a difficult confession: Copying these photographs made me embarrassed! The irony, of course, is that this whole post is to encourage women to accept, even treasure, their natural vulvas; to work toward acquiring fantastic body images regardless of what you look like – and here I was blushing to my toes. How idiotic of me. So, I spent some time privately really looking at these images, and you know what? They aren’t embarrassing, they’re beautiful, whether they look like me, or not. In fact, they depict just a few of the gorgeous variety of women’s rainbow labia. (There may also be a photo that includes a well-placed penis or tongue, too!)
If you’ve never seen your own, or anyone else’s, I promise that you are in for a treat, and will be absolutely amazed. If you feel uncomfortable, do what I did, just keep looking at them until you’re comfortable. If you do, you’ll understand just how lucky we are as women to have a fabulously-beautiful vulva! (My only regret is that the bulk of these women have shaved their vulvas – I much prefer these delicate petals TOTALLY al-naturale!)
Natural Labia RULE!
— The Curator
Mutilating, cutting or even “nicking” female genitalia needs to be eliminated from our world, PERIOD, regardless of its religious connotation.
This blog has consistently brought information about this heinous practice to readers. This week, ABC News did a fascinating report focusing on AMERICAN girls facing this procedure. That’s right – girls in the U.S. not some distant country.
To ensure that all of the facts from this report are presented here, below is the account in its entirity, or read it at the ABC News website:
Many U.S. doctors faced with decision when asked to cut young girls
By Brinda Adhikari and Lara Salahi
—June 14, 2010
Female genital cutting (FGC) is a tradition that many assume to be affecting girls living only in Africa and Asia. But this rite of passage procedure is all too familiar for many women living in the U.S.
The practice of cutting encompasses all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons, according to the World Health Organization. In some countries, many of these girls will have their clitoris completely removed to deny them sexual pleasure. And at its most severe, some of them will have their vaginas sewn shut to preserve their virginity.
"It's worse than anything in this world," said one young woman living in America, known as Mary, who asked to conceal her real name for fear of retribution from her community.
Mary had the most radical form of cutting performed on her in her home country. Her clitoris was removed and her vagina was stitched together.
Another young woman, anonymously identified as Amy, told ABC News that if her parents found out she was speaking out about female genital cutting they would "literally" kill her.
Although the procedure has been officially banned in the U.S. since 1996, some parents who want to stay true to their traditions ask American doctors to cut their daughters, leaving many doctors with a complicated choice.
Female genital cutting, a ritual thousands of years old, is a tradition many mothers and fathers feel obligated to have their daughters undergo because, without it, they are deemed unworthy of marriage. It is a cultural practice, without religious basis or any medical benefits. In fact, studies show that women who have been through it may suffer a lifetime of devastating complications, from severe infections, to pain and bleeding, and even a higher risk of death during childbirth. Some women die from the procedure itself.
Each day in Africa and Asia, more than 8,000 girls between infancy and age 15 undergo female genital cutting, an estimated total of three million girls annually.
"Obviously [parents] don't use the word 'female genital mutilation,' said Terry Dunn, an obstretrician gynecologist in Denver, Colo. "What the mom of the patient says is, 'I want to have the procedure that makes my daughter like me.'" Many physicians who consider FGC a horrifying treatment of a girl suffer a dreadful dilemma. If they say no, the young patient may become one of tens of thousands of young girls taken back to their home countries, in a process known as 'vacation-cutting.' Once there, the girls are often cut using a broken glass or unsterilized razor blades, and, more often than not, without anesthesia. While FGC may be banned in the U.S., there is no law protecting girls from being taken overseas to have the procedure in another country.
The CDC estimates that between 150,000 to 200,000 girls in the United States are in danger of being taken overseas during their time off from school to undergo vacation cutting. In fact, Amy said her parents were pressuring her to return to their home country. Instead, Amy said, she ran away from home.
"If I went back, I would have been cut," said Amy.
Dilemma Doctors Face
According to Dr. Doug Diekema, a pediatrician at Seattle's Children's Hospital and former chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' bioethics committee, by refusing to cut girls in the U.S., many doctors may be putting these girls' lives in jeopardy.
"It's very easy to take the high road in cases like this," said Diekema. "But when you're dealing with religious or cultural beliefs, saying no sometimes is not sufficient for people and it will not necessarily eliminate the practice."
In fact, Diekema and a few of his colleagues put forth the idea that American doctors use a so-called ritual nick as an alternative , to keep parents from seeking more dangerous methods of cutting. And, based on Diekema's recommendation, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released an official policy statement saying, "the ritual nick would not cause physical harm."
"The cut itself would be tiny, really just like a poke with a needle so that there might be a drop of blood," said Diekema.
But to many opponents of any form of procedure resembling the traditional female cutting, a ritual nick should not be acceptable as a substitute.
"What the AAP is in fact doing is 'wink, wink, nod, nod' in order to protect your patient from a possible worse form of [FGC], let's just spread her legs and nick her," said Taine Bien-Aime, president of the international human rights organization, Equality Now. "The reality is that what [that] statement does is perpetuate female genital mutilation. There is no other way around it."
But Diekema said that the proposed ritual nicking should not be considered a form of mutilation. "If you look up any definition of mutilation in the dictionary, it doesn't apply to this particular procedure," said Diekema.
Running Out of Options
For Mary, who has seen too many friends suffer through this, ritual nicking is not an acceptable compromise by doctors to keep parents from vacation cutting.
When asked by senior health and medical editor, Dr. Richard Besser, what pediatricians should do when faced with a family who wants to take their daughter back to their home country to undergo genital cutting, Mary said, "Call child services on them."
But, Dr. Nawal Nour, director of the African Women's Health Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Mass., said it is important not to vilify the immigrant community.
"Blame is never the solution," said Nour. "Empower them, rather than let's cut them and hurt them."
The center, which exclusively helps immigrant women deal with the complications caused by FGC, educates women about the dangers of FGC to prevent cutting for future generations. Layla Guled, a Somali language interpreter, says parents often feel as though they don't have a choice. Moreover, she says, they have the best intentions.
"Our mothers are trying to do the right thing for us," said Guled. "But our generation is trying to fight it."
The AAP offered clarification to their initial policy statement, saying that while the ritual nick may be considered an option, the practice of cutting is still harmful to girls. But after questions by ABC News regarding ritual nicking recommendations, the AAP withdrew their policy statement completely, saying that it had caused too much confusion and controversy.
"I want to make it very clear that the American Academy of Pediatrics opposes any form of female genital cutting, and that would include the ritual nick," Dr. Judith Palfrey, president of the AAP, told ABC News.
Still, Diekema said he stands behind the idea of ritual nicking as an alternative to vacation cutting.
Yet so many U.S. doctors still face a terrible set of options. And while millions of young girls wait for some answer on their fate, some who speak publically about it say they are not giving up the fight.
"We have to change a whole culture," said Mary. "Maybe we can't change their generation but we can change our own generation. We know it's wrong. There's nothing right about this."
For Help
Female genital cutting (FGC) encompasses all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons, according to the World Health Organization. While the procedure seems like a tribal tradition undergone on other countries, many young women in the U.S. have undergone FGC.
For many girls who may have already undergone FGC or who are facing community pressure to undergo the procedure, there's help. Here are a few places to turn:
Equality Now: is an international human rights organization that advocates for the social welfare of girls and women.
Sanctuary for Families: is a non-profit organization based in New York that offers help for women seeking assistance regarding FGC.
Amercian Academy of Pediatrics: is an expert-based organization that offers medical information and policy statements on children's health, including young girls.
UNICEF: a part of the United Nations, advocates for children's rights and protection worldwide.
Tostan: is a nongovernmental organization dedicated to preserving African women's rights and to empowering African communities to abandon FGC.
Brigham and Women's Hospital: African Women's Health Center is a clinic committed to improving the health of refugee and immigrant women who have undergone FGC.
And a special suggestion from your Curator: The Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Blog is dedicated to posting all news items from around the world related to this important topic. I search this blog frequently to find out what’s going on.
So far, there have been more than 350 comments at the ABC News site from readers. The comments are illuminating, some likening the practice to male circumcision. I find that argument off base. While I agree that circumcision should also be looked at critically, FGC is an attempt to lessen a woman’s sexuality, to make her the property of men in all ways – mind and body. That is hardly the goal of circumcision, which is not done to guarantee that the male baby is a virgin! In addition, FGC often makes women unable to climax or even experience sexual pleasure, while circumcision does not prevent men from enjoying sex. It is true that both procedures cause young people and infants pain. That alone should cause parents to pause and consider performing either procedure on their children. It is another thing all together if the procedures are done at the free choice of the “patient,” provided they are of an age to make such a decision about their body.
— The Curator
Clitoraid-assisted FGM Patient, 33, Celebrates First Orgasm!
FGM to become 'a horrific, historical fluke' as word of reversal surgery spreads
LAS VEGAS — A 33-year-old victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) was ecstatic when she made an after-midnight phone call to Clitoraid head patient coordinator Nadine Gary last week.
"I was feeling so good, I didn't want to let go at first," she told Gary. "It was a strange sensation, and suddenly I was overtaken by this incredible feeling that lasted several seconds! I had my first orgasm!"
Mariame (her last name is omitted to protect her privacy), an African immigrant, had undergone clitoral reconstructive surgery in Trinidad, Colo., nine months earlier. The procedure was performed by Clitoraid's head surgeon, Dr. Marci Bowers, who volunteers her services to help.
In childhood, Mariame and millions of other women were forced to endure the ancestral tradition of clitoral cutting, an act of extreme cruelty typically performed on little girls by female relatives. Anesthesia is rarely used and the pain is excruciating.
"Over 135 million women worldwide are currently living the consequences of this horrific act," Gary said in a statement released today. "They can't experience the physical pleasures of relationships that most women take for granted, and many of them also feel inadequate and ashamed. Clitoraid wants to help as many victims as possible, and to make FGM obsolete by offering and publicizing surgery that reverses the damage. When you can repair it, there's no point in doing the horrible deed in the first place."
Las Vegas-based Clitoraid, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2004 by Rael, founder and spiritual leader of the International Raelian Movement.
"He wanted victims like Mariame to have the surgery they need to achieve sexual pleasure and regain their dignity," Gary said. "That's why Clitoraid is building a hospital in Burkina Faso, West Africa, for the sole purpose of offering the surgery free of charge. The hospital will open next January."
But surgery alone is not enough, Gary said.
"We have to teach patients how to get their sense of pleasure back and overcome their inhibitions," she explained. "Therapy is equally important, and we're very grateful to Dr. Larry Ashley, a professor and sexual trauma counselor who volunteered to give individual sessions to each of our patients."
She said Mariame also benefitted from a workshop inspired by famed sexual therapist Dr. Betty Dodson.
"It helped her recover clitoral sensation and overcome her shyness about sex," Gary explained. "And it helped her accept the appearance of her repaired clitoris and trust that it really could give her pleasure now."
Also helpful to Mariame were vibrators and other sensual toys donated by Clitoraid's new partner, Good Vibrations, an adult toys retailer owned by women that is based in San Francisco.
"Vibrators help FGM reversal patients recover clitoral sensation," Gary said. "They reestablish nerve pathways, which patients can't achieve solely through finger stimulation."
The "Prophet" Rael declared: “Instead of using Clitoraid’s collected money to operate on just a few women, we should create the first Raelian Hospital, the 'Pleasure Hospital,' and operate on all African women, for free, with the help of Raelian or non-Raelian benevolent doctor,” according to the Clitoraid website.
The planned hospital is being built in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. It will be composed mainly of one operation room and two additional rooms. The non-profit Clitoraid has been in the process of raising $70,000 to build and equip it.
“It is a crime against humanity that today, in this so called enlightened 21st century, women in under-developed countries are subjected by force to participate in the sex trades, are denied common freedoms as we know and enjoy in the west, and in certain cultures, are slaves to barbaric practices such as clitoral mutilation in the name of religion and, moreover, male dominance. We can all help. we can support our sisters, and Adopt a Clitoris!” the Clitoraid website declares.
The goal of Clitoraid’s “Adopt a Clitoris” program is to create real, long lasting changes for women who have been forced to experience clitoral excision or genital mutilation against their will. To rebuild the female clitoris, a local anesthetic is applied so no pain is experienced when the surgeon uncovers the root of the original clitoris left after the excision. This root and tissues will become the new clitoris. The procedure takes 6 weeks for a woman to completely heal, with sexual pleasure and genetic normality being the end result.
“Most of the women in Burkina Faso cannot imagine having the money for such an operation. For most of them, it would be like spending two year's salary! Clitoraid is committed to provide these operations for free to as many women as possible. We will minimize our operating cost to the minimum, having mainly benevolent people involved in the whole process,” according to the organization’s website.
“But in order to provide such a service to the millions who have been mutilated, we need your help. By adopting a clitoris, (in part or in full) you can return the female body to its true form, which was denied them by unconscious thought and barbarianism. Imagine all the young girls who are dreaming to be whole again. You can make this wish come true, and be fundamental in the cease and desist of clitoral mutilation of the future!” the website urges.
To read more about the non-profit organization, visit Clitoraid on the web. The famous Good Vibrations sex toy store, located in San Francisco, can be reached through its website; while the legendary Dr. Betty Dodson can be contacted through her own website.
— The Curator
In an important action, 34 Islamic scholars in Mauritania, West Africa, have signed a “fatwa,” or religious opinion, banning the practice of female genital mutilation.
Cheikh Ould Zein, head of the Forum of Islamic Thought, said the scholars believe the Qur'an does not endorse cutting young girls' genitals to limit their sexual activity as women. He said yesterday that the leaders also agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques.
The process, also called female circumcision, is common in parts of Africa and involves the surgical removal of the clitoris or other female genital parts. The procedure is often performed by women with little or no medical training. It can eliminate pleasure for women during sex and cause lasting pain and complications in childbirth.
The fatwa, signed in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, states that the procedure has been proven to be harmful either at the time or subsequently to those girls and young women who have undergone the practice.
Many Mauritanian women have welcomed the move, one in Nouakchott saying it has truly smashed an ancient taboo. However, it seems vital that a significant publicity campaign will now be needed if the fatwa's message is to be spread into outlying areas where genital mutilation is most common. It is very encouraging that religious leaders have promised to present the new fatwa in their mosques.
Female genital mutilation has been recognized globally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. But that message has been slow to filter down in parts of north, east and west Africa where the practice is still widespread.
Health campaigners estimate that more than 70 percent of Mauritanian girls undergo the partial or total removal of their external genitalia for non-medical reasons.
The World Health Organization says there are no health benefits and many potentially damaging consequences, from severe pain and blood loss to recurrent infections, infertility and an increased risk of complications in childbirth – not to mention the inability of many of these females to ever again feel any clitoral pleasure or to reach an orgasm as a result of the procedure.
Shockingly, I found only one news article reporting this new fatwa that mentioned, or even eluded to, the loss of a woman’s innate ability to experience sexual pleasure FOR LIFE as a result of undergoing genital mutilation.
Mutilations are carried out for a mix of cultural and social reasons, and many believe the practice has Islamic religious support, even if this isn't always the case.
A law professor at Nouakchott University said the collective fatwa would greatly reduce female genital mutilation in Mauritania because it would remove what he called “the religious mask” that the practice hides behind.
In November 2006, an Egyptian conference of Muslim scholars from around the world declared female circumcision to be contrary to Islam and an attack on women, and called for those who practice it to be punished.
That conference, organized by the German human rights group TARGET, recommended that governments pass laws to prohibit the tradition and that judicial bodies prosecute those who mutilate female genitals.
"The conference appeals to all Muslims to stop practicing this habit, according to Islam's teachings which prohibit inflicting harm on any human being," the participants said in their final statement.
Egypt's two top Islamic clerics, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar, the foremost theological institute in the Sunni Muslim world, and Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, attended the conference, which drew scholars from as far afield as Russia.
Tantawi's and Gomaa's edicts are considered binding.
Nonetheless, female circumcision continues to be practiced in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa as well as Egypt, Yemen and Oman, despite numerous campaigns against it.
Frequently, those men who support the tradition believe it lowers a girl's sexual desire and therefore helps maintain her honor. They also believe it is required by Islam.
The scholars said circumcision inflicts physical and mental harm on women. Furthermore, they said, Islam considers it to be an aggression against women. Concluding that those who perform it should be punished.
"The conference reminds all teaching and media institutions of their role to explain to the people the harmful effects of this habit in order to eliminate it," the scholars said in their 2006 recommendations.
"The conference calls on judicial institutions to issue laws that prohibit and criminalize this habit...which appeared in several societies and was adopted by some Muslims although it is not sanctioned by the Quran or the Sunna," the scholars said, referring to Islam's holy book and the sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad.
Although many countries have outlawed female circumcision, the law is poorly enforced and prosecutions are rare.
As far back as the 1950s, the Egyptian government tried to stop midwives from performing the custom, while allowing doctors to do so – fearing that otherwise families who insisted on circumcising their daughters would have the operation carried out in unsafe conditions. But in 1996, the health minister imposed a total ban on the practice.
The Female Genital Cutting Education and Networking Project is a non-profit group organized to promote the dissemination of material related to female genital mutilation. The Project seeks to form an online clearinghouse and a community for researchers, activists, attorneys, and health care practitioners to obtain information and network with others involved in similar projects.
The following information comes from the FGCENP website:
“As you are reading this article, there are between eight and ten million women and girls in the Middle East and in Africa who are at risk of undergoing one form or another of genital cutting. In the United States it is estimated that about ten thousand girls are at risk of this practice. FGC in a variety of its forms is practiced in Middle Eastern countries (the two Yemens, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Southern Algeria). In Africa it is practiced in the majority of the continent including Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Mozambique, and Sudan.”
“Even though FGC is practiced in mostly Islamic countries, it is not an Islamic practice. FGC is a cross-cultural and cross-religious ritual. In Africa and the Middle East it is performed by Muslims, Coptic Christians, members of various indigenous groups, Protestants, and Catholics, to name a few.”
The FGCENP states there primarily three methods of female genital mutilation/circumcision that has been reported in the U.S., and around the world.
“The first and mildest type of FGC is called 'sunna circumcision' or Type I. The term 'Sunna' refers to tradition as taught by the prophet Muhammad. This involves the 'removal of the prepuce with or without the excision of part or all of the clitoris.' Type I is practiced in a broad area all across Africa parallel to the equator. Fran Hosken enumerates the following countries: Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania in East Africa to the West African coast, from Sierra Leone to Mauritania, and in all countries in-between including Nigeria, the most populous one. There are also reports of Type I taking place in areas of the Middle East such as in Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.”
“The second type of FGC, Type II, involves the partial or entire removal of the clitoris, as well as the scraping off of the labia majora and labia minora . This takes place in countries where infibulation has been outlawed such as Sudan. Clitoridectomy was invented by Sudanese midwives as a compromise when British legislation forbade the most extreme operations in 1946.”
“The third and most drastic type of FGC is Type III. This most extreme form, consists of the removal of the clitoris, the adjacent labia (majora and minora), and the joining of the scraped sides of the vulva across the vagina, where they are secured with thorns or sewn with catgut or thread. A small opening is kept to allow passage of urine and menstrual blood. An infibulated woman must be cut open to allow intercourse on the wedding night and is closed again afterwards to secure fidelity to the husband. Hosken also reports that infibulation is 'practiced on all females, almost without exception, in all of Somalia and wherever ethnic Somalis live (Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti).' It is also performed throughout the Nile Valley, including Southern Egypt, and all along the Red Seas Coast.”
“FGC is mostly done in unsanitary conditions in which a midwife uses unclean sharp instruments such as razor blades, scissors, kitchen knives, and pieces of glass. These instruments are frequently used on several girls in succession and are rarely cleaned, causing the transmission of a variety of viruses such as the HIV virus, and other infections. Antiseptic techniques and anesthesia are generally not used, or for that matter, heard of. This is akin to a doctor who uses the same surgical instrument on a number of women at the same time without cleaning any of them.”
“In many cultures, FGC serves as an initiation rite, and any efforts to eradicate it must take this into consideration. Some of the most successful eradication efforts have taken place in areas where FGC was replaced with 'initiation without cutting' programs whereas a girl still goes through some initiation rites but this time, without any blood.”
“Alternative rituals are currently being implemented in countries like Ghana and Kenya, that do not include any bloodletting. A girl will still undergoes the celebrations and the rituals that usually accompany the circumcision ritual , however, the procedure itself is either replaced with a small pricking elsewhere on the body to let out a small drop of water, or bloodletting is completely done away with.”
“Other successful programs have also experimented with giving midwives monthly salaries for putting down their knives and becoming health care workers. They are now trained in various aspects of female health, and go from village to village educating women about the harmful effects of female circumcision, and the importance of proper nutrition during pregnancy, how to protect from sexually transmitted diseases and HIV, and proper usages of condoms, among other health topics.”
“It is also important to note that even though FGC is currently illegal in many countries in Africa and the Middle East, this has not reduced the number of the girls that are mutilated every year. The governments of these countries have no way of monitoring the spread and practice of FGC. The United Nations, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization has considered FGC to be a violation of Human Rights and have made recommendations to eradicate this practice. However, trying to fight FGC on legal terms is ineffective since those who practice it oftentimes do not report it. FGC is also widely practiced in villages and remote places where the government does not have an easy access.”
“In the United States level, there are many efforts that are being made in order to abolish the practice locally and internationally. The National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC), a networking organization have brought together social scientists and medical practitioners from all over the world who are fighting FGC as well as male circumcision. NOCIRC has also founded the FGC Awareness and Education Project in August 1996. One of the goals of the project is to create an FGC Module which will provide information and training material to health care professionals.”
— The Curator
