Female Circumcision

In my senior year of high school I took an Anatomy and Physiology course in which we discussed a lot of things, especially about diseases and the things that other cultures practiced. But the one thing that still sticks out in my mind is the topic of female circumcision. My teacher, Mrs. Vanrouski, showed us a video in which model Waris Dirie reflects on her childhood in Somalia where she herself was circumcised at the young age of five. She says “And since the prevailing wisdom in Somalia is that there are bad things between a girl's legs, a woman is considered dirty, oversexed and unmarriageable unless those parts--the clitoris, the labia minora, and most of the labia majora-are removed. Then the wound is stitched shut, leaving only a small opening and a scar where the genitals had been-a practice called infibulation.” In an interview published in Jet magazine she said that she is still curious as to how the practice began and is still searching to find an answer. This made me want to research the topic and find out more about the subject and since doing so, I’ve come to find that it’s a lot worse than I thought it was. In fact, female circumcision is one of the most horrific practices that survive in the 21st century,

The procedure usually takes place when girls begin puberty or are close to the marriage age, in some areas the operation can be done as early as two years of age. The operation is often done by the girl’s grandmother or an old midwife. If a girl does not go through with this procedure, she will be viewed as being “impure” and immature by the community since this is the “rite of passage” from childhood to adulthood. She will also experience many taboos such as not being allowed to touch many items or not being allowed to perform social rites. Her family will be looked down upon, and of course she won’t be able to marry because she wouldn’t be considered to be good marriage material.

This procedure called female genital cutting also known as female genital mutilation or female circumcision has been broken down into four categories: Type I, II, III, and IV. Type I is defined as the removal or splitting of the clitoral hood, also known as “hoodectomy”, with or without excision of the clitoris. The clitoral hood is the same as the foreskin of the penis which is removed during male circumcision.

Type II is defined as the removal of the clitoris with total or partial excision of the labia minora (inner lips). This type of female genital cutting is also called khafd, which means reduction in Arabic.

Type III is defined as the removal of part or all of the external genitalia and the stitching/narrowing of the vaginal opening, which is also called infibulation. This is the most extreme form of female circumcision and it only accounts for about 15% of all female genital cutting procedures. There is also a lot of controversy surrounding type III due to concerns regarding the safety and consequences of the procedure.

Type IV is all of the other types of the procedure, and some may not involve tissue removal at all. This includes a diverse range of practices, including pricking the clitoris with needles, burning or scarring the genitals, ripping/tearing the vagina, or introducing herbs into the vagina to cause bleeding and a narrowed vaginal opening. Type IV is generally found among isolated ethnic groups as well as in combination with the other types.

The traditional cultural practice of female genital cutting seems to have originated in Egypt and the Nile valleys during the time of the Pharaohs, evidence from mummies have shown both Type I and Type III present. Although the spread of the practice is