Female circumcision is a tradition that has been practiced for thousands of years in some African and Middle Eastern countries. In this photo, this young girl is undergoing female genital mutilation. Several women take hold of her and open her legs wide. After separating her outer and inner lips, the operator, usually a woman experienced in this procedure, sits down facing the child. With her kitchen knife the operator first pierces and slices open the hood of the clitoris. Then she begins to cut it out. While another woman wipes off the blood with a rag, the operator digs with her sharp fingernail a hole the length of the clitoris to detach and pull out the organ. The little girl, held down by the women helpers, screams in extreme pain; but no one pays the slightest attention. The operator finishes this job by entirely pulling out the clitoris, cutting it to the bone with her knife. Her helpers again wipe off the spurting blood with a rag. The operator then removes the remaining flesh, digging with her finger to remove any remnant of the clitoris among the flowing blood. The neighbor women are then invited to plunge their fingers into the bloody hole to verify that every piece of the clitoris is removed. It is also done to demonstrate their virginity on their wedding night; and because "uncut" girls with the ability to enjoy love-making are considered more likely to be promiscuous, unhygienic, and prone to diseases such as Aids. In this age of political correctness, do Americans and other people have the right and authority to say this practice is barbaric and should be stopped?
8 comments:
Upon first reading the blog, I was horrified at the descriptiveness of what happens to these girls especially from a woman's perspective. However, I don't think it is America's place to dictate anothers culture and the rituals associated with it. I am prone to think who are we to judge when we as a country have our problems to solve first let alone worrying about everyone elses. For, goodness sake we are trillons in debt. I think that is a big deal and currently we are in a heated presidential race that could have the potential to change our country's outlook dramatically. So, even though the actual act of female circumsion is morally wrong in my opinion, the best option instead of dictating someone else lifestyle is to solve our own problems first. We could in addition help out these countries practicing this by educating them on better practices instead of the approach they are taking but by no means forcefully place our foot down and demand that it stops because America has, to this day, I am almost certain problems of this same sort or accord to measuring degress that are happening all of the time we are unaware of. I don't think problems are solved by going after others before you fix what is potentially wrong with you first.
I hate to say it but reading this almost made me want to throw up. I cant believe they would do this to such small girls, much less anyone! This is absolutely horrible and one of the worst practices I have ever heard in my life. I do believe that every country is on its own and should have its own rules and practices, but this is just horrible. They are doing this to little girls that cant even defend themselves. I can garuntee you they dont want to have this procedure done to their bodies and they dont even have the option. I do believe this is one of the few situations where we should go and do something about it. That has got to be so painful and its truly so disrespectful for the women in that country. I was actually astounded to see that other women are the ones doing this to the children. I expected it to be the men who have no idea how painful this is to the girls. Its almost like this society is brain washed, because I know that if any of us went through something this painful we would not do the same to our daughters!
When I read what was happening in this photo it made me want to cry and throw up at the same time. How terrible! Though countries are entitled to their own opinions on how their youth should be brought up I totally disagree with this practice. I don't think America has a right to have this kind of authority because we are supposed to be a “land of the free” where we can make our own decisions for our children. To me this is completely disgusting. They are using a kitchen knife and her fingernails to cut her and put her in horrible amounts of pain so they can be positive she won’t be promiscuous. WOMEN are the ones performing this procedure on this poor girl and simply don’t even care how much it is hurting her. And like all other girls who this has been performed on are being harmed physically and emotionally. This to me is unspeakable and I seriously hope people in America would NEVER consider female circumcision for girls of the future. Its just awful.
When I first read this caption, I was horrified. This immediately caught my attention. The first thing I thought was why anyone would want to inflict such pain on a young, innocent child like that. I also thought what kind of barbaric people would do this to their children. Then I took a step back and thought about the situation. Our practices and traditions in American culture are very different from the practices of other people in the world, especially African and Middle Eastern cultures. At first glance, one would say this tradition of female circumcision is horrific and must be stopped immediately. But what about some of our American traditions like family life. Family life in America is very different from family life in Africa and the Middle East. A lot of people in America come from broken homes do not have mothers, fathers, and stereotypically a lot of child/youth do not give their parents any respect. This practice would be considered horrific and unheard of in African and Middle Eastern cultures. They value family very much. So why would this be any different than the female circumcision? Granted, I do think they should not go about performing the procedures in such a primitive way. I think they should use some kind of pain-reliever, but that may not be part of their tradition. I do not know if going across the country and telling someone they should stop performing their traditions would be the best way to solve something. I mean how would you like it if someone came into your house and told your family how it should be ran? I definitely would not like it. Maybe this is just an opportunity to offer them help like sending supplies and drugs. We should not try to force our ideals and traditions on someone else just because we think it is right.
When I saw this photo, all I could think was why would you want to put your own child through such a horrid experience? I do disagree 100% with the tradition and wish that an end would be put to it. But at the same time, I don't believe that it is up to other countries to say which traditions are ok and which are not for particular countries. I am sure that there are things that America partakes in, that other countries would love to put an end to, yet is not up to them.
We each have our own traditions, and that is what makes all of us so different. So I do not believe that we should be forcing others to follow our own belief system for any tradition.
When it comes to saying what is right and what is wrong, we should first look at ourselves and take the log out of our own eye, before taking the splinter out of someone else's eye.
I couldn’t bare reading this, it was completely disturbing. To think that girls are put through this is sickening. I can’t believe that this actually happens to anyone, much less a little girl. It seems like it is more like a ceremony rather than a procedure. She is not being operated on in a normal hospital, with special operating equipment. She has to be publicly humiliated, and have neighbors come and stick their fingers in her. It just seems completely disgusting and inappropriate. A statement that bothered me the most is that when she is screaming in pure pain, it doesn’t even faze the woman around. All countries have their own traditions and standards that we don’t always understand, and I do not think that America has the right to say that it can’t be done in a country we do not have power over. However, something should be done about this, it should be more widely known so that it will be more prone to have something done about it. I had never even heard of female circumcising before this.
I had never heard that this was happening in Africa untill i read this story. It is absolutely horrible that they would do this to these children. I think they most likely go after children for these jobs because they do not know what they are doing. The older you get the more you understand, and these kids have no idea that what they are doing is compleatly immoral. Its so wrong for anyone to drug these children and make them fight for something they do not even understand. When i heard the part about the kids being asked to kill there familes i got sick to my stomach. What could possibly make anyone want to ask a kid to do this? That doesnt even have anything to do with the war. That is sick that these gaurds would do this. They are taking away the kids innocence and for most of them thier lives. It is horrible that this be allowed in any country and it makes me very angry.
Certainly what we are talking about here is not the same as family issues or other societal norms. These cultures cut out internal parts of a child’s body without her permission. And they perform this “procedure” without painkillers and without medical supervision. Moreover, they destroy the woman’s chance to have a normal, healthy, enjoyable sexual relationship with her husband.
I do agree, however, with the difficulties we face as we try to stop this practice. The answer is education, I think. Like more populations need to be educated about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, communities might change their rituals if they were educated about female genital mutilation. Or maybe not. As some of you pointed out, the women were likely “circumcised” themselves, so they know of the torture, the pain, the complications for years to come. Yet they still feel the pressure to continue the practice and subject their own daughters to the debilitating “operation.”
I cannot think of a comparable practice in this country. The circumcision of baby boys, while certainly painful, does not cause lifelong effects, particularly one’s opportunity to enjoy sex. I have read about some of the unfathomable realities for women who have endured the mutilation, and the excruciating cutting is just the beginning of the torture and humiliation.
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