In an Atlantic article about Female Circumcision writing by Linda Burstyn a women named Genat says, "She said if I don't do these things, the girl will grow up horny. She'll be like American girls".
When she said "these things" she meant circumcising her baby girl. In many countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia circumcising also known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a common ritual that girls get before the age of 15. A ritual that is said to be as common as getting a girls ears pierced. They say that if the child is not circumcised then she will be wild and crave men.
Circumcision started many many centuries ago. We don't really know where it actually started at but we believe it originated from the Egyptians. They believed that when snakes shed their skin, and emerged shiny and new again, it was undergoing rebirth. So they began to perform this on humans.
The following are some forms of circumcision performed in women...
- Clitoridectomy; is the partial or total removal of the clitoris.
- Excision; is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora.
- Infibulation; is the narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal.
For all we know is that many of the people that perform circumcisions don't use sterilizers and the blades are most likely dirty and rusty. It is not safe and they are spreading diseases this way.
"Many of the immigrant mothers who are making these decisions about their daughters know little or nothing about their own anatomy. They are told that if the clitoris is left alone, it will grow and drag on the ground; that if their daughters are left uncircumcised, they will be wild, and will crave men; that no man from their home country will marry them uncircumcised" -Linda Burstyn
A lot of these mothers are not educated enough to know that none of this is true and that there are other ways to keep their girls under control when it comes to "craving men". Other things such as, educating them on why they shouldn't and what will the consequences be if they decide to do it. As for the mother, they should be more educated when it comes to this.
The aren't educated because they don't have the resources to get this important information. These women can't work and they definitely can't go to school. Their culture is very different than ours. I feel like they need to learn more about the subject.
This also affects them not only mentally but physically. There has been many occasions where after they are married they have a hard time with pregnancy, childbirth and they might have some complications with sexual dysfunction. Many of these girls go into a state of shock and are even dramatized. Just imagine being in between the age of 7-10 and getting your genitals cut with a razor blade without any anesthesia...Sound painful? Yes. The pain has been compared to having a metal piece forced under your fingernail and ripping it back and forth until the fingernail comes off.
I think that this is just brutal. I honestly feel that it's not fair why is it that they are always trying to tame women? as if we were animals or something? I just don't get it. Like Linda said in her article "This is a clear case of child abuse. It's a form of reverse racism not to protect these girls from barbarous practices that rob them for a lifetime of their God-given right to an intact body." We have a right to do as we wish with our bodies and others even our mothers shouldn't be the ones deciding if we want to be circumcised or not. This is not their choice to make.
Here are some comments said about female circumcision...
Anonymous women said..."This happened to me. I may have forgotten the pain, but I will never forgive my parents. I have a young daughter. To keep her safe, I never visit my parents now."
A man who defends the practice says that he recently had his daughters circumcised. "I stood over her to make sure she cut enough," he says. "I wasn't going to let my daughters have those things!"
I would hate if my parents did this to me too, and while I was reading the articles all I could think of it thank goodness I live here. I honestly felt the pain that these young girls where feeling and I wanted to cry. Then when I started reading some of the comments the men were leaving it just made me so mad! Comments like "We do this so they don't become whores" or "they don't have a right to feel pleasure like we do". Seriously?! Who do they think they are? This really made my blood boil. I am so for stopping this brutal act.
I know that we all have to respect other people's cultures and thoughts but I found it extremely hard to agree to this. Specially because a lot of the women and men that allow this to happen believe so strongly in this but again have no real knowledge about about what it really does to these young girls.
It is okay to believe in whatever you want and do as you wish with yourself but not when you are literally harming others specially when those others are young girls that can't stand up for themselves.
Now, What do you guys think? Should this be allowed?
Here is the second article about Female circumcision written by Paul Belluck a New York Times Journalist. This article talks more in detail about letting the doctors here in the United States perform this act on young girls vs the families taking them abroad to get their daughters circumcised with greater danger.
This third article is written by Danish Ahmad Khan and he talks about the different religions that practice this act.
