From: elf@halcyon.com (Elf Sternberg)
Subject: Re: Female "Circumcision"
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 03:30:22 GMT

In article <1992Sep29.124644.8211@cbnews.cb.att.com>
     lib@cbnews.cb.att.com (Lib) writes:

>In article <1992Sep28.221027.6406@funlwb.enet.dec.com>
>     wales@ringss.enet.dec.com writes:

>>	The fact that the majority is Muslim reinforces the issue as it is they
>>who usually perform this ghastly operation.

>That's simply not true.

   The follow list was compiled and found in "Traditional Practices
Affecting the Health of Women and Children," a UN internal document
released by the World Health Organization, 1982.

   Clitoridectomy:  The practice of excising the clitoris.  "Sunna
   Circumcision" is the removal of the prepuce and/or the tip of the
   clitoris; full clitoridectomy consists of the removal of the
   entire organ (both prepuce and glans) plus adjacent parts of
   labia minora.  Clitoridectomy is practiced in more than 26
   countries from the horn of across and the Red sea acoss to the
   Atlantic coast of the African continent, and from Egypt in the
   north to Mozambique in the south, including Botswana and Lesotho.
   The practice of clitoridectomy can also be found in the two
   Yemens, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, southern Algeria,
   Indonesia, Malaysia, Australian outback, Brazil, El Salvador,
   Pakistan, and among the Skoptsi Christian sect in the Soviet
   Union.
   
   Genital Mutilation: Although female genital mutliation in its
   various forms is thought by many to be an Islamic practice, the
   procedure pre-dates Mohgammed, who himself counseled reform and
   moderation of the operation.  In the 5th century B.C.E.,
   Herodotus mentioned it as a practice of the Phoenicians,
   Hittites, Egyptians, and Ethipopians.  Furthermore, in addition to
   being performed by some Islamic people, clitoridectomy and/or
   infibulation is practiced by some Coptic Christians, members of
   various indigenous tribal regions, some Catholics and
   Protestants, and some Fellasha (an ancient Jewish sect living in
   Ethiopia).  Clitoridectomy is usually performed by midwives, and
   the age of the female child varies-- between 9 and 40 days after
   the child's birth (Ethiopia), between age 4 and 6 (Egypt), and
   between 11 and 13 (the Sudan); the severe health consequences
   include primary fatalities owing to shock, hemmorrhage, or
   septicema, and such later complications as incontinence,
   calcification deposits in the vaginal walls, recto-vaginal
   fistuals, vulval abcesses, recurrent urinary retention and
   infection, keloid formation, infertility, and an arrage of grave
   obstetric and sexual complications.  Overt justifications include
   such contradictatory explanations as custom, religion, family
   honor, cleanliness, initiation, insurance of virginity at
   marriage, and prevention of promiscuity.
   
   Infibulation:  The removal of the entire clitoris, the labia
   majora and the labia minora-- and the joining of the scraped
   sides of the labia majora across the vagina, where they are
   secured with thorns or sewn with threads.  A small opening is
   maintained by inserting a small sliver of wood (commonly a match)
   into the would diring the healing process to permit the passage
   of urine and menstrual blood.  An infibulated woman must be cut
   open to permit intercourse and cut again to permit childbirth;
   often she is closed up again after delivery, and so is subject to
   such procedures repeadtedly during her productive life.  The
   practice of infibulation still exists in the areas of the Sudan,
   Somali Republic, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Upper Volta, The Ivory Coast,
   Kenya, and Mali.


   The following text comes from "Women in the Muslim World," published
by Harvard Press, 1979.

      While most familiaes lovingly train their little girl for
   her nurturing role without thinking about her sexual future until
   she reaches puberty, a few behin to worry right away.  They may
   resort to the very un-Islamic custom of genital mutilation to
   abort sexual awakening, in order assure her chastity until
   marriage and fidelity thereafter.  Gential mutilation was a
   medically accepted treatement for masturbation and nymphomania
   in the West in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  In
   the Middle East and Africa the operation comes in three main
   varieties today.  The simplest form is the Sunna circumcision,
   in which only the tip of the clitoris is sliced off.  More
   radical is clitoridectomy, calling for the excision of the entire
   clitoris and the labia minora.  Even more harrowing is the
   practice of infibulation, it involves sealing the labia majora
   together after the entire clitoris and labia minora have been
   removed.
   
      The most widesperead genital mutilation is clitoridectomy,
   affecting some thirty million women in nearly three dozen
   countries.  It's pratice among some non-Muslims as well as
   Muslims suggests a non-Islamic origin.  In fact, Greek scholars
   have noted the existence of clitoridectomy in the Upper Nile
   valley since the time of the pharaohs.  The Quran makes no
   mention of the practice.  Muhammad disapproved if it, since it
   renders a woman frigid for life, but even he apparently could not
   outlaw it-- which may shed light on one curious tradition which
   claims that the Prophet stopped a matron one day from preforming
   the radical operation on a little girl by ordering her: "Reduce,
   but do not destroy."  Some Muslims take this statement as an
   order to perform Sunna Circumcision on little girls.  Sunna is
   certainly the least damaging, since it does not completely kill
   the ability to respond sexually or cause as many serious
   complications, which are also euphemistically referred to as
   "Female Circumcision" but are effectively equal to penile
   amputation.
      In more enlightnened urban areas the crippling versions have
   given way to the Sunna cur umciusion, but this is no less
   traumatizing to the young victim and may lead to sexual frigidity
   in adulthood.  Since it is called "the cleansing operation,"
   parents do not always appreciate its harmful effects.  Nawal
   al-Saadai, an Egyptian daughter born to educated parents,
   recalled the terror she experienced at age six.
   
      "As I lay cozily in my bed one night, cold hands grabbed me
   and carried me to the bathroom.  At first I had thought that
   theives had broken in and were going to cut my throat-- a fear
   that was confirmed by a rasping metallic sound that reminded me
   of a butcher's knife being sharpened.  Dazed with fright, I saw
   only blurred adult figure busying themselves about as if
   preparing to sacrifice a sheep.  The knife did not touch my
   throat; instead it reached for something buried between my
   thighs.  A burning pain shot through my body from my intimate
   center, blood pooled about my hips, and I found myself freed from
   the rack of hands.  As my eyes focused more clearly, I got the
   greatest shock of all that still awaited me-- my own mother stood
   over me, smiling at my executioners.  For years the memory of my
   clitoridectomy continued to track me down like a nightmare.  I
   had a feeling of insecurity, fear of the unknown, waiting for me
   every step I took.
      "The irony is that Muslim society looks at the woman as a tool
   of love and then deprives her of the one organ which will allow
   her to be good at it."
   

   And, finally, from "Women in Islam," Seaview Press, 1981.

      As in many parts of Egypt, women's sexual passions are
   curtailed by the practice of female circumcision, the ablation of
   the clitoris.  Although clitoridectomy predates Islam, an no
   Quranic references to the practice can be found, the resident of
   Fateha justify the custom by reference to the Islamic _sunna_.
   It is important to note that the clitoridectomy is primarily a
   practice to safeguard premarital chastity and virginity.
   Proponents of the procedure note that for such women orgasm is
   delayed and synchronization of male and female phases of
   heightened sexual excitement is often acheived by the use of
   hashish.

<> "Facts are stupid things."  - Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1988

         Elf !!!
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