Female genital mutilation is the collective name given to several different practices that involve the cutting of female genitals. It was practiced by many ancient cultures, including the Phoenicians, Hittites, and the ancient Egyptians, modern physicians in England also used it and the United Sates as recently as t

Following are some of the reasons given for FGM:

In the communities where FGM takes place, it is referred to as ¡§female circumcision.¡¨ This term, however, implies an analogy to nonmutilating male circumcision, in which the foreskin is cut off from the tip of the penis without damaging the organ itself. The degree of cutting in female circumcision is anatomically much more extensive. The male equivalent of clitoridectomy, in which all or part of the clitoris is removed, would be the amputation of most of the penis. The male equivalent of infibulation, which involves not only clitoridectomy but also the removal or closing off of the sensitive tissue around the vagina, would be removal of all of the penis, its roots of soft tissue, and part of the scrotal skin.

Dominant tribes and civilizations spread FGM, often as the result of tribal, ethnic, and cultural allegiances. For example, it was not known in western Sudan among the Furs and the residents of the Nuba Mountains in 1950s. After independence in 1956, local government, education, and health services were introduced in the region by professionals from the educated middle classes of the north where FGM was practiced. In the next twenty years, the cultural influences of the northern elites prevailed. A survey conducted in 1979 reported that in Fur and Nuba families, mothers were not circumcised but most daughters were.

Most circumcisions take place when a girl is already receiving multiple messages about her position in society in general, and in regard to boys and men in particular, linking the operation and a girl¡¦s experience of her social feminization (in some places accomplished through aggressive gender training and even threats of torture). It would be difficult for any child above infancy not to associate circumcision with some diminution of sexual desire; the message and the act appear to be interrelated. With infibulation, in particular, the radical shaving off of all sensitive tissue plus the folding away of the vagina can be seen as a metaphor for the more abstract denial of a woman¡¦s sexuality: her reproductive capacity is locked up with a chastity belt made of her own flesh. The ¡§protective hood¡¨ is allowed to be cut open or dilated only to permit the husband is lawful access to the vagina in return for his bride price. Women who are sexually frustrated may no longer seek sexual contact with their partners and ultimately become sexual objects and reproductive vehicles for men.

Some topics in this essay:
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