In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Egypt Outlaws Female Genital Cutting

Jill


Two girls sit next to an old knife that is used to perform female circumcision during a rite of passage ceremony in 2001. via.

Good on them.

Ninety-seven percent of Egyptian women have undergone clitoridectomies, according to a survey conducted in 2000. A twelve-year-old girl recently died while undergoing the procedure. Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation of FGC.

26 thoughts on Egypt Outlaws Female Genital Cutting

  4. Hurrah! ‘Bout damn time.

    I’m especially happy about this because I just finished the section of FGM in Mary Daly’s book, Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. I hope other countries follow Egypt’s lead.

  5. 97 percent? Oh my god. How horrible.

    Absolutely. It’s hard to imagine living in a country that would choose to mutilate children “for their own good.”

    Then again about 60% of male infants in the U.S. are circumcised…so I suppose we ought to look in the mirror as well.

  7. While I agree that male circumcision is questionable, it does not eliminate sexual pleasure for boys/men. A better comparisson would be to lobbing off the entire head of the penis.

  8. While I agree that male circumcision is questionable, it does not eliminate sexual pleasure for boys/men. A better comparisson would be to lobbing off the entire head of the penis.

    You’re right. I wasn’t very clear. I wasn’t going for an analogy, more of a let’s keep in mind our own faults. I apologize if that wasn’t clear. FGC is about power and patriarchy. Society controlling women by taking away their ability to experience some types of sexual pleasure.

    Circumcision is about religion and conformity. There’s a lot less hate there, but it’s still something we should keep in mind.

  9. Thank the gods! It is by far about time! Every person every where should be free to keep the genitals they were born with, perfectly intact and beautiful.

  10. The comparison, I think, is not so much cutting off the head of the penis but cutting off all of the penis, and most of the scrotum. Comparisons to male circumcision are about as accurate as comparisons to ear-piercing.

  11. I personally have big problems with male circumcision, but I agree that the comparison is not remotely accurate — not that Kristen was saying it’s the same thing, I’m just pre-empting the inevitable “What about the MEN?!” arguments.

    What I worry about is that FGM won’t stop, it will just be done clandestinely. When something is so culturally ingrained, and particularly when it’s tied up with ideas of sexual cleanliness, it’s hard to stop it. Luckily, a few major religious leaders have spoken out against FGM and there are local groups combating it. This law is a step in the right direction, but hopefully it will actually change behaviors.

  12. How refreshing to read a blog wherein the comments thread on this subject is not immediately, irrevocably hijacked by the “But what about male circumcison?” camp.

  13. Oh, wonderful. Just as we have outlawed rape and now it’s completely gone, I’m sure the same miracle will occur in Egypt regarding female genital mutilation. Yay!

  14. Oh, wonderful. Just as we have outlawed rape and now it’s completely gone, I’m sure the same miracle will occur in Egypt regarding female genital mutilation. Yay!

    Miller, I don’t think anyone is saying FGM is going to disappear. But it is important that they’ve outlawed it, since that reflects a profound social shift, and it allows people to be prosecuted for it.

    Rape laws don’t get rid of rape, but I’d rather have them than not.

  15. Pingback: Feministe » Comparing Circumcisions

  16. Oh, wonderful. Just as we have outlawed rape and now it’s completely gone, I’m sure the same miracle will occur in Egypt regarding female genital mutilation. Yay!

    I’ll be sure to email each and every girl this law protects to let them know that it’s really nothing to get excited about.

  17. 97% ? Are they sure? That’s insane? I’m Arabic and I do not exaggerate when I say that Egyptian women were (and still are) considered to be the epitome of Sex. They’re mannerisms, their speech, etc- scream sex. They are held up to be the most sensual of all Arab women.

    I don’t know if its a cruel fate or irony (?) that society makes them undergo such a procedure (which by the way, no Egyptian woman I’ve ever met has spoken of)-only to turn them around and make them some bastion of sexuality that only “teh man” can satisfy (which would seem damn near impossible at this rate.)

    Ugh….

  18. Pingback: Feministe » All your wildest dreams have come true.
  19. Pingback: Feministe » Recapin’ Your Ass

  21. 97% ? Are they sure? That’s insane?

    The source seems to be a survey by an Egyptian newspaper, quoted in the 2007 article at the top of the page. (I share your surprise, by the way – the figure also seemed excessive to me when I heard it for the first time some time ago.)

    I also add what seems a lecture by Molly Melching.

    I hope we can go on with the debate.

  23. How could I have forgotten this heart-wrenching testimony?

    Kim Manresa is a photographer from Barcelona who has documented topics such as child prostitution in Brazil for La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper. A selection of the work which lead to the publication of this book was first published in the Sunday supplement of the newspaper and started an avalanche of reactions. The pictures of that happy, careless child who then undergoes mutilation are a very powerful and troubling graphic testimony.

    The kid was living with the friend who had arranged the first encounter when Manresa went to visit her a year later (by the way, he promised to pay for her living and studies in Barcelona later on). The magazine published a second story about this visit. Here are a couple of links more:

    http://www.spinifexpress.com.au/kadi/kadibdev.htm
    Interview with Kim Manresa (in Spanish)

    50% of the profits of the book go to NGOs which work to eradicate female mutilation.

    On the other hand, I have found that under Spanish law (link in Spanish) FMG is punishable even if it takes place out of our borders. The text of the law should appear at the end of the text, but the link is broken. It shouldn’t be difficult to find, though.

  24. Mandolin says in another thread:

    I’ve read some material suggesting the previous all-but-ban in Egypt was damaging to women’s health. I don’t know why this one wouldn’t be, too.

    Would you care to elaborate, Mandolin?

    I don’t think that anybody here is so naive as to believe that a legal ban will stop the practice. Still, the ban seems important to me as a recognition that society at large frowns upon it. Wouldn’t it be hateful to live in a state that tacitly or explicitly approves of FMG? Jill said upthread that “Rape laws don’t get rid of rape, but I’d rather have them than not.” I totally agree.

    A sensible short-term measure would be to propagate notions about contagious illnesses, at the very least. Eradication can only come with the engagement of the local population and relentless information. It might not be that long-term, at least according to this paper that compares FGM to footbinding in China. It might be overly optimistic, but why not. Who would have thought that a centuries-long tradition like footbinding would have taken such a short time to vanish?

    In the same site, a Nigerian woman claims: “There is no doubt that FGM is barbaric and evil. All hands therefore must be on deck to eliminate this evil. Enlightenment campaign is very important to educate the masses on the baseless nature of this practice. The Federal, State and Local Assemblies should as a matter of urgency pass a bill to criminalize this act. It will be a right step in the right direction towards saving our women. FGM is sincerely speaking an insult on the dignity of women.” How could one argue with this writer that such a bill might be damaging to women?

  25. I’m just so glad we’ve moved on from that VILE “we musn’t imperialistically impose our Western values on traditional cultural systems” line when it comes to this issue, which made me want to break things. As if all the women who’ve experienced this and come out and spoken about how much they’ve suffered don’t count. As if culture is some sort of monolith, that stays static and has no relationship with political self-interest. As if the fact that women do it to their daughters means male power is uninvolved. It always made me LIVID.

  26. I heartily agree with you, orlando.

    But – it’s three in the morning here and I’m very tired, so forgive me if this comes out as too confused – I wouldn’t mind reading more African people telling us Westerners how not to blunder anymore in dealing with this situation. For we do deal; at least in international law, giving money to NGOs, going there to contribute to changes, not to say within our own borders. Blunders mean a lot of suffering here.

    I have read somewhere that Egypt has ceded to international pressure for political reasons, but Oman is of no strategic interest at the moment to anybody and therefore mutilations go on there unpunished and unattended. I’m not totally sure of this statement in respect to Egypt at least, for I believe that there have been a lot of internal tensions about mutilations during many years, aside from any international prodding. Yet I could believe that international pressure would have a lot of weight in the case of Kurdistan that Galloise Blonde mentioned.

    And the practice is so wide and the circumstances, so varied. From nomadic tribes to Egypt – although I’ve never been in this country, I’d guess it is a society very close to the West in many habits and structures.

    By the way, I made a mistake in another comment. It seems that the survey was conducted by an official organism, but I didn’t make a note of it at the moment, so I cannot say which one it was.

Comments are currently closed.