More On The Missing Clitoris

[eric1000]

Genital mutilation affects women globally

Womens Health Issues

By Esther Hwang

March 05, 2004

There is a practice that is predominately in Africa but has

created an uproar among many nations about its severe health risks for women, both physically and psychologically.

It is used often as a symbol of subjugation for women in patriarchal societies.

Once known as Female Circumcision, health officials working for the rights of women are now calling this terrible procedure Female Genital Mutilation, or FGM.

FGM is the partial or full removal of the female genitalia. It is a procedure used primarily for religious or cultural practices. There have been no therapeutic benefits recorded for FGM.

Worldwide, about 130 million women have experienced some form of genital mutilation. FGM was previously termed "female circumcision," but women's activists groups are horrified by the health consequences as a result of this practice, and are working to ban it.

According to the World Health Organization, there are six different types of female genital mutilation currently practiced. They are divided into Types I -- IV, and there are two additional methods.

One of these two methods involves scraping (angurya cutting) or cutting (gishiri cutting) the vaginal area.

The other unclasified method involves applying corrosive substances or herbs in or around the vagina to induce bleeding or to constrict the vaginal walls, making the vagina tighter and narrower.

Type I FGM, or clitoridectomy, is the removal of the clitoral hood. The clitoris may or may not be removed along with it.

In Islamic cultures, this process is known as a "sunna circumcision." The significance of the word "sunna" refers to tradition and the prophet Muhammed.

Type II FGM, or an excision, is the removal of the clitoris along with either partial or full removal of the labia minora.

Type III FGM is called infibulation, or pharaonic circumcision. This is a clitoridectomy, an excision, and the removal of a part or all of the external genitalia, which is then sewn over part of the vagina, narrowing the opening. This allows only a small hole for urine and menstrual blood to pass through.

Type IV FGM is the process of pricking, piercing, incising, stretching, or cauterization (burning) of the clitoris, labia and surrounding tissue. In a man, FGM can be equivalent to cutting of part of or the entirety of a man's penis.

In Africa, where most FGM cases occur, Amnesty International reports 15 percent of the procedures to be an infibulation. However, 85 percent of FGMs in Africa will be either a clitoridectomy or an excision. This statistic reflects about an annual rate of two million young girls that will expect to undergo this procedure.

Many cultures where FGM is practiced believe that a woman is only initiated into her womanhood when she experiences the knife, razor or glass shard to her genitalia.

Gender identity as a woman is important for many tribal societies, who perform elaborate rituals that are central to the girl's coming of age.

The late Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta has been quoted supporting FGM for reasons that abolishing the practice "[would] destroy the tribal system" that has been upheld for so long in the Kikuyu tribes from the rural Kenyan areas.

Amnesty International claims that the people of Sierra Leone feel socially and politically cohesive when their cultures carry on FGM rituals for all their women in the Bundo and Sande societies.

In other cases, FGM is believed to reduce the woman's desire for sex, thus reducing her tendency to become promiscuous. This is a way for men to subjugate and reduce a woman's basic freedoms.

In certain cultures, men are convinced that a woman will definitely stray if she is not mutilated. As a result, many women in patriarchal societies will attempt to deaden a woman's sexual appetite.

Additionally some people hold the preposterous belief that FGM is essential for a woman's hygiene, cleanliness and health.

In some communities, a woman who has not been mutilated is considered unclean and is not allowed to share food or drink with her community.

Other superstitious societies believe that if a woman's clitoris comes in contact with a man's penis, the man will die. Others believe that if that an unmutilated woman's baby will die during childbirth. However, the most common reason for FGM is that it regulates woman's sexual desire and "hysteria."

Contrary to all these beliefs, medical proof has revealed FGM to be debilitating and dangerous to a woman's health.

During the procedure, intense pain, shock and hemorrhage can occur. FGMs are usually carried out without top medical instruments.

Some girls or women can expect to be cut by a glass shard or a dull knife. Using the same piece of cutting apparatus on multiple women increases the risk of HIV/ AIDS. Lack of proper sterilization procedures and unprofessional work carried out by tribal members will create such situations for women.

Besides extreme pain and discomfort, chronic side effects include reoccurring vaginal infections, spontaneous bleeding, abscesses, keloids and small benign tumors can occur after a clitoridectomy.

Infibulations come with many serious side effects. Women suffer from long term chronic urinary tract infections, which can damage the bladder, urethra and kidneys.

Furthermore, menstrual flow is blocked, which infects the reproductive system. Pelvic infections, endometriosis, infertility, scar tissue buildups, keloids and cysts can arise.

Sexual intercourse is also painful. Women have to be "reopened" in many cases.

This involves a gradual and painful reopening of her vaginal area, and many will experience another knife or cutting device to reopen the vagina.

Again, the lack of medical skill in many rural tribes and communities can create health risks during the reopening process. Penetration is extremely painful, and the fluids that flow from the unhealed wounds also increase the risk of spreading HIV during sex.

Childbirth is likewise excruciating. Buildups of scar tissue can tear, and additionally, the mother has to be cut even more so that the baby can pass through the birth canal. If there is no attendant at hand to make these incisions, the perineum can tear, or there can be problems with obstructed labor.

Sadly enough, many women are often closed up again to make their vaginal walls tight for their husband's sexual pleasure.

Repeated cutting and restitiching of the genital area builds up rough scar tissue in the genital area, exacerbating the pain, and making intercourse and childbirth excruciating for a woman.

Many international health organizations are working together to ban these horrific practices. They are attempting to modify and compromise cultures which uphold FGM as an important and valued ritual. They even encourage a symbolic ceremony, such as holding a knife next to the genitals, pricking the clitoris, cutting pubic hair, or light and minimal scarification of the genital/ upper thigh area. However, while much progress has been made in recent years, much help is still needed in educating people about FGM.

[Thetyim]

Very informative, didn't know there were so many types.

I know of one girl in Thailand who has had her clit removed.

She says it was removed, by a doctor, when she was a baby

so I do not think this would qualify as FGM

[cdnvic]

Eric.... accept that she was a katooey and move on.

cv

[sbk]

Perhaps it wouldn't be so funny if they performed circumcisions on grown men without benefit of anesthesia or any medical insturments too?

[cdnvic]

Perhaps it wouldn't be so funny if they performed circumcisions on grown men without benefit of anesthesia or any medical insturments too?

Who called it funny? I think it's sick and anyone doing it to a woman should have it done to themselves... lopping a few extra inches to be sure.

Now Eric shagging a katooey and refusing to admit it to himself.... That's funny.

cv

[NedKelly]

Truly sick mate ! They sew em up as well when the men go away so the woman wont 'stray'..... geeeessuss !! They should send the women of Thailand over there to show the men a thing or two.....every man who interferes with a woman this way will be sentenced to an hour with a Thai woman..........the ducks would be well fed !!

[cdnvic]

Truly sick mate ! They sew em up as well when the men go away so the woman wont 'stray'..... geeeessuss !! They should send the women of Thailand over there to show the men a thing or two.....every man who interferes with a woman this way will be sentenced to an hour with a Thai woman..........the ducks would be well fed !!

Okay, if this forum has affected me in any way, the biggest one is that I'll never eat duck again.

cv

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Perhaps it wouldn't be so funny if they performed circumcisions on grown men without benefit of anesthesia or any medical insturments too? <_<

sbk that brings tears to my eyes ... just thinking about is more than enough

[Boo]

There was a tv documentary on this last year, bloody awful, these girls in west africa, one about 12 years old, the other 9 years old, were forceby held down by female members of their tribe, while an old woman cut them with a rusty, dirty knife, they were screaming in agony & crying to be let go. This was all done in the name of religion & tradition & after, the girls were paid off by their father, with gifts of toys & chocolate. Another woman had been sewn up when she was about 10 & then had had an arranged marriage & her husband couldn't penetrate her, so he took her to a female doctor who was against this & the doctor told him that she could reverse it with an operation in a sterile & safe enviroment, the husband then refused cause his friends were taking the piss out of him, for not "opening her up" himself. The stigma attached to this in this guys community was such that he knew it was wrong to try to force his wife but wouldn't allow her procedure to be done properly, cause the friends were saying it was against tradition! When things like this are done to anyone in the name of tradition & relegion, I think it's a shame on mankind as a whole to allow it to keep happeneing. Fortunatly there are group who ARE working to erridicate this & other abuses to women, men & children around the world & hopefully one day, these practices & others will be wiped out forever.

[Boon Mee]

The "Religion of Peace" is into female circumcision big-time in the middle east. They absolutely don't think it's a bad thing!

sbk~

What we're talking about here isn't similar to a male circumcision where the foreskin is removed. With females in certain parts of the middle east and Africa, the whole clitoris is whacked off!

[taxexile]

This was all done in the name of religion & tradition & after, the girls were paid off by their father.

care to tell us which religion that is ?

i also saw that documentary and rarely have i been so disturbed by a tv programme. this was major surgery on childrens genitals done without anaesthetic on kids held down by having women sitting on them. the screams were horrific.

it is nothing like male circumcision, which medical opinion is starting to believe has some health benefits both the man and for his sexual partner(s)

female circumcision is nothing more than violence against young girls in the name of a religion (that one day will surely have to answer for some of the practices carried out in the name of that religion) to please men.

it is about time that some of the more unenlightened preachers of that faith realised that it is the year 2004 and not 804.

[Bluecat]

female circumcision is nothing more than violence against young girls in the name of a religion (that one day will surely have to answer for some of the practices carried out in the name of that religion) to please men.

And why in fact does it please men?

Beats me,...

[Boon Mee]

female circumcision is nothing more than violence against young girls in the name of a religion (that one day will surely have to answer for some of the practices carried out in the name of that religion) to please men.

And why in fact does it please men?

Beats me,...

It gives the men in those cultures a sense of power over their women knowing they can't achieve orgasm. Sick f*cks...

[Bluecat]

It gives the men in those cultures a sense of power over their women knowing they can't achieve orgasm.

I am sure if they knew the alternative, they would change their mind in a hurry.

Education is key, as always,...

[Phil Conners]

In Islamic cultures, this process is known as a "sunna circumcision." The significance of the word "sunna" refers to tradition and the prophet Muhammed.

Islam again

[Jeepz]

sbk~

Even those of us that perpetually regret the suffrage movement consider "female circumcision" abhorrent.

Jeepz

[tutsiwarrior]

madsere...to give all barbaric cultures and practices their due in traditional/orthodox jewish communities infant boy children are subjected to ritual circumcision. The guys in the big hats, beards and big coats clamp the little guy's foreskin with an apparatus resembling an eyelash applicator and slash away with dirty razors while muttering imprecations while mom stands by and allows it to proceed with her son screaming in agony...lots of blood and quite terrible.

These are white people that would abhor whatever black african arab savages did anyway...

[dr_Pat_Pong]

sbk~

Even those of us that perpetually regret the suffrage movement consider "female circumcision" abhorrent.

Jeepz

Maybe sufference ... suffrage is the right to vote.

[Jeepz]

Dr Pat Pong~

I know.

Jeepz

[Boon Mee]

sbk~

Even those of us that perpetually regret the suffrage movement consider "female circumcision" abhorrent. 

Jeepz

Maybe sufference ... suffrage is the right to vote.

Sufference is knowing Hillary Rodham Clinton is warming up in the bullpen for a run at the White House...

[Basher]

Couldn't be any worse than what is already there

6 of one and 1/2 a doz of the other

Bash

[aaaaaa]

Perhaps it wouldn't be so funny if they performed circumcisions on grown men without benefit of anesthesia or any medical insturments too?

but then from some other mamber's post it ssems like it were women who forcibly held and done everything to those small gals in that program, huhu?

I mean - it is not that men do it to women there in africe - othe elder women do it to young gals.... perhaps even those gals will grow up and would forcibly do same to other young gals... so - not realy men's fault, huh?

[Boon Mee]

Couldn't be any worse than what is already there

6 of one and 1/2 a doz of the other

Bash

Even a "war-monger" like GWB is preferable to a socialist, radical, left-wing shrew such as Rodham

[britmaveric]

Horrid Practice one has to admit- though Eric still trying to slip is his way out of his ladyboy practices!!!

[plachon]

Horrid Practice one has to admit- though Eric still trying to slip is his way out of his ladyboy practices!!!

Poor young Eric, is he ever going to be allowed to forget that little bit of indiscretion with Lola?

[bangsaen bob]

That's a lot more than I wanted to know about it, but it's a sick practice anyway.

[eric1000]

  Horrid Practice one has to admit- though Eric still trying to slip is his way out of his ladyboy practices!!!

Poor young Eric, is he ever going to be allowed to forget that little bit of indiscretion with Lola?

you soulnd like you are on illegal narcotics

[sonthaya]

Missing clit, I have seen it many times during my 4 years in Sudan, girld from Ethiopia, and the area around there had their cilt and other parts cut off in some Muslim ritual.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Missing clit, I have seen it many times during my 4 years in Sudan, girld from Ethiopia, and the area around there had their cilt and other parts cut off in some Muslim ritual.

Bloody horrific practice

[sonthaya]

Yes, but it's the normal way in Muslim countries in North Africa, and we even have the problem here in Denmark where they send their young daughters back to their homeland to have it performed, it's illegal by Danish law but they still do it.