By Jennifer McKean
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 16, 1997

Not for the taking

Arizona Daily Wildcat Jennifer McKean

The lights dim and the voices quiet. Tension overwhelms the atmosphere of the room. A 6-year-old girl screams violently at the sound of her flesh being cut away with a razor blade. She is stitched up and left with a hole the size of a match head for the discharge of menstrual blood and urine.

Agony, incessant bleeding and sickness is all she will know for weeks to come. In the future, she will likely suffer psychological trauma, shock, life-threatening infections, tormenting sexual relations and an obstructed, perhaps fatal, childbirth.

You must ask yourself, why? Why was this young child and hundreds of millions more just like her subjected to such detrimental, unsanitary operations?

The practice is termed female genital mutilation (FGM). It is performed on defenseless young girls, in several countries around the world, in order to ensure chastity, suppress their natural sexuality and discourage promiscuity. The defacement of women's genitals originated as an act of control on the part of men in these societies.

FGM is an unnecessary practice that devastates a woman's physical and psychological well-being. Unfortunately, FGM is still performed by mid-wives and barbers, often illegally, in more than 40 countries.

Even established nations such as France, Italy, Canada and Sweden are reportedly participating in this mass sexual discrimination and mutilation.

In the nation of Somalia, 100 percent of the young women are given these operations, often against their will. Most other undeveloped nations are not far behind, some operating on 90 percent of the female population. These inhumane acts, committed in order to preserve a woman's virginity, are seen as routine and established traditions going back 6 thousand years to the first documented case.

In surveys, the most common reason given for why FGM is continued is dread of social criticism. Many of the families fear that their uncircumcised daughter will be a social outcast whom no man will marry.

Excision makes women more erotically appealing to men and in more potential danger of being raped and abused instead of respected. Women who are not excised run the risk of alienation because they are seen as adulterated, evil, terrifying and likely to kill their children at birth or soon after.

If the men of these nations were legitimately concerned about the welfare of their unborn children, why would they significantly increase the chances of maternal mortality by aiding in the mutilation of all women at young ages?

My American born-and-raised eyes only see vicious, controlling, uneducated men and women in these societies. FGM is a vicious crime and should be punished severely. Even though the law prohibits the practice in many nations, the operations are performed daily in mass numbers.

According to the many defenders of FGM, circumcision and excision separate the believers from the non-believers as a sign of devotion to God among certain Jewish, Muslim and Christian groups.

I believe that there are rituals that denote and strengthen ties to God, culture, husband and society that do no involve pain and permanent physical impairment.

One would think that legislation on FGM would be nonessential in this country, but that is not true. Representative Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.) introduced a bill to Congress prohibiting the "operations" in the United States.

"Because some immigrants have brought the practice of female genital mutilation to the United States with them and because there is no statute explicitly governing it, I introduced a bill, HR 3247, in Congress to prohibit the genital mutilation of girls in the U.S. and to provide education to immigrant communities on the health risks and legal liabilities of the practice," said Schroeder.

We are dealing with the rights of children versus the rights of tradition. While some argue that FGM is an important cultural tradition, one that is intrinsic to the functioning of society, I feel that it is indicative of a patriarchal culture that seeks to maintain and perpetuate male dominance.

Am I so against this practice because I am American, or because it is morally unjust? Why would we be born with these bodies if they are fundamentally wrong, unnatural and dangerous? To all female readers, try to imagine before every sexual act, having the stitches that have sewn your vagina shut ripped open, so that sexual intercourse can be performed on you, and then being stitched back up at the man's will, with a vile needle and thread.

Furthermore, if this truly is a practice that benefits women as well as men, why are women not free to choose whether to be circumcised or not? There is absolutely no justification for such extreme customs. No matter how you see it, globally, there are 6 thousand girls being mutilated each day.

Jennifer McKean is a junior majoring in journalism.