circumcision
I. am. flipping. out.
I've read about it. I've cried about it.
I knew this happened.
... I did not know it happened here.
97% of women in Egypt are circumcised. 97% have had FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION. I am in the middle of a busy, semi-modern city and THEY DO THIS HERE!?!?
It's sick. sick. sick. sick. sick sicksicksicksicksick.
Systematic oppression. Systematic abuse.
I am shaken to my very, very core. 97% of women.
To any girl that reads this and has had it done.. jesus, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry.
The Egyptian government only outlawed it LAST YEAR.
I don't agree with getting boys circumcised and I do not agree with getting girls circumcised. None of this is right. How could you cut off, remove and destroy the healthy flesh of a child?!
I can kind of handle things when the truth is far away and I'm just reading about. Kind of. I am really quite unsure about how to handle the fact that most women I see walking around have had this done to them.
Do they not know the physical and psychological affects of FGM? In effect, it's like being raped.. by your family, strangers and entire community. Girls scream out for their mothers, to find that they are one of the women holding them down....
The medical repercussions are severe. INFERTILITY happens to be one of them. Besides post-operative shock, damage to organs and infection, a woman probably suffers from:
-pain in general
-chronic infection of the bladder
-chronic infection of the vagina
-pain during menstruation
-pain during intercourse
It's not because of Islam. It's a cultural habit. The intensely religious Saudi Arabia and Iran do not have female genital mutilation. Some try to justify it through Islam, but essentially they can't. No one is allowed any bodily modifications through the laws of Islam. The Coptic Christians here practice a very severe form of FGM.
I'm so shaken. I can't believe parents will do this to their child. It's appalling circumcision happens to boys in the United States under sanitary conditions, and it's barbaric that circumcision happens to girls under unsanitary conditions.
How odd that in America, a little under 90% of the men I see everyday have had their genitals modified.
What happens to a little boy:
Medical Procedure
Usually, the procedure for circumcision in America involves the baby being strapped spread-eagle to a plastic board, with his arms and legs immobilized by Velcro straps. A nurse scrubs his genitals with an antiseptic solution and places a surgical drape - with a hole in it to expose his penis - across his body. The doctor grasps the tip of the foreskin with one hemostat and inserts another hemostat between the foreskin and the glans. (In 96 percent of newborns, these two structures are attached to one another by a continuous layer of epithelium, which protects the sensitive glans from urine and feces in infancy and childhood.) The foreskin is then torn from the glans. The hemostat is used to crush an area of the foreskin lengthwise, which prevents bleeding when the doctor cuts through the tissue to enlarge the foreskin opening. This allows insertion of the circumcision instrument. The foreskin is crushed against this device circumferentially and amputated.
Anesthesia was not used to alleviate infant suffering until recently because it was believed that babies do not feel pain. Additionally, it was recognized that anesthesia was risky for the newborn, thus contributing to the medical reluctance to use it for painful procedures on infants, such as circumcision. Currently, some doctors use a dorsal penile nerve block to numb the penis during infant circumcision. While not always effective, this anesthesia may afford some pain relief during the surgery, although it offers no pain relief during the recovery period (which can last up to 14 days) when the baby urinates and defecates into the raw wound.
http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/milos-macris2/ow97% of women here. 88% of men there.
I know the reasons for both sides, and neither are good enough. If you support either of them you do not have the right information, bottom line.
I'm going to be working with a local NGO here very soon to help women affected by this heinous cultural habit. If you are as equally disgusted that it also happens in America, please tell people about it.. especially if they are expecting.
.Candiace
Links on Female Genital Mutilation
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/first/badawi.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/fem_cirm.htm
http://www.state.gov/g/wi/rls/rep/crfgm/10096.htm
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/32/018.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/fem_cirm3.htm
http://www.amirahsvoice.org/about_fgm.html
http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/fgm-prov-m.htm
http://www.feminist.com/violence/spot/fgm.html
Links on Male Genital Mutilation
(& why the foreskin is very important)
The Number of X Chromosomes Should Not Matter - Part One
UNAIDS Needs to Rebuild It's Ethical Framework - Part Two
http://www.cirp.org/library/anatomy/milos-macris2/
http://www.noharmm.org/zoske.htm
The Effect of Male Circumcision on Sexuality
http://www.circumcisionandhiv.com/
You'd think we would know better by now. We have so much growing to do.
One day children will not be abused. One day adults will be healthy. Until then,
the lucky ones who are privileged have the obligation to speak for those who can not
speak for themselves.
We can continue to fight the injustices by not abusing our own children....
posted by Candiace @ 7:32 PM
2 Comments:
Using Google translation as usual:
Chief theme:)
But Islamic circumcision duty Muslim scholars unanimously
In the right and they differed in male and female were met by the right
I am not here to defend circumcision
But I convey the viewpoint of his supporters
They say that circumcision in the countries like Egypt warm cleaner and less sexual desire
They say it reduces sexual desire in females
The female sexual desire when something Muharram
Extremists already:)
I completely agree, it is disgusting - but did you know that FGM is growing rapidly in America due to immigration, especially in big metropolitan cities, its soo ridiculous.
And on top of that, FGM being a right of passage for females makes them obligated to go through it, and if they don't, they aren't considered women by men or older women in their community.
It is so sad, but at the same time, the question is, what can be done about it? Do Americans (who see this as completely barbaric) have the right to force change?
HAHA, I am preaching from the international poli sci class I took last semester.
But I agree, genital mutilation needs to be stopped on all accounts despite race, gender, or age.
But, it is actually cool, I read that young Islamic American boys don't want the girls in their community to go through FGM because they want their future wives to have the opportunity to enjoy sex. So change is occuring for the Americans who go through FGM, but of course, it isn't drastic enough and also not helpful to the women around the world.
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