Reading response - Essay Example

It is a Choice The circumcision of women has been referred to as female genital mutilation (FGM) for many years. However, this seems to have been the effort of pressure groups, especially from the Western world, to coerce African countries to ban the custom. As provided by Fuambai’s interview, female circumcision is not perceived as mutilation in most African cultures, but rather a significant transition symbol giving girls the highly esteemed status of womanhood. The reading exposed the other side of the practice that the pressure groups have always avoided making known. Having been circumcised herself, and by every means an informed person, Fuambai cites research examples that found no fault with the practice. This paper will analyze the reading and why female circumcision is not bad after all, but rather, a positive and highly held custom by those who practice it, in a different land than the pressure groups against it. Fuambai starts her interview by saying she shared a video of the celebrations during her initiation, in which people spoke highly of it. Although some may view it as a submission to male dominance, the participating women were clearly in it because they drew some significance from it. I believe that simply because not all cultures share the same values, some should not be viewed as primitive. The African cultures especially those of the Mande people, believe in the symbolic transitioning of girls into responsible women. To them, the cut signifies the preparedness of girls to become leaders, wives and mothers. Physically, just like the foreskin covering the penis is removed in male circumcision, the same is done in female circumcision, symbolizing feminization of the girls. If the foreskin that serves no purpose can safely be removed, what would make female circumcision a greater evil than male circumcision? I find it discriminatory that there is not as much literature against cosmetic genital surgery undertaken by women in the Western world as there is against female circumcision in African cultures. Further, Fuambai uses aesthetic and hygienic arguments to dispute claims that female circumcision is a mutilation. I agree with her that there is a problem in the way the practice is presented to the world, with most available literature not stressing on the true causes of birth complications associated with the practice. Although complications are reported, she points out that they do not result from the act of circumcision, but rather the stigma that goes hand in hand with it. Pregnant, circumcised women are reluctant to seek pre natal care because of fear of the way they will be handled by the healthcare providers once they find out they are circumcised. The healthcare providers also lack proper knowledge of the circumcised women’s bodies. I agree with the research carried out in Gambia that concluded that infertility is not rampant among circumcised women. In fact, the rate stood at 10 percent for both circumcised and uncircumcised women. In my opinion, it stands out wrong when such statistics are not made known to the people in the same manner as those that portray the practice in bad light. In a bid to balance the candidates and conductors of the numerous researches carried out, the reading cites one done in Sweden by a Swedish obstetrician. It concluded that no connection was found between prolonged or obstructed labor and circumcision, or genital surgery. On the contrary, the research established that circumcised women bore less risks of complicated birth in comparison with Swedish women who were not circumcised. In this light, I think the pressure groups against female circumcision ought to give more credible reasons and evidence of prolonged or obstructed labor. Arguments against female circumcision have branded it as a means to deny women sexual feelings, desires and enjoyment. Many have likened it to chopping off a man’s penis. I do not believe that this argument presents a strong case because, as stated in the reading, researches investigating male and female sexual feelings are rare in the actual societies that genital surgeries are practiced. Without proper research, the reports may not authoritatively state that circumcised women do not enjoy sex. To contradict such reports, the reading cites a well known activist against FGM. The activist conducted a research on sexual enjoyment by circumcised women for five years. To her own surprise, 94 percent of them confirmed to attaining sexual satisfaction, and most of them had sex at least three times a week. I think that her own findings, as an anti FGM activist, should enlighten her on what the women themselves think and want about their own bodies as far as sexuality is concerned. Sexual enjoyment is an art taught to the women, and men too, during the initiation period by elder members of the society. Even in the aspect of African women being subjugated to their men and having no authority over their own sexuality, how else would the anti FGM activists explain the fact that 94 percent of subjugated women enjoy sex not less than three times a week with the same men supposedly oppressing them? On hygienic grounds, the reading provides that the foreskin harbors bacteria whose accumulation is prone to infections, odorous and cumbersome to keep clean. I do not think any person conscious of their own grooming would want to live with that. Removal of the foreskin takes care of this problem permanently. It eliminates the chances of painful adhesion when cleaning is not properly done. I consider it an unfair bias when people are not taught about such hygiene benefits associated with female circumcision. Any mother would want the best for her daughter, and having gone through the ritual themselves, it is only rational that they encourage their daughters to uphold culture. In conclusion, I think it is time pressure groups against female circumcision understood that there is a positive side to circumcising women, only that it is a culture practiced by societies other than their own. The stereotype mentality needs to be done away with. Do they not have their own cultures too? Just like the reading states, Fuambai does not brand Western women as unclean because they do not circumcise; it is just not their culture. Yet, advocates of female circumcision are not as vocal about fighting foreign cultures in the same way theirs are always under scrutiny. With all the medical and anthropological researches conducted, should the findings not confirm that female circumcision is more of a genital modification aimed at upholding the identity of a people? Works Cited Ahmadu, Fuambai. Interview by Ruchard A. Schweder. Disputing the Myth of the Sexual Dysfunction of Circumcised Women. 2009. Web. . Read More