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Case Study: FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
- Female Genital Mutilation (or female circumcision) can damage
a woman's reproductive and sexual health.
- Senegal has banned the practice - other governments are looking
to their lead.
Analysis
Human Rights campaigners - and an increasing number of governments
- believe that a woman's right to "life, liberty and security
of person" should protect her from female genital mutilation,
a procedure which normally happens at puberty when she is too young
to give informed consent.
Also known as female circumcision or cutting, FGM
is the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia
or any other deliberate injury to the female genital organs. It
poses serious health risks leading to complications in childbirth
and pain involving the menstrual cycle or with urinating and can
reduce a woman's sexual response.
The procedure is nearly always performed in a non-medical
environment.
Those in favour argue it is a cultural requirement
that has health benefits and makes women more physically beautiful.
In a number of villages, women who have not undergone FGM may find
themselves socially ostracised.
FGM originated in Africa before Islam and, although
common among African muslims, is not an exclusively Islamic practice
and religious leaders remain divided on the subject.
It still occurs in up to 28 countries including
Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Eritrea, Sierra Leone and Sudan. It is illegal
in North America, much of Europe and Senegal and the UN has supported
the right of member states to grant refugee status to women who
fear being mutilated if they are returned to their country of origin.
A number of governments in Africa are looking to
Senegal's lead which is showing that a damaging traditional practice
can be challenged by effective messages on health and human rights.
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