to all available sources, because of the importance and value they attach to virginity. Infibulation is performed to guarantee that a bride is intact - the smaller her opening, the higher the bride price. A girl is often inspected by the female relatives of the husband-to-be before the bride price is paid. The bride price, whereby the husband or his father pays the father of the girl a considerable sum in cash or kind, is still a marriage requirement almost everywhere in Africa and the Middle East.

Infibulation may also occur spontaneously by adherence of the wounded sides of the labia, especially where extensive excision operations are performed. For instance, in parts of Mali and Burkina Faso as well as other areas of West Africa.

Women who are infibulated haveto be cut open to allow sexual intercourse and more cuts are needed for delivery of a child Wives, traditionally, are re-infibulated, for instance in the Sudan, after the baby is born; and when the child is weaned, they are opened again for intercourse. During her reproductive life, a woman used to go through this process with each child; and in some areas it still continues today.

In West Africa, infibulation is usually not done by sewing or other fastening devices; but, by tying the legs of the girl together (after the operation) in a crossed position, the same results are achieved. On a visit to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 1977, while I was at the maternity hospital, a woman in labor with her first child was brought in;