make her acceptable to a man.

Hypertrophy of the clitoris - by which is meant an unusual enlargement of the organ - is cited as reason for excision in Ethiopia and also in parts of Nigeria. The Catholic Church has sanctioned the genital mutilation of all female children of its converts on those grounds since the 17th Century when the Pope sent a medical mission to Ethiopia.

Health reasons are often cited, especially in urban areas where the traditional myths are forgotten. Cleanliness is the reason given also by middle class women in areas as far apart as Cairo and Bamako.

Also, in Sudan, genital mutilations are connected with cleanliness and is called "Tahur," which in Arabic means purity. A woman is considered dirty and polluted unless she is mutilation. Theno requirement for female genital mutilation in the Koran. Male circumcision, however, is an absolute command.

Excision and infibulation are practiced by Christians of all denominations. As stated earlier, the Papacy of the Roman Catholic Church has officially supported the genital mutilations every since a medical mission was sent from Rome to Ethiopia in the 18th Century which declared that genital mutilations are "necessary."

The followers of the Ethiopian Christian Church and the Copts in Egypt (more than seven million adherents) have always mutilated the genitals of their female children. Indeed, all religions (with the exception of the Scottish Protestant Church in Kenya in the 1920s) have actively supported or tolerated the mutilation of girls to make the pliable subjects of the dominant patriarchal community that vests all rights in