Rethinking Feminist Discourses on Female Genital Mutilation: The Case of the Sudan
Female genital mutilation (FGM) as a violation ofthe human rights ofyoung girls and women, is a subject that in recent years has been under serious scrutiny by the media and the medical community, as well as by feminist scholars. In the United States the practice of female infibulation was brought to the scene by the case of a Nigerian migrant who appealed her deportation order on the grounds of her well founded fear of human rights violations upon returning home. This migrant argued that her daughters would be forced to undergo circumcision or infibulation if they were to return to their village of origin in Nigeria. As a corollary, a new legislation was introduced by Congresswoman Barbara Schroder to prohibit the practice especially among immigrants who thrive to keep it alive in the diaspora. While this article is not intended as a detailed or exhaustive account on feminist work on female genital mutilation, it is in cssence an attempt to provide an alternative approach to studies that fail to capture the reality of why this practice persists. Beyond stressing exotic cultural otherness, and by addressing how the practice curbs women's sexual pleasure, feminist representational discourses tend (with some exceptions) to ignore the contextuality of the forces within society that pertain to, and regulate female sexuality. By emphasizing the implications and barbarity of the excision of women's genitals on their sexual satisfiction, these studies constantly distance themselves from the socio-political and economic contexts ofwider violations ofwomen's rights.
Interpreting Female Genital Cutting: Moving beyond the Impasse
Abstract Female genital cutting has been practiced in many parts of the world but is now most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa. Particularly in the last half-century, genital cutting ceremonies have attracted significant scientific and media attention. I review some of the most frequently referenced interpretations of female genital cutting and suggest that ways of explaining such practices are limited. I indicate that the study of genital cutting practices is at an impasse—with absolutists arguing that intervention to stop the procedure is required and relativists asserting that outsiders have either no right or no ability to impose such change upon others. Data from fieldwork conducted among the Sara, an ethnic group from the south of Chad, highlight the diversity in genital cutting ceremonies that is not currently represented in the literature or acknowledged in popular discourse. Some of the Sara subgroups have only recently adopted female genital cutting. Young girls have been at the forefront of this movement, and parents, village elders, and religious and traditional leaders have been vehement opponents. The usual explanatory concepts—religion, tradition, patriarchy—are not referenced in participants' descriptions of their reasons for undergoing the procedure. Strategies for approaching the study of female genital cutting are presented as ways to bring fresh perspectives to the literature and to move discussion of female genital cutting beyond the current impasse.
Women's choice in the gender and ethnicity of her obstetrician and gynaecologist
Objective: To ascertain women's preferences in the gender and ethnicity of her obstetrician or gynaecologist and to determine whether there were differences in preferences among different ethnic and age groups.