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.
Female genital mutilation : Studies on primary and repeat female genital cutting
iii LIST OF PUBLICATIONS v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi ABBREVIATIONS viii DEFINITIONS viii LIST OF CONTENTS ix
Special needs of ritually circumcised women patients.
Female circumcision is a custom that affects many women who live north of the equator in Africa. Health-care practitioners in the United States may not have access to the information necessary to ensure that these women obtain optimum health care that is medically and culturally appropriate while they are in this country. This article describes the practice of female circumcision. It discusses urinary, gynecologic, and obstetric complications and includes a Sudanese physician's protocol recommended to avoid tearing during the delivery of a neonate. Health and social concerns are shared from the perspectives of circumcised women. The authors offer suggestions to assist health-care practitioners in providing culturally sensitive health-care services.