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Several weeks ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with a revised policy on female genital mutilation in which they suggested doctors be allowed to "nick" girls' clitorises. Today, Ayaan Hirsi Ali responds. More »
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The Tasaru Girls Rescue Center offers a refuge for girls who want to escape a destiny of female circumcision. The Christian Science Monitor reports on a girl named Milicent, whose cousin helped her flee when her mother and grandmother insisted she be circumcised. "In my community, it is difficult for a girl who is not circumcised to get married." She was 13 at the time — she is now 18, and Milicent says, "If I hadn't come here, I would be a mother of two or three children by now. My community should understand, by not getting married early, I can get a better education, and a job to earn money for my family." 38 percent of Kenyan women between the ages of 15 and 19, and more than half of women over the age of 35 have been circumcised, according to the Kenyan Ministry of Health. Though the practice has been banned twice in Kenya, it's hard to regulate, and in some tribes like Kisii and the Masai, over 85% of women are circumcised. [CS Monitor] More »
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On the surface, female circumcision sounds like sexual abuse: it is the removal of a young woman's clitoris practiced by some African cultures as an initiation ritual. While FGC (female genital cutting) has been roundly condemned by many Western women, several African scholars will be arguing in favor of the ritual at the American Anthropological Association's annual meeting. Dr. Fuambai Ahmadu of Sierra Leone, a post doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, is one of the scholars who is pro-FGC, and even had her own clitoris cut with fellow members of the Kono ethnic group as an adult. Ahmadu says that her Western "feminist sisters insist on denying us this critical aspect of becoming a woman in accordance with our unique and powerful cultural heritage." More »
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