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From: sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.africa
Subject: Re: Women Circumcision
Message-ID: <1763@mnetor.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Aug-85 15:37:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: mnetor.1763
Posted: Thu Aug  8 15:37:45 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Aug-85 17:27:54 EDT
References: <343@link.UUCP>
Reply-To: sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley)
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Organization: Computer X (CANADA) Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 51

For anybody interested in the subject of female circumcision, I
recommend "The Hidden face or Eve" by Nawal El-Sadaawi (I hope I
spelled her name correctly).  The author used to be the minister
of health in Egypt, was clitorectomised herself when she was a
child, and is strongly against the procedure.  

In article <343@link.UUCP> aaa@link.UUCP (Wale Akinpelu) writes:
>There is a strong debate going on in Kenya to stop women
>circumcision. The proponent of this debate raised the
>issue of infection and pain at the affected part of the
>body.
>
>The issues mentioned above are new to me. Can somebody
>educate me on this?  I have seen many women going through the
>simple procedure before and I have never heard anybody
>complaint before. As far as I know, the simple operation
>could be performed in any local clinic with sterilized
>surgical instruments.
>
I am not sure what it is that you have seen, but the procedure
is usually performed on little girls by women when there are
no men around.  In most cases, the operation is not performed
under sterile conditions and the patient is usually not willing.

In a few words, the procedure consists in the partial or total
(depending on the region of the world) removal of the clitoris
of the child.  In some regions of the world, infibulation is
also performed as well.  I am not too sure of the technical
details of this (I suppose they vary from region to region)
but the main idea of infibulation is to scrape the girl's vulvic
lips and press them together so that the scar tissue closes off most
of the vagina (a hole is left for menstrual blood to go through).
Infibulation insures the virginity of little girls until their
wedding night simply by turning intercourse into a torture (yes,
the vagina has to be ripped or cut open).

>There is the believe that women who are not circumcised
>would not be faithful to there husbands. That is, they
>would always be running after men. While I do nor see
>anything wrong in women running after men, I am afraid,
>men would not marry them.
>
Well, in some countries like Egypt clitorectomies are performed
less and less.  Women still manage to get married.  Clitorectomies
do not decrease sexual desire in women.  It simply decreases the
enjoyment of sex for them.

>Wale Akinpelu
-- 
Sophie Quigley
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