[Disclaimer: I am an outspoken critic of all forms of genital mutilation (male circumcision, body modification, gender assignment, &c.) unless voluntary, which, in my mind, is predicated upon the mutilatee being an adult at the time of the mutilation.]
Female genital mutilation (“FGM”) is one of the most horrendous forms of enforced female submission. It is practiced in certain cultures on female children girls; often on infants. , all of which should cause your stomach to turn: clitorectomy (yes, that’s complete or partial removal of the clitoris), removal of the clitoral hood (which is “likened” to male circumcision), removal of the labia, and the sewing shut of the external vaginal opening, either with or without prior removal of the labia.
It is done for “cultural or religious reasons” and to ensure that women do not experience pleasure during sex (specifically sex with men they’re not supposed to be having sex with, but if it happens that sex with the legal husband is also unpleasant, well she’s just a woman). In many cases, it also increases pain and complications resulting from childbirth. It is often done by family members or midwifes without anesthesia or sharp tools (this is a consequence, in some areas, of the fact that it is illegal, so professional circumcisers are rare or in hiding). It continues in many areas where it is illegal because there continues to be social cache to having a wife (or daughter, which means potential wife for someone else) who has been mutilated. Otherwise loving parents who perform or seek to have this mutilation performed upon their children are doing it for those reasons. Because of the primitive ways in which it is often performed, it often results in serious consequences (I mean outside the intended consequences), including inability to have children and death.
This barbarism (I refuse to call it a “practice”) has been illegal in the United States since 1996 (which makes me wonder what took us so long), but the American Academy of Pediatrics has recently decided that girls do not suffer enough in our society and has obligingly decided to start performing “a ritual nick” to a child’s genitals “to satisfy cultural requirements”. Which makes me wonder if law enforcement should practice “a ritual beating” “to satisfy cultural requirements” where otherwise a family might carry out an honor killing instead. Yes, it’s not quite as bad, but it’s still perpetuating violence, specifically violence against women, specifically domestic violence against women.
I cannot believe that the AAP is being complicit in the ongoing subjugation of women by mutilating defenseless children—oh, but only at the request of their parents. Do they think this will make home-mutilation more rare? Is “a ritual nick” going to satisfy the parents who think their daughters vagina should be sewn shut? Or are pediatricians going to be pressured into using their sterile equipment to perform more “satisf[actory] cultural” procedures: “You’ll do a ritual nick, but you won’t cut the whole thing off? Why draw that arbitrary line? If you don’t, I’ll just do it at home with a kitchen knife.”
We need to change the culture of violence against women, not pander to it. We no longer abide by the (likely apocryphal) “rule of thumb“—that a woman can be beaten by her husband so long as the rod used is no larger around than his thumb—because that’s barbaric. We do not allow families to murder their daughters because they want a divorce—because that’s barbaric. We used to not allow families to mutilate their own children without reprisals, but now we’re going to sanction it—as long as it’s done by a medical professional. This is a step in the wrong direction.
Take Action
Please write to the American Academy of Pediatrics asking it to retract the portions of the AAP Statement that in effect promote changes in US federal and state laws to enable physicians to “nick” girls’ genitalia. Urge the Academy to abide by the principles of gender equality in its practice and to recognize that human rights are universal and indivisible. TAKE ACTION!
Letters should go to:
Errol R. Alden, M.D. FAAP
Executive Director/CEO, American Academy of Pediatrics
141 Northwest Point Blvd
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007-1019
Phone: +1 847 434 7500
Fax: +1 847 434 8385
Email: ealden@aap.org
Please send copies of your letters to the American Board of Medical Specialties and the American Board of Pediatrics at the addresses listed below:
Kevin B. Weiss, M.D., MPH
President and CEO, American Board of Medical Specialties
222 North LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: +1 312 436 2600
Fax: +1 312 436 2700
Email: kweiss@abms.org
Alan R. Cohen, M.D.
Chair, The American Board of Pediatrics
111 Silver Cedar Court
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Phone: +1 919 929 0461
Fax: +1 919 913 2070
Email: abpeds@abpeds.org
Please also ask your own doctor to take action on this issue.
Sample letter
The above was copied and pasted from Equality Now’s Action Alert about this issue.
via Feministing.
