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Circumcision affects 15.3 million children and young adults annually. In terms of gender, 13.3 million boys and 2 million girls are subjected to the involuntary removal of part or all of their external sexual organs every year. The problem of female circumcision has been addressed on an international level, but male circumcision remains a controversial subject that many academics have been reluctant to examine. Circumcision is tolerated today because it has been practiced for millennia by a small but vocal minority of religious and ethnic groups, however, when the practice is examined through the lens of modern legal, ethical, and human rights advancements, no place remains in civilized society for this body-altering ritual. In Genital Autonomy: Protecting Personal Choice, international experts address various types of genital modifications, the impact of these harmful traditional practices on the child, on human rights, and on the development of the concept of bodily integrity. The papers presented in this volume address these topics from a variety of angles. They question and dissects the true motivations of the doctors, witch doctors, and “holy men” who promote and profit from circumcision.

This open access illustrated guide focuses on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in children and adolescents. FGM/C comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or injury to the female genital organs for nonmedical reasons. It is mainly carried out during childhood, before the age of 15. The signs of FGM/C can be subtle, and the examiner must be trained with a wide range of normal genitalia both before and after puberty, FGM/C types and subtypes, complications and differential diagnosis. This volume is a reference containing iconographic material of both pre and post pubertal genitals with and without genital cutting. This book will guide health care professionals in making the correct diagnosis, outline the clinical management, enhance patient–provider communication, and will enable accurate recording and reporting to governments where required.

Three million girls across the world are at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) each year. When Ann-Marie Wilson met a girl named Fatima in West Darfur, who had experienced FGM at the age of five and was pregnant by the age of ten, she knew she had to do something. Her life's work since then has been geared toward speaking out against FGM, as well as supporting the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of as many survivors as possible. Built on the experience of more than 3,000 FGM survivors'stories as well as meetings with heads of state and the Pope, Overcoming tells the compelling story of how Ann-Marie leaned on her Christian faith through her darkest moments to build 28 Too Many. This international organisation offers hope to the millions of girls who, just like Fatima, are at risk of FGM each year.

In the West, a specific ideal for female genitalia has emerged: one of absence, a'clean slit,'attained through the removal of pubic hair and, increasingly, through female genital cosmetic surgery known as FGCS.In The Perfect Vagina: Cosmetic Surgery in the Twenty-First Century, Lindy McDougall provides an ethnographic account of women who choose FGCS in Australia and the physicians who perform these procedures, both in Australia and globally, while also examining the environment in which surgeons and women come together. Physicians have a vested interest in establishing this surgery as valid medical intervention, despite majority medical opinion explicitly acknowledging that a wide range of genital variation is normal. McDougall offers a nuanced picture of why and how these procedures are performed and draws parallels between FGCS and anthropological discussions of female genital circumcision (cutting). Using the neologism biomagical, she argues that cosmetic surgery functions as both ritual and sacrifice due to its promise of transformation while simultaneously submitting the body to the risks and pain of surgery, thus exposing biomedicine as an increasingly cultural and commercial pursuit.The Perfect Vagina highlights the complexities involved with FGCS, its role in Western beauty culture, and the creation and control of body image in countries where self-care is valorized and medicine is increasingly harnessed for enhancement as well as health.

In seiner ethnographischen Studie analysiert Mathis Danelzik die strategischen und ethischen Herausforderungen von Kampagnen gegen die Praktiken der Genitalverstümmelung. Er zeigt auf, dass solche Kampagnen zum Aushandlungsort komplexer und tiefgreifender sozio-kultureller Veränderung werden, was vielfältige Konflikte hervorbringt. Dabei wird deutlich, das sich mit dem heute dominanten Ideal kulturell sensibler Kampagnen nicht nur Hoffnungen und erste Erfolge verbinden, sondern dieses auch weite Teile der Kampagnenpraxis und die damit verbundenen Konflikte überdeckt. Der Autor entwickelt eine alternative kulturorientierte, kommunikationssoziologische und machtsensible Perspektive auf Kampagnen und entfaltet diese anhand von vier tansanischen Fallbeispielen.

To the Western eye, there is something jarringly incongruous, even shocking, about the image of a six-year-old girl being held down by loving relatives so that her genitals can be cut. Yet two million girls experience this each year. Most Westerners, upon learning of the practice of female circumcision, have responded with outrage; those committed to improving the status of women have gone beyond outrage to action by creating various programs for'eradicating'the practice. But few understand the real life complexities families face in deciding whether to follow the traditional practices or to take the risk of change.In The Female Circumcision Controversy, Ellen Gruenbaum points out that Western outrage and Western efforts to stop genital mutilation often provoke a strong backlash from people in the countries where the practice is common. She looks at the validity of Western arguments against the practice. In doing so, she explores both outsider and insider perspectives on female circumcision, concentrating particularly on the complex attitudes of the individuals and groups who practice it and on indigenous efforts to end it. Gruenbaum finds that the criticisms of outsiders are frequently simplistic and fail to appreciate the diversity of cultural contexts, the complex meanings, and the conflicting responses to change.Drawing on over five years of fieldwork in Sudan, where the most severe forms of genital surgery are common, Gruenbaum shows that the practices of female circumcision are deeply embedded in Sudanese cultural traditions—in religious, moral, and aesthetic values, and in ideas about class, ethnicity, and gender. Her research illuminates both the resistance to and the acceptance of change. She shows that change is occurring as the result of economic and social developments, the influences of Islamic activists, the work of Sudanese health educators, and the efforts of educated African women. That does not mean that there is no role for outsiders, Gruenbaum asserts, and she offers suggestions for those who wish to help facilitate change.By presenting specific cultural contexts and human experiences with a deep knowledge of the tremendous variation of the practice and meaning of female circumcision, Gruenbaum provides an insightful analysis of the process of changing this complex, highly debated practice.

Die Auseinandersetzungen um Universalismus und Kulturrelativismus weisen eine lange und kontroverse Geschichte auf. Janne Mende nimmt die Spezifika beider Seiten in den Blick und eröffnet damit eine Verhältnisbestimmung, die weder einen Zugang hypostasiert noch das gesamte Feld verlässt. Entlang inhaltlicher und moralphilosophischer Dimensionen konturiert sie die Konzepte in ihrer Vermitteltheit und verdeutlicht anhand der Praxis der Genitalverstümmelung die Stärken einer reflexiven Sozialwissenschaft: Eine solche kann sich jenseits von relativistischer Gleichgültigkeit und universalistischer Dominanz verorten und sich kontextsensibel an der unhintergehbaren Forderung orientieren, Leiden zu vermindern.

This book comprehensively examines the practice of female genital mutilation and proposes new intervention programs and community-based initiatives that protect the rights of children and women who live with the serious risks and long-term consequences of the practice.Why is FGM on the increase in industrialized countries in spite of existing policies against the practice? How is political correctness contributing to this increase? And how does religion contribute implicitly or explicitly to the persistence of FGM? This work is authored by a Kenyan immigrant to the United States who recognizes the necessity of better protection of women's rights regarding FGM in first-world nations and the need for these countries to recognize this issue as a serious challenge to values and health services. The book provides complete information about the practice of female genital cutting, explaining its origin, identifying the countries where this practice is common, and documenting the rise of FGM in industrialized nations. The second half of the book examines existing intervention programs with the goal of improving the situation by way of transforming policies, addressing the legal aspects of the issue, and improving health care services. A powerful resource for college and university level students in the humanities, social science, and medical fields, this book will also serve general readers with interest in examining challenges women grapple with internationally.

Chapter 1 - Female Reproductive System (Human) Chapter 2 - Oophorectomy Chapter 3 - Salpingectomy and Tubal Ligation Chapter 4 - Essure and Tubal Reversal Chapter 5 - Hysterectomy Chapter 6 - Pelvic Exenteration and Uterine Artery Embolization Chapter 7 - Hysterosalpingography and Hysteroscopy Chapter 8 - Vacuum Aspiration Chapter 9 - Endometrial Ablation and Myomectomy Chapter 10 - Cervical Cerclage, Vaginectomy and Vulvectomy Chapter 11 - Pap Test Chapter 12 - Female Genital Cutting

Is the practice of FGM on the rise in the UK and US? Why? What happens to religious and cultural traditions when they are taken from their context into a new, often secular, state? Women, Violence and Tradition is a fascinating look into the life histories of women from ethnic minority communities in the West, focusing specifically on their experiences of under-researched cultural practices. The book gives close insight into how ethnic minority women today navigate between their religious and cultural traditions and the secular state in which they live. The volume illuminates areas of tension and difficulty when some women actively try to reform aspects of their tradition whilst remaining furiously loyal to their cultural identity. Other examples highlight how young women are choosing to endorse traditional practices, seeing this as an important way of demonstrating the legitimacy of their religion and culture in the face of increasing hostility. This brave and original book tackles the sensitive and controversial issue of female genital mutilation, as well as surveying changing attitudes and practices around marriage and divorce. Using a cross-cultural perspective the book draws on the views of activists and community organisations who work with women to confront injustice.

Female'circumcision'or, more precisely, female genital cutting (FGC), remains an important cultural practice in many African countries, often serving as a coming-of-age ritual. It is also a practice that has generated international dispute and continues to be at the center of debates over women's rights, the limits of cultural pluralism, the balance of power between local cultures, international human rights, and feminist activism. In our increasingly globalized world, these practices have also begun immigrating to other nations, where transnational complexities vex debates about how to resolve the issue. Bringing together thirteen essays, Transcultural Bodies provides an ethnographically rich exploration of FGC among African diasporas in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. Contributors analyze changes in ideologies of gender and sexuality in immigrant communities, the frequent marginalization of African women's voices in debates over FGC, and controversies over legislation restricting the practice in immigrant populations.

This volume offers feminist perspectives on the social, cultural and medical aspects of women as sexual beings and of their fertility, pregnancy and child bearing. It serves as a companion to'Advances in Gender Research volume 7, Gender perspectives on Health and Medicine: Key Themes'. As in the previous volume, the authors critique and transcend conventional biomedical approaches to the subject matter. The seven essays raise questions about control and agency asking who decides if, when and how fertility should be controlled and the circumstances under which child birth takes place. They address decision-making on multiple levels from the individual to the national and transnational and grapple with such controversial matters as genital cutting, self-help menstrual extraction and direct-entry midwifery. They interrogate the policies and practices of states and transnational agencies that have a bearing on sexuality and reproductive health, the ways in which womens genitalia have been objectified and manipulated by practices that purport to be both traditional and modern, and the motivations of those who provide alternative forms of fertility control and birthing methods. The intended audience is the social science community, especially those who are interested in the study of gender, sexuality and reproductive health, medicine and alternative medicine, and the areas where these interface.

Cet ouvrage présente le débat religieux, médical, social et juridique chez les juifs, les chrétiens et les musulmans dans le domaine de la circoncision masculine et féminine. Résolument engagé en faveur de l'abolition de ces deux pratiques, l'auteur ne manque pas néanmoins de faire ressortir les opinions divergentes. Il récuse la langue de bois et opte pour des positions franches au risque de choquer et d'en irriter plus d'un.