Case Study: “A Question of Compromise”
This is a case study regarding a family in Senegal that follows the Muslim culture. However, unlike most Muslims, they practice the form of female circumcision. The tradition is to have all girls coming of age to be circumcised; otherwise they would be shunned and would never be able to get a husband. The family’s tradition believes that if a girl does not have this procedure done, they will be considered deformed and their clitoris will hang down to their knees. Awa is concerned because she and her husband, Joseph, have two daughters who are coming of age and her mother-in-law is demanding to know why they have not made the arrangements for the girls’ circumcision. Awa’s dilemma is whether or
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Awa’s father took her to a doctor, where anesthesia was used so there was no pain and only the small skin over the clitoris was removed. She is living a normal life, with sexual desires and able to give birth to children. Unfortunately, her husband is being pressured at work and being threatened to lose his job if the procedures are not being done their girls.
Joseph feels that if they talk to people they know to discuss the process of the smaller procedure and they all agree to this procedure with their own daughters, this would be considered acceptable. He would be able to keep his job, his mother would not harass Awa and they would be able to say that their girls have been circumcised.
An Islamic
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Mary Gendler believes that the case study illustrates numerous dialectics and tensions that come from most societies and religions. She had put them in five categories, individual rights vs. group norms, innovation/change vs. tradition, individual conscience vs. submission to religious authority, science vs. superstition and finally, normative tradition vs. local customs (p. 34-5). Gendler mentions that Awa believes the custom is based on superstitions, by the story being told that “the genital will grow long and deformed; that she will have parts of a man; that she will not be able to bear sons; and that girl babies die from touching their male parts at birth” (p. 35). However, Joseph’s mother is following custom and local authority. She also feels that the girls do not need to know the position of the circumciser. And then, Joseph wants to compromise by getting the interest of others in their community to follow the partial circumcision
A woman in the film explains that, she lack of so much information that in the day after the surgery, she was cut and sew with black thread and she said “O my God” what have they cut me. In addition, she mentions that she was a total ignorant, but she feels that she wasn’t forced to do it that she went on her own free will, but if she would have been told of other childbirth methods she would have done it. Also, another woman said that the gynecologist told her that she was going to have the tied tube procedure that consisted of having her Fallopian tubes tied, but she didn’t know it was also
In the Maasai society, genital cutting is a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, and both men and women go through the process of circumcision. As society ages, opinions on cultural norms change. This is true for the Maasai society, where the views on female circumcision have and are changing. Female circumcision is classified into three categories, and defined by the World Health Organization, Type I is the removal of the foreskin on the vagina, Type II is the removal of the clitoris, and Type III is the removal of all external genitalia with the stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening (“New Study”). Traditionally in the Maasai society, women underwent Type II or Type III circumcision. Written in 1988, “The Initiation of a Maasai Warrior,” by Tepilit Ole Saitoi, and is an autobiographical story of Saitoti’s circumcision in his initiation to a warrior. Though his story mainly focuses on the male circumcision part of the Maasai society, women’s circumcision and other basic traditions are discussed. Throughout the short story, the topic of circumcision and the rite of passage, both long- standing traditions in the Maasai society, are central themes.
The women in Nampossela lack the social and economic rights to make many significant decisions about their life. Due to her simultaneous position as an outsider and a member of the group, Holloway becomes an unbiased outlet that Monique and other woman can speak with regarding their difficulties. One such difficulty amongst women in Mali that Holloway discovered was female circumcision. Holloway, prior to her visit to Mali, was aware of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in rural villages. However, the intense birth of Korotun’s daughter causes Holloway to question the reasoning behind the traditional cutting. In response to Holloway’s mention of FGM, Monique explains her painful experience of circumcision at nine or ten and her thoughts on the subject, “Here we say that koloboli helps girls become good wives and bear children…it does not help the baby pass through…”(114). The practice of FGM in Mali occurs often enough that Monique had never met an uncut woman prior to Holloway, whose western background does not practice FGM.
In Althaus’ article, she provides in-depth information about female circumcision; a highly controversial cultural ritual that is practiced in at least 28 countries
Female genital mutilation is mostly practiced in Islamic and African cultures, claiming young girls as t...
Many feminists in the Western Culture have this ethnocentric idea that female circumcision is “female mutilation” portraying it as a “barbaric tradition” and “violence against women” (“Yes to Female Circumcision?”). According to Fuambai Ahmadu, a Sierra Leonean-American anthropologist, female circumcision is an initiation that symbolizes matriarchal power. The practice is “synonymous with women’s power, their political, economic, reproductive, and ritual spheres of influence” (Ahmadu, pg. 14). By having no regards to the cultures and traditions of these small-scale societies, we are invalidating their beliefs and presenting ethnocentric
When parents first discover they are having a baby, there are so many aspects to consider. Who is going to be their doctor, which hospital are they going to deliver at, what are they going to name the baby, and what color should they paint the nursery. Parents that are expecting a male newborn have to decide if they want their baby to be circumcised. For many families, this is an easy decision based on their cultural or religious beliefs. However, for others the right option is not as clear. Over the years, the topic of circumcision has been debated and views have swayed for and against the procedure. Ultimately, the parents must evaluate all the pros and cons and make the decision that aligns best with their thoughts and beliefs. The parent’s decision about the procedure will be influenced by various factors. It is vital that they are educated on the accurate information surrounding the advantages and disadvantages of the circumcision. This paper will evaluate both sides of this controversial issue.
Freedom of choice is a desire for most, but as we are young we depend on the decision of our parents. With this dependent nature of a child the freedom of choice is limited, for males this can lead to a life long consequence. Male circumcision is the surgical removal of the foreskin; the skin covering the head of the penis. Circumcision is practiced for religious purposes in Jewish and Muslim communities. Normally, the boy’s age varies from 4 to 11 years old. In the United States, this procedure is also done but without a religious purpose. The boys in this case are commonly newborn. This practice became popular after medical groups claimed that there were many health benefits that came with circumcision. Though it has been proven otherwise, it is still a common practice in the U.S. fueled by ignorance. Circumcision is an unnecessary surgery that leads to psychological problems, issues with sexual activities and lasting physical damage.
Certainly, in the United States (and much of the Western world), female circumcision is illegal; however, male circumcision is utterly legal. In fact, in 2007, the Center for Disease Control reported that almost eighty percent of men in the United States were circumcised (Morris): legally, zero percent were females. Yet, several nations, where the culture is absolutely polar from the West, have prohibited male circumcision (Evans). The predominant factor, of course. The ideologies of culture make the laws, including morals; thus, these laws represent each region’s civilization, morals, and culture. Again, doctors must conform—this time to the law, not the parent. So, any decision doctors make, regarding circumcision, is due to cultural restrictions and their own
Circumcision, a rather uncomfortable, and unspoken tradition in American society. Yet, every day thousands of parents are choosing to cut off a perfectly good part of their child's body for what reason exactly? No one really talks about it, so no one really knows, and from this silence has grown decades of myths based on ignorance and shame. Today, America has taken circumcision and turned it into such a popular tradition that nearly 85% of men are currently cut. There is no reason for this number to be so high though, as most of America is not Jewish, or Islamic, the two major religions that still practice circumcision, and most medical, and ethical communities frown on this practice. This tradition
Unlike male circumcisions which were practice for religious purposes, female circumcision is done for social convention and is practiced as a way to prepare girls for marriage, as well as conform to societal norms of femininity. Female circumcisions are often motivated by what would be considered proper female behavior and as a way to promote virginity as well as cause pain during intercourse to uphold these beliefs. Much like male circumcision these societal beliefs about sex and purity, have affected these cultures in their convictions that circumcision must be performed to be pure and free of
Female genital mutilation (also known as female circumcision) is the cutting of female clitoral hood and removing clitoris. Following the cutting of female genital organ, there are many short-term and long-term health risk problems, and even death due to some complicated infections. The reasons for performing female genital mutilation are connected with socio-cultural beliefs, attitudes, values and customs, transition of girls into womanhood, tradition and cultural heritage, the fear of not having access to resources and opportunities as a young woman, perception to reduce sexual desire of females; hence, will sustain premarital virginity, and maintain marital fidelity. Actions have taken at international, national and regional levels since the past many years and have begun to bear fruits, but the practice is still undergoing in many countries in the world and highly prevalent in Africa. To continue and motivate further reduction in changing the society’s attitudes towards female genital mutilation in the countries where the prevalence has remained stable so it’s therefor...
Rites of passage, specifically circumcision, are the focus of study for multiple theorists. Circumcision as a ritual of passage encompasses various theories on the function of these ritualistic passages. Arnold Van Gennep, Vincent Crapanzano, and Victor Turner each approach the ritual of circumcisions’ function differently, specifically they question whether the ritual can be considered in stages.
In Searching for “Voices”: Feminism, Anthropology, and the Global Debates over Female Genital Operations, Walley discusses the social issues concerning female genital operations as perceived by “westerners”, as well as discusses her ethnographic account of female circumcision. Her main purpose of doing this was to lay the groundwork for “a more productive feminist and anthropological debate” capable of going beyond the binary terms in which female circumcisions are usually discussed. Since female circumcisions are known by a variety of names, such as female genital mutilation and female genital torture, and with her understanding of the negative connotation often associated with those varieties of names, Walley makes the decision to adopt the term female genital operations instead. In 1988, Walley went in the village of KiKhome, in western Kenya as an English teacher and immersed herself in the lives of the people living around the village to better understand the practice of female genital operations as an outsider. One day, some of her students invited her to assist at a female genital operation ceremony. She found out that the participants see circumcision as a rite of passage into adulthood. However, she truly wanted to know the participants’ personal views on the topic rather than the imposed views of their parents and their culture. The four women she interviewed told her that “their custom was good,” and it was something that a person needs to accept with her whole being not to feel the pain. Nevertheless, some of the women told her that they would not want their daughters to undergo circumcision, and that they themselves regretted having done the procedure. Walley finally gave up “searching for real voices,” because what t...
Many question whether female circumcision (FGM, genital cutting, etc.) is a form of abuse, is it a humane and morally acceptable practice and how can we fix this horrendous practice? These assumptive thoughts are typically made through the eyes of outsiders, female circumcision is many things and must be looked at through such a lens. Despite, all of this female circumcision is still framed very commonly between these three views, female circumcision is abuse, is a result of patriarchal societies, and is a cultural and religious practice.