“I was dragged to a fence covered in leaves, and they took the blindfold off. I could see the other girls bleeding and sobbing in pain. I saw an old woman holding a knife so sharp I could see the drops of blood sliding down the edge. It was the blood of the other girls. Three other women were holding down my arms and legs, and another was sitting right on my chest, covering my mouth. They try to put pressure on you, so you don 't cry for the next girl to hear. I can still feel the weight of her today. I can still visualize all their faces as I talk about this. I can see what each one of them looks like and the emotions that they had — so empty, like they didn 't see me as a human being.The cutting happens very fast. What the cutter does is …show more content…
It is generally performed with a sharp object like a knife or razor. It is extremely painful and performed without any anesthetics. FGM can cause severe scarring, chronic pelvic infection, urinary problems, kidney failure, and sometimes infertility. If you are able to conceive a child, child birth is very painful and can even result in the death of the mother during labor. FGM may be done in order to ‘cleanse’ a girl, in the belief that it is more hygienic and will stop unpleasant genital secretions and odours as the child develops to maturity, or may also be done for an early marker of belonging to a particular group, perhaps carried out when the child is only a few days or weeks old. ("What Is Female Genital Mutilation? Why Does It Occur? What Are Its Health And Wellbeing Impacts?”) “FGM is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. It is nearly always carried out on minors and is a violation of the rights of children. The practice also violates a person 's rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.” ("Female Genital Mutilation”) But yet it is …show more content…
In many cases they are a form of gender based violence, perhaps because a young girl or woman spurned sexual advances or rejected a marriage proposal.("Acid Throwing”) Acid throwing is violence towards women,which is violating the UDHR. Violence against women is any act of violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women. It also includes threats with such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. ("Human Rights Violations Against Women: Acid Attacks in Bangladesh - Center On Rights Development”) Acid throwing results in lifelong bodily disfigurement. Many women lose their eyes and their face will be scarred beyond
I placed the knife on the table and turned around, pinning my gaze inside the plastic wrapped room that I had carefully prepared. An agonized face glared back at me, blue eyes burned beneath the black eyebrows. “What the hell is this?” I carelessly studied the forehead which tightened and twitched with tension and my gaze wandered off to his left cheek. “This... is the moment of truth.” I replied to his cry with ease. He was breathing heavily. Oh, this felt so good. It has been a very long time since I let my dark passenger come out to play. Thirty-eight days, sixteen hours, and twelve minutes to be precise, Trinity has kept me occupied long enough. Then I sliced his left cheek to take my blood slide.
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.
Descriptions of ritual circumcision span across cultures, and have been described in ancient Egyptian texts as well as the Old Testament. With this being said, “The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that circumcision has potential medical benefits and advantages, as well as risks. Evaluation of current evidence indicates that the health benefits of newborn male circumcision outweigh the risks and that the procedure's benefits justify access to this procedure for families who choose it, however, existing scientific evidence is not sufficient to recommend routine circumcision.” (n.d.).
But, I will argue that rather than obliterating thought and language, pain adds to them and the trauma that is born out of physical and psychological violence produces a new epistemology about one’s own agency and will. As Dana, the protagonist, is born a few generations removed from institutionalized slavery, her epistemology revolves around who she is as a woman who has never been completely stripped of her agency and will. However, through her journey, she becomes aware that she is bifurcated – not only as a woman living in two times, but also as person who is both black and a woman and of black and white histories – which necessitates a clash between who she is as a free woman in the 1970’s and who she has to be as a slave in the early 1800’s, before melding into a singular self. This singular self has a new awareness of the importance of having the knowledge of self to know that she has to consciously fight against objectification and that once that mentality is shed she has to have the will to reclaim her stolen agency. As she becomes unified, the new knowledge of herself includes who she is as a not only a descendent of slavery, but also what that entails. She has recieved an intimate knowledge of what it meant to be a slave, what it meant to be unable to dictate what one does with her body, and the problem of slaves being illiterate and unable to pass on these stories on their own. By experiencing the violence and trauma, Dana is unable to remain willfully ignorant, and is forced to confront the realities of not just her own families past, but the pasts of the people who surrounded and were connected to her family, who were not only other black slaves, but also the white people who upheld the
Female genital cutting is often termed as female genital circumcision or female genital mutilation. This includes partial or complete removal of external female genitalia for non-medical reasons (WHO). Woman who undergo this procedure generally range from the ages five to fifteen years old. This process is known to have no actual health benefits however; it is practiced la...
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is an ancient traditional non-therapeutic surgical procedure that involves total or partial removal of the external parts of female genitalia. This paper aimed to define and classify FGM, identifies the prevalence, describes reasons for performing the practice, and concentrates on the problems associated to this practice with regard to women’s health, religious beliefs, and socio-cultural, behavioral and moral consequences. Researches and survey reports that the global actions have been taken to reduce or abolish the prevalence of the practice will be assessed.
2. FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION: AN INTRODUCTION. National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers FGM Awareness and Education Project. Box 2512 San Anselmo, CA 94979
knew what would happen to her the day her mother called her out of her
For starters, and I’m not sure if they missed this in health class or something but, women don’t have foreskins at any point in their lives. Secondly circumcision is done for health (reducing the rate of infant UTI’s, may lower the chance or penile cancer, and could offer more protection against STD’s, notably HIV and AIDS) and religious reasons. This is not something done just to hurt boys, there are legitimate reasons for it that biologically don’t apply to women. Also parents have the right to refuse circumcising their child. Female genital mutilation, especially in other countries is so much worse than that, and there are NO health benefits from any type of female genital
Females as a general population have been faced with discrimination across the ages. In recent history, women have begun to assert their freedom and independence from the male oriented traditions that have spanned generations. In industrialized countries the discrimination of women has diminished, but a serious form of violation of human rights occurs sometimes in parts of the world, such as Africa, the Middle East, and even sometimes the United States and other industrialized countries in North America and Europe. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is an umbrella term for three subtypes of crimes committed against women as a part of various coming of age rituals for young girls in certain patriarchal communities in Africa, spreading through migration of a populace through Northeastern and Western Africa and some spread into the Middle Eastern countries. These communities integrated this practice into women through marriage into these cultures, spreading this practice into their daughters and so forth. FGM has been classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) into three basic subtypes, each growing more and more disturbing. Subtype number one is a clitoridectomy which is the complete or partial removal of the clitoris, while subtype two it includes the clitoridectomy plus the removal of the labia minora of the young girl. Alone, these two types of FGM composed approximately 90 percent of female genital mutilation. The third subtype is the most gruesome that is the narrowing the vagina opening by sealing the orifice with the use of the labia majora. These medical procedures have been described the WHO working in conjunction with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Un...
According to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, “state parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, legal guardians, or family members”(1). It is generally believed that the fundamental rights of every human being should be respected; but unfortunately that’s not the case with FGM. Children are made to past this ordeal at an early age. A child as young as 10 years or even younger is subjected to this inhuman act without seeking her consent or most times telling flimsy stories to subdue her infant mind. On the other hand, the perpetrators believe that the child is too young to decide and being parents automatically places them in the rightful position to decide her faith. Contrary to that notion, is the provision in article three (3) of the same UN convention which states that “[i]n all actions concerning the ch...
It is hard to determine the direct origins of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Some researchers believes Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) originated in either ancient Egypt, Ethiopia, or Greece during the fifth century BC (Nawal, 2008, pp. 135-139). However, presently, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is performed on millions of young girls and women (Rahman, 2006). Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) occurs in Africa, Europe, Australia, Canada, and in the United States (Mascia-Lees 2010, pp. 66-68). Furthermore, there are four types of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) procedure. Type 1 hood of skin that sits over the clitoris (prepuce) is removed, type 2 the entire clitoris is removed, type 3 the external genitals are partly or totally removed and the wound stitched together, and type 4 is other practices including piercing, cauterizing, scraping or using corrosive substances designed to scar and narrow the vagina (anonymous 2014).
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.
The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women defines gender-based violence (GBV) as, “Any act…that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.” It is also broadly defined as any harm to a person due to the power disparities caused by gender inequality. Gender based violence includes childhood sexual abuse, “prenatal sex selection in favor of boys, female infanticide, dowry deaths, honors killings ,female genital mutilation, trafficking and forced prostitution, forced early marriage, sexual assault and intimate partner violence”
Female circumcision, also known as Female genital mutilation, or female genital cutting is a custom that has sparked controversy among many people belonging to other cultures not accustomed to the practice. Within the argument lay a series of debates surrounding the issue as culture and tradition clash with human rights over whether or not this practice should be allowed. Advocates against the practice draw on the prevalence, perceptions, and reasons for conducting FGM to combat what they believe is a human rights issue.