What is Female Circumsicion

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Female Circumcision
The World Health Organization defines female circumcision as “a procedure involving partial or total removal of the external genitalia for cultural, religious, or non-therapeutic reasons(1).” It is commonly practiced by Muslims in Africa and various parts of the Middle East. According to Loretta Kopelman, there are over 80 million women who have had some variation of this procedure. Female circumcision is categorized into three types; Type one is the complete or partial removal of the clitoris, type two removes the clitoris completely as well as some of the labia minora, and type three is known as Infibulation, the sewing shut of the vulva leaving only a hole big enough for urine and menstrual blood to pass, after the removal of the clitoris, the labia minora, and most of the labia majora (Kopelman, 221). Should female circumcision be viewed as a cultural practice, or should it be considered a crime regardless of cultural views?
The article Female Genital Mutilation: Crime or Culture, addresses the concerns shared by many around the world about this heinous practice. This procedure that is common practice for mostly Muslims and some Christians in Africa and other parts of the Middle East, for the most part is viewed as unacceptable and a violation of girl’s and women's’ rights that can potentially have lasting physical and emotional consequences. Physical consequences can include include infection and death, not to mention the pain incurred during the procedure, which takes place with no anesthetic. On the emotion side, being circumcised as a female takes away any pleasure a woman could have from sexual intercourse. It makes a woman an object that is controlled by a man. Supporters of female circumc...

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...o ever be done. For cultures that rely on dowries paid for their daughters, it is a way to charge more, it ensures purity, which will yield more pay out when the daughter marries (Kopelman, 219). The concept of cultural relativism protects these cultures from judgement, but ethnocentrism from other cultures, especially the U.S. makes it hard not to judge this practice.

References
Definition used by the World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en.

Kolody, C. (2014). Female Genital Mutilation: Crime or Culture. Huffington Post. Accessed online at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carina-kolodny/female-genital-mutilation_4_b_4734728.html

Kopelman, L. M. (2000). 15: Female Genital Circumcision and Conventionalist Ethical Relativism. In , Globalizing Feminist Bioethics (p. 219). Perseus Books, LLC.

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