Geography of Female Genital Mutilation
by The prevalence of FGM greatly varies among countries of the world. The procedure is currently practiced in about 28 African nations, some Middle Eastern countries, among a few minority groups in Asia and areas that immigrant communities reside. Frequency rates tend to fluctuate widely.
The year was 1915 and the quote is by a physician who was President of a Missouri medical university. He authored a paper, respectfully published in the American Journal of Clinical Medicine entitled, “Circumcision in the Female: Its Necessity and How to Perform It.”
American Practice
Female circumcision further gained importance in the U.S. stemming from the influence of allopathic doctors who, playing upon the prevailing sexual anxieties of the times, encouraged the procedure as a “cure” for a childhood diseases and disorders including polio, tuberculosis, bedwetting and such afflictions defined as masturbatory insanity. There are even startling reports of clitoridectomies performed by American and British medical professionals as recently as the 1950’s in an effort to cure nymphomania, melancholia, masturbation, hysteria, lesbianism and epilepsy.
In 1958, Dr. McDonald of Wisconsin published a paper that also argued the validity of FGM and of the specific techniques of performing the operation. In his paper, he notes several “successful” illustrative cases and offers visual diagrams of the procedure. One such “success” was described as: “A youngster was suspected of having epilepsy. At about two years of age, she was brought to my office with the mother and was left alone while I examined the mother. I noticed the child masturbating by rubbing back and forth in a sitting position. She finally toppled over in hyperventilation. The disorder disappeared with the simple expedient of female circumcision and the cleansing away of irritants”.
Continued Practice
Although the medical profession soon thereafter abolished the practice, American doctors are still confronted with the abhorrent practice in patients that are from other cultures. As more and more immigrants enter the U.S. and transport their customs, their food, and their practices to American soil, thousands of children are subsequently being circumcised every year. In fact in 1998, it was reported that at least six thousand immigrants settled in Denver, CO from African countries continue to widely practice FGM.
And because most of these women continue to be sheltered, ignorant of their own bodies and have belief in myths such as if the clitoris is left alone, it will grow enormous and drag on the ground, that no man will marry an uncircumcised women, that the clitoris is so dangerous if it touches a male’s penis he will die and that if the clitoris touches a baby’s head during childbirth the baby will die, the secret practice of FGM will continue to thrive.
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