Yet still within these communities there are plenty of women who stand by their culture and this practice. The main concern is becoming an outcast and not being able to find a husband , so women will undergo this procedure and make sure their daughters do it also. It's interesting that this is the main reason. Some of the complications caused by FGM themselves can make them an outcast also. Some women acquire dysmenorrhoea, which means they are no longer able to have periods. This is contrast to the belief that going through FGM will keep a women's virginity intact and make them more fertile. Quite the opposite occurs!! Fistula is another result of FGM, and is described as the continuous leakage of feces and urine, which can cause the woman to be outcast from her community. What happens then?? Kinda sounds like... a fruitless endeavor.
As I mentioned before there are many women who argue the debate of FGM and are strongly committed to fight Westerners & give their opinion on the subject.I found Fuambai Ahmadu, she is an anthropologist that argues that women who do this to their daughters are just doing the same thing they do for their sons. Here's a quote I found from her interview with Anthropology Today.
"why, one woman asked, would any reasonable
mother want to burden her daughter with excess clitoral and labial tissue that is unhygienic, unsightly and interferes with sexual penetration, especially if the same mother would choose circumcision to ensure healthy and aesthetically appealing genitalia for her son?" Here's a video she has on her personal page.
.http://www.projectcensored.org/14-family-pressure-on- young-girls-for-genitalia-mutilation-continues-in-kenya/
Another voice that understands the Opposition...
John Dennis Roberts October 21, 2011
"Whilst bringing to an end the practice of female circumcision may in western eyes be seen as entirely laudable, it must nonetheless be understood as a cultural practice that has as much legitimacy within those societies which practice it as any cultural practice as any to be found in Europe or north America. Campaigns to ban things just because they are not in keeping with the norms of western societies is just a form of cultural imperialism."
Another excellent article I found in Spiked! (a British Internet Magazine)
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/ending-fgm-the-white-womans-burden/14673#.VTR_JfnF_ud
Ending FGM: the White Woman’s Burden?An Eritrean woman explains why Western campaigns to End FGM do more harm than good.
Ending FGM: the White Woman’s Burden?An Eritrean woman explains why Western campaigns to End FGM do more harm than good.
As I read this article I was able to see the other side of this debate and a woman's outlook who has undergone this procedure, and why she feels it is a private matter that needs change within their own communities.
"For women of my background, FGM is a deeply personal and private issue in which a greater understanding of the wider cultural background to this practice is essential if we are going to have a serious discussion about bringing it to an end. "
She also explains that the efforts in educating British schools about the harms of FGM is....
"At worst is a condescending and patronizing initiative that echoes the ‘let’s save these savages from themselves’ attitude that informed the Victorians who colonized our nations in Africa a hundred-plus years ago."
"Demanding an instant, law-enforced end to FGM does nothing to change the hearts and minds of communities. In fact, vilifying and punishing immigrant parents who already live on the margins of society only pushes them further away from mainstream society, making them cling to their own cultures and traditions more tightly."
"Eradicating the practice entirely will require more African women thinking about this issue, discussing it, and transforming themselves and their communities. Liberal do-gooders wagging their fingers at us will achieve nothing, except to make certain communities feel even more cut off, and thus more inclined to embrace their own ways and traditions."
It seems pretty clear where this woman stands. They feel undermined and also insulted to say the least, that people from the outside world have tried to come in and change their culture without their say. Because really who are we, to tell anyone what is normal or what is acceptable? On the West side of the globe, we find it perfectly admissible for women to change their bodies through plastic surgery, as a matter of fact it is sometimes encouraged on different stages of society, whether it be, being a house wife, a celebrity, or just for vanity purposes.
"For women of my background, FGM is a deeply personal and private issue in which a greater understanding of the wider cultural background to this practice is essential if we are going to have a serious discussion about bringing it to an end. "
She also explains that the efforts in educating British schools about the harms of FGM is....
"At worst is a condescending and patronizing initiative that echoes the ‘let’s save these savages from themselves’ attitude that informed the Victorians who colonized our nations in Africa a hundred-plus years ago."
"Demanding an instant, law-enforced end to FGM does nothing to change the hearts and minds of communities. In fact, vilifying and punishing immigrant parents who already live on the margins of society only pushes them further away from mainstream society, making them cling to their own cultures and traditions more tightly."
"Eradicating the practice entirely will require more African women thinking about this issue, discussing it, and transforming themselves and their communities. Liberal do-gooders wagging their fingers at us will achieve nothing, except to make certain communities feel even more cut off, and thus more inclined to embrace their own ways and traditions."
It seems pretty clear where this woman stands. They feel undermined and also insulted to say the least, that people from the outside world have tried to come in and change their culture without their say. Because really who are we, to tell anyone what is normal or what is acceptable? On the West side of the globe, we find it perfectly admissible for women to change their bodies through plastic surgery, as a matter of fact it is sometimes encouraged on different stages of society, whether it be, being a house wife, a celebrity, or just for vanity purposes.
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