Female circumcision in Iraq

Faithfulservant · 01-07-2005, 12:58 AM

This is so tragic.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/news...4b27c3f6aa.htm
IRAQ: Survey suggests widespread female circumcision in north

SULAYMANIYAH, 6 January (IRIN) - A ground-breaking survey done by a German NGO of 40 villages in the rural Germian region of Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq has revealed that nearly 60 percent of the area's women have undergone circumcision (also known as female genital mutilation, FGM).

Of 1,544 women and girls aged over 10 interviewed by members of WADI's locally-based mobile medical team, 907 said they had undergone the operation, the so-called "Sunna" circumcision, which involves the partial excision of the clitoris; 637 said they had not.

"We knew Germian was one of the areas most affected by the practice," WADI Director Thomas von der Osten-Sacken told IRIN in Sulaymaniyah. "But these results were a real shock."

Although banned in the West, the practice of FGM is common in other Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East, and in Africa in particular, where there are regular calls for it to be stopped. Health experts say it can cause major problems, including various forms of scarring and infertility in some cases.

The procedure, when performed without any anaesthetic, can lead to death through shock or excessive bleeding. The failure to use sterilised medical instruments can lead to infections and the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Girls who have not been circumcised are considered "unclean" in many of the cultures where practised, and are often treated as sex workers.

Long known to exist in Iraqi Kurdistan, particularly in certain rural areas of the southern Sulaymaniyah governorate, FGM has been the object of more than a decade of campaigning by local women's organisations, as well as NGOs such as WADI.

In the total absence of statistics, though, estimates of the prevalence of the practice varied wildly. Some claimed as many as 40 percent of all women in Sulaymaniyah governorate were circumcised. Others suggest that it was around 10 percent.

WADI's small study will not be enough to put an end to that controversy. But it offers the first solid evidence that FGM is, at least locally, a major problem in Iraq.

The NGO is now planning a second, much larger survey of this practicse, which could turn out to be a lengthy process.

"You can't just go into a village and ask women if they've been circumcised," WADI mobile team doctor Suheila Hidayat Qadir told IRIN in Sarqalla, a small town in Kifri sub-district. "This is a practice that goes on in secret. Nobody talks openly about it."

In the 40 Germian villages, the surveying itself took less than two months, in October and November 2004. But members of WADI's team had been visiting locals for over a year and are known to them by providing medicine to the sick and health advice to women and children.

"These people are very poor; what they want most is money, not advice," said team leader Assi Frood Aziz. "They only began to trust us when they saw we actually intended to carry on helping them."

Dr Qadir and her colleagues include information about FGM among the health advice they gave villagers. They remind villagers of the dangers of infection immediately following the operation along with other serious health issues.

They also point out that circumcising a girl reduces her chances of experiencing a healthy and fulfilling sex life when older.

Trust or no trust, though, they have found persuading the people of Germian to give up the practice difficult for the simple reason that many are convinced it is a religious Islamic obligation, although this has been debated.

As one campaigner against FGM in Pizhdar, an eastern district of Iraqi Kurdistan, put it: "When you ask villagers why they circumcise their daughters, they tell you that if they don't, even the water she carries back from the well will be 'haram' [impure]."

No senior Sunni cleric has ever outright condemned female circumcision. In Iraqi Kurdistan, however, the fight to end the practice was made easier in 2001 when liberal clerics in Sulaymaniyah agreed to issue a "fatwa" (religious order) against it.

Members of WADI's Germian team say that clerics in the region are far more cooperative than in the past. But they add that the remoteness and backwardness of many of the villages has slowed the speed with which attitudes change.

"The Sulaymaniyah clerics have talked on TV several times about female circumcision," said Aziz. "But few of these villages have electricity, let alone radios or televisions. How are villagers supposed to hear what they say?"

He and other medical team members have taken to carrying copies of the fatwa around villages to show inhabitants. In the future, he says, they may swap that for a video and television.

"The ideal would be to interview one of the senior clerics in Sulaymaniyah about circumcision, and screen the results in each of the villages," he said.

Quahom1 · 01-07-2005, 01:05 AM

What is the ultimate purpose of this procedure? To enhance a woman's libido, or to kill it? And in any case why is it being carried out?

v/r

Q

Faithfulservant · 01-07-2005, 06:36 AM

I think its because its considered unclean? Im not sure myself.
"Girls who have not been circumcised are considered "unclean" in many of the cultures where practised, and are often treated as sex workers"

Ive read as this being done in places like Africa as well.

Its very sad

I, Brian · 01-07-2005, 10:09 AM

My impression is that it's intended to control female sexuality, and that it is predominantly practiced in West African nations. So far as I understand it, it is not a practice proscribed by Islam, but simply a cultural practice that has ended up as baggage as Islam has spread and interacted with itself.

KnightoftheRose · 01-07-2005, 10:47 AM

Ok, female circumcision cuts away the clitoris, right? (Or, at least part of the organ) Wouldn't that utterly kill the pleasure of having sex? Hell, wouldn't that make sex painful?

It seems to me like female circumcision is vicious bullying. Its like the male is saying to the female, "I can have an orgasm, but you can't." It seems pretty petty...

mirrorinthefog · 01-07-2005, 08:02 PM

It's a horrible practice...pure and simple. I don't believe it has any basis in any religion.

Quahom1 · 01-07-2005, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KnightoftheRose

Ok, female circumcision cuts away the clitoris, right? (Or, at least part of the organ) Wouldn't that utterly kill the pleasure of having sex? Hell, wouldn't that make sex painful?

It seems to me like female circumcision is vicious bullying. Its like the male is saying to the female, "I can have an orgasm, but you can't." It seems pretty petty...

I went and researched this "practice" and to my surprise, there are different types of procedures for Female Circumcision, and they are generally classified into four categories. The procedures vary from the “simple” removal of the clitoris, the labia minora and majora, to the sewing of the vagina.

The first category consists of the removal of the foreskin, with or without the total or partial removal of the clitoris.

The second category consists of the removal of the clitoris, with partial or total removal of the labia minora.

The removal of all or part of the external genitalia and the stitching and/or narrowing of the vaginal opening forms the third category. The opening that is left, is usually no larger than a match head, and it should not be widened until the girl gets married (Eastern Africa). This procedure is called infibulation and is also known as pharaonic circumcision. All the tissue that is removed from a woman’s genital organs is equivalent to the removal of the head of the male sexual organ.

The last category is formed by the piercing or incising of the clitoris and/or labia, pricking, stretching of the clitoris and/or labia cauterization by burning the clitoris and surrounding tissue.

The first and third category are the most common, and account for 85% of all FGM. The third category (Infibulation) is common in Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and parts of Egypt.

It is not a religious practice, but rather a cultural one, that has been tagged onto Islam, which is the widely practiced religion in these cultures.

Even if done in a hospital by a "qualified doctor", the complications after often times lead to death or crippling.

One of the problems in stopping this procedure (even for the local governments), is that both the parents want the procedure done, not just the males.

Also, it is ironic that the elder women of the culture perform the operation, not the males. If not done, then the women "shun" the girl that refuses. In order to avoid conflict, the procedure normally takes place on girls between the ages of 4 and 8, but the prefernce is even earlier, if the infant is considered strong enough.

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Q

Faithfulservant · 01-07-2005, 11:27 PM

I feel sick to my stomach.

mirrorinthefog · 01-07-2005, 11:38 PM

...so do I...argh!!!

mirrorinthefog · 01-07-2005, 11:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quahom1

Also, it is ironic that the elder women of the culture perform the operation, not the males. If not done, then the women "shun" the girl that refuses. In order to avoid conflict, the procedure normally takes place on girls between the ages of 4 and 8, but the prefernce is even earlier, if the infant is considered strong enough.

Actually I'm not surprised at all. Violence breeds violence. Just as someone who has been abused by a parent may later abuse his own children, women who have been subjected to this sort of practice may feel resentment towards someone who hasn't been treated such. Misery loves company. If everyone has the same mark, they're all on the same level.

Well, that's just my outlook on things anyways

Quahom1 · 01-08-2005, 01:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mirrorinthefog

Actually I'm not surprised at all. Violence breeds violence. Just as someone who has been abused by a parent may later abuse his own children, women who have been subjected to this sort of practice may feel resentment towards someone who hasn't been treated such. Misery loves company. If everyone has the same mark, they're all on the same level.

Well, that's just my outlook on things anyways

You and I consider this abuse and violence, however, in other parts of the world, it is not. When discussing the "culture" of a group of people, it is usually a culture that is centuries if not millenia old. Very difficult to point out the error of their ways, if they do not consider it an error.

Just look at your own reaction to the act (and mine). Now place yourself in the shoes of the people who do this, and have done this for a long time. They might be appauled at your disgust to something they treasure. Who is in the wrong, and who is in the right psychologically? Does majority rule? If so, we are outnumbered, almost five to one...

It is morally perverse? Says who? You? Your conviction, against five times the number of women who's conviction counters yours? Part of their reasoning for doing this is a gaurantee against divorce, gaurantee that the wife will be a virgin for her husband, or straying from the marriage (I did not make this up, it is online). It is not the men that insist on this, but rather the women. Many of these cultures have a Matriarchal society...

"We are smarter and know better, and, and," ... and let us not forget, we've only been a "culture" for a few hundred years. Theirs is a culture that is at least a thousand years old, and they are still here, still going strong. Do you really think they are going to listen to upstarts?

I'm not faulting you your conscience. I'm playing the devil's advocate. You can't use your western way of thinking on the whole world, Mirror. You can't judge with the criteria you have, because you have not lived through the eyes of the people you are attempting to judge (none of us can). You haven't even walked the dirt they walk daily. See?

Kind of like telling an American farmer that it is wrong to paint a symbol on the top of his barn, because it is superstitious, and you are from the city, so you know better than he does. What do you think the farmer is going to do? Jump up and scrub that hex blocker off, because you think it shouldn't be there?

Better to get off the farmer's property, than be personally introduced to his pitchfork...

v/r

Q

mirrorinthefog · 01-08-2005, 04:59 AM

Actually, I was raised in the Middle East, so I think I have some room to talk here.

I remember at certain times of the year, usually in the summer, boys would be circumcised with much ceremony. Generally boys aren't circumcised until they are much older, so many remember the pain-anesthetics only recently have made a widespread appearance. I've seen grown men jeering boys and telling horror stories to the point where some would run away terrified, some would have to be dragged back kicking and screaming. All humor aside...These men were humiliating a child as they were when they went through the same thing. It may or may not be at a conscious level, but it was done nonetheless.

This is what I meant to say. Whatever the reasons it's obviously both painful and dangerous a precedure, and a person who goes through that pain to achieve a purpose will want others to go through the same pain, perhaps, at some subconscious level. I'm not saying this is why the practice is done, I'm saying that this might be a factor that people aren't even aware of.