Fe Mutilation Imagine you are a young girl just reaching the beginning stages of puberty, all of sudden you are confronted with an ancient practice that will change your body and life forever. With no questions asked your parents send you to a strange lady without a professional license, she mutilates the genitals of the young girl removing her clitoris and labia minora using nothing but a razor blade. Without any atheistic the young girl experiences some of the most excruciating pain she will ever encounter in a process called Female Genital Mutilation. Female circumcision has no positive benefits and has been known to lead to disease, sexual confusion and even death. This surgery is practiced all around the world but is the most popular in Africa and the Middle East where a majority of the female population has been circumcised. Female Genital Mutilation is a growing epidemic and should be considered a human rights issue because spreading the word is the first step in stopping this brutal ancient practice.
Females are forced into circumcision to ensure their virginity for marriage, eliminate sexual desires and increase male sexual pleasure. (web p. 2) Today, the number of girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation is estimated at between 100 and 140 million. It is estimated that each year, a further 2 million girls are at risk of undergoing the painful and damaging surgery.
(web p. 2) These outstanding numbers of women who are deprived of their natural rights each year is a perfect example of the ignorance many cultures have developed over a long period of time. Many parents that send their young daughter to become circumcised no nothing about the special natural rights that are taken from their child because they never experienced those rights themselves. For this reason it is important for victims and activist that are against female circumcision to come together and spread the word and educate the world. Many people have different ideas and techniques on how to eliminate the epidemic of female genital mutilation.
The Wallace Global Foundation has five key elements that might play a major role in the prevention of female circumcision. They are research, work with appropriate leaders, include and inform all affected members and decision makers of the target community, provide psychological support, and use local culture and customs. (web) I personally agree with these steps and believe that the brutal practice of female genital mutilation could be slowed down or eliminated in future years to come. For women who are victims of female genital mutilation there will be an emotional and physical struggle everyday of their life. They have to deal with genital pain and have to attend continual doctor checkups to keep their genitals from becoming infected or totally destroyed. Emotionally they experience flashbacks of the immense pain experienced from the genital surgery they experienced when they were a young child.
But worse of all they have no idea of the pleasure and experiences that was taken from them and because of the emotional trauma it is hard for the victims of female circumcision to share their feelings and emotions to others. Before doing research on female genital mutilation I had no idea that it was a brutal practice because I thought it was equal to male circumcision. I had no idea that young females who are circumcised are stripped of all their sexual emotions and are left with a wound that never fully heals. I learned that it doesn’t have huge problems in America but in other countries it has become a huge epidemic because of the deaths and diseases that attack victims of female circumcision. I personally believe that female genital mutilation strips individuals of all their individual freedom and the experience of sexual desires, which is an important part of every individual’s life. I wish I had the power and capabilities to stop all circumcisions being forced on little girls today because from what I learned the surgery isn’t worth the pain and the suffering..