Genital Mutilation
Clitoridectomy has been performed as a rite of passage on some 80,000,000 women alive today, & is performed still by women on girls aged 4-18 in some forty countries of Africa, the Islamic Middle East & South & Southeast Asia. In this operation the entire female genitalia: clitoris, labia majora & labia menora are cut off (with usually unsterilized tools, & without anesthesia). The raw edges of the wound are then sewn together, leaving just a tiny hole for urination.
In May, 1993, the World Health Organization called for world-wide condemnation
of this practice, & cooperation in ending it.
On the Web: Articles
On the Web: Specialized Sites
Equality Now
In the Library: Articles
Assaad, Marie B. "Female Circumcision in Egypt: Social Implications, Current Research, and Prospects for Change" Studies in Family Planning 11,1 (1/80).
Harman, Danna. "Slowly, Africa rethinks a tradition," Christian Science Monitor (2/11/03): 6. On dialog rather than aggressive denunciation as a means of eliminating the practice.
Musalo, Karen & Stephen Knight. "Unequal protection," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 58,6 (11-12/2002):57-61. Persecution of women seen as cultural norm rather than reason to grant asylum.
In the Library: Non-Fiction Books
Dorkenoo, Efua. Cutting the Rose: Female Genital Mutilation (London: Minority Rights Group, 1995).
James, Sanlie M. & Claire C. Robertson (eds.) Genital Cuting & Transnational Sisterhood (Urbana: U. Illinois, 2002).
Kassindja, Fauziya & Layli Miller Bashir. Do They Hear You When You Cry? (NY: Delta, 1999). Story of a teenage refugee from genital mutilation in Togo.
Rahman, Anika & Nahid Toubia (eds.) Female Genital Mutilation: A Guide to Worldwide Laws and Policies (London: Zed, 2000).
Toubia, Nahid. Female Genital Mutilation: A Call for Global Action (NY: Rainbow, 1995).
Walker, Alice. Possessing the Secret of Joy (NY: Harcourt Brace, 1992).
__________ & Pratibha Parmar. Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation & the Sexual Blinding of Women (NY: Harcourt Brace, 1993).
In the Library: Fiction
CD & Audio:
Film & Video:
"Female Circumcision" [1993], by Globalvision with Thirteen-WNET, 27m. From International Center for Global Communications Foundation. Featuring Alice Walker.
"Fire Eyes" [1994], dir. Soraya Mire, 60m. From Filmakers Library.
"Warrior Marks" [1993], dir. Pratibha Parmar, 54m. From Women Make Movies.