Female genital mutilation should be legal in its mildest forms: gynecologists

I can understand the logic – better a minor procedure than a major one, better regulated than underground – but hard to accept nonetheless given the message that the procedure sends about women and sexuality:

Countries that have banned female genital mutilation should allow less invasive practices such as small surgical nicks to girls’ genitalia as a compromise, two U.S. gynecologists said on Monday.

But campaigners against FGM strongly criticised the proposal, saying it would undermine global efforts to eradicate the internationally condemned ritual.

At least 200 million girls and women have been subjected to FGM in over 30 countries, according to UN estimates.

The ancient practice usually involves the partial or total removal of a girl’s external genitalia. In some cases the vaginal opening is also sewn up.

But some communities practice less invasive rituals such as pricking or nicking the clitoris.

The U.S. gynaecologists, writing in the Journal of Medical Ethics, argued that permitting more minimal procedures could allow families to uphold cultural and religious traditions while protecting girls from more dangerous forms of cutting.

Communities which support FGM often consider it a prerequisite for marriage. Many also see it as a religious obligation, although it is not mentioned in the Qur’an or Bible.

But female genital mutilation can cause a host of physical and psychological problems.

Gynaecologists Kavita Shah Arora and Allan Jacobs said procedures that slightly changed the look of a girl’s genitalia without damaging them were comparable to male circumcision or cosmetic procedures in Western countries like labiaplasty.

Laws against mild modifications were “culturally insensitive and supremacist and discriminatory towards women”, they wrote in the specialist publication that is published by the British Medical Journal.

‘Behind the times’

Female genital mutilation is practised in many African countries, pockets of Asia and the Middle East, as well as by diaspora communities living in the West.

The gynaecologists suggested that global attempts to stamp out FGM with legislation had failed and may by driving the practice underground.

“We are not arguing that any procedure on the female genitalia is desirable,” they said. “Rather, we only argue that certain procedures ought to be tolerated by liberal societies.”

Source: Female genital mutilation should be legal in its mildest forms: gynecologists – Health – CBC News