Posted on 08/09/2005 9:42:45 AM PDT by Crackingham
Set on an arid plain southeast of Kirkuk, Hasira looks like a place forsaken by time. Sheep amble past mud-brick houses and the odd sickly palm tree shades children's games. There is no electricity. Yet along with 39 other villages in this region that Iraq's Kurds have named Germian (meaning hot place), Hasira and its people have become noted for presenting the first statistical evidence in Iraq of the existence of female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), as critics call it.
"We knew Germian was one of the areas most affected by the practice," says Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, director of a German nongovernmental organization called WADI, which has been based in Iraq for more than a decade. Of the 1,554 women and girls over 10 years old interviewed by WADI's local medical team, 907, or more than 60 percent, said they had undergone the operation.
The practice is known to exist throughout the Middle East, particularly in northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, and Iraq. There is also circumstantial evidence to suggest it is present in Syria, western Iran, and southern Turkey.
But while this practice was suspected in the region, there was never any solid proof that the procedure was so prevalent. When WADI presented the results of its survey in Vienna this spring, Mr. Osten-Sacken recalls, various Iraqi groups accused the group of being an agent of the Israelis. Even the Iraqi Kurdish authorities, who have backed efforts to combat FGM since the late 1990s, were rattled.
While urban Kurds are generally laxer in religious practice and more Western-looking than most Iraqis - they're the major opponents of sharia for Iraq's new constitution, for instance - many rural pockets cling to ancient traditions.
"The [Kurdish] Ministry of Human Rights hauled us in for questioning," remembers Assi Frooz Aziz, coordinator of WADI's Germian medical team. "They accused us of publicizing the country's secrets."
But it's not just obstructionism that has held up awareness of the phenomenon. Unlike in parts of Africa, where FGM is practiced relatively openly, in the Middle East it is veiled in secrecy.
"You can't just walk into a village and ask people if they circumcise their daughters or not," says Germian social worker Hero Umar. "These people only talked because we've been bringing them medical help for over a year."
Women in Hasira and the surrounding villages are reluctant to talk about the practice. After long negotiation, Trifa Rashid Abdulkerim agrees to answer some questions. A farmer's wife from the village of Milkhasim, she says she learned circumcision techniques from her neighbor and took over when she stopped. "June is the best time of the year," she says, "and the best age for patients is anywhere between 3 and 8."
Thanks for the information.
Do you know whether the imams and associated ilk have condemned FGM?
There are references to female genital cutting in the Hadith.
Circumcision would have no effect on delivery. simply removing the hood from the clitoris will cause nothing to tear.
I think the article is mixing apples with oranges.
He made his tribal god, Allah, the one god.
Allah is the Arabic word for God, just as God is in English. It is used by Arab Christians to describe their God. It is cognate to the ancient Hebrew elohim.
There are many excellent reasons to criticize Islam. Their use of the term Allah (the term for "god" in their language) is not one of them.
Neither God nor Allah are names. They are titles, common nouns.
None of the above means that you must believe that they are actually worshipping the same person you are. It is a purely linguistic point.
Scar tissue doesn't stretch as well as normal tissue. This can cause strictures on the urethra which did not handle the delivery that I witnessed well. The patient also had been Infibulated which caused tearing that caused a heavier repair than usual.
I witnessed this as the patients Nurse.
What was her argument for it?
No comment on this, either?
It would depend on who's being mutilated. She wouldn't allow it to be done to herself, but she'd swear it's a beautiful thing, and even perform the mutilation, as long as it wasn't her own.
Infibulation very likely will result in a difficult delivery, but that is not circumcision.
One form of female genital cutting called sunna circumcision is very similar to male circumcision. Sunna circumcision removes the prepuce of a girl's clitoris. Male circumcision removes the prepuce of a boy's penis.
Both sunna circumcision of girls and male circumcision of boys are done mainly for social or cultural reasons. Both sunna circumcision and male circumcision remove normal, healthy tissue from the genitals of a child without a valid medical indication.
Sunna circumcision is something THEY do. Male circumcision is something WE do. Thankfully the circumcision rate in the United States is going down. In 2003 only 56% of baby boys were circumcised. In the western states only 31% of baby boys were circumcised.
True, but some females who are circumcised are also infibulated. This lady also had a small tear on the urethra which requited a consult from urology.
I'm opposed to both male and female circumcision. Female circumcision is generally more brutal than male circumcision. Male forskin is removed with a clean sharp knife. Female genitalia is often hacked apart with a stone. Aside from religious reasons, the main reason for male circumcision is cleanliness. The main reason for female circumcision is to prevent her from enjoying sex. These are probably the reasons why people tend to be more outraged by female circumcision.
Not so much a critique, just a fact.
I have to save this one, as it's standard procedure for Muslims to evade responsiblity for the custom and imply that it's an African thing. Well, this ain't Africa.
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