Natasha M. Gordon

Female circumcision (1)... FGM... a violation of human rights... child abuse... an African tradition.
One finds aspects of truths and untruths in all of these labels. However, how does one distinguish the fine line between these realities to arrive at a clearer grasp of a worldwide phenomena which dates back some 2500 years? How to understand the complex power system between women - the circumciser and the circumcised, so as to locate the reasoning behind why women continue to carve the bodies of other young girls and women?

An immediate response would be to shift the onus of blame onto a larger, omnipotent patriarchal power which desires to maintain and manipulate female sexuality. However, I hope to problematize this further by addressing the concept of 'women creating other women' through altering their physical and sexual selves by the act of circumcision (the removal of some/all of the female genitals). The reality for many women is that circumcision is a form of gender identification, which becomes self-evident as one looks at the socio-cultural structures which keep the practice alive.

Female circumcision is practised in 26 African countries, Malaysia, Indonesia, the southern Arab Peninsula, Pakistan, Russia, Peru, Brazil, Eastern Mexico, Australia, France, Britain, Sweden, German, and the U.S.A. (2). For the purpose of this paper, I will address the practice in Africa. There are 3 types of genital removal, namely:

* Circumcision - the cutting off of the prepuce or hood of the clitoris. This is the mildest and least practised form on women;
* Excision - the cutting off of the clitoris and all or part of the labia minora; and
* Infibulation/Pharonic Circumcision - this is the most practised form and it involves the cutting off of the clitoris, labia minora and labia majora. The raw edges of the vulva are then pinned or sewn together by silk or catgut sutures, or held against each other with acacia tree thorns. The entire area is closed up, leaving a tiny passage for urine and menstrual flow. The girl's legs are then tied together and she is immobilized for a period of fifteen to forty days while the wound heals (3).

In most cases the operation is performed by a midwife, yet in Northern Zaïre a male priest is the traditional operator. Most frequently, older women are the caretakers of the operation and the job passes down through female lineage. Fran Hosken, who has the most extensive field research to date on female circumcision in Africa, estimates that nearly one hundred and twenty six million women in Africa alone have experienced a form of circumcision. In 1996 it is estimated that six million girls were circumcised (4).

There has yet to be data which locates an origin for the practice. Marie Assad proposes Pharonic origins, however evidence only confirms that circumcisions were part of the postmortem burial preparation on mummies(5). Practised by Jews, Muslims, Christians, Atheists and Animists alike, Alison Slack makes clear that no religion has ever prescribed the operation. Most probably, female circumcision came about as a rite of passage alongside male circumcision.

There exist numerous traditional reasons for the practice. Among the Somali, as with the Hofrayti in Sudan, the child is seen as androgynous and circumcision is a vehicle though which the community creates gendered persons. The clitoris becomes the signifier for the definitive assertion of sexuality - it represents 'maleness', thus in order to attain femininity it must be removed. Another justification for the continuation of the practice is that the clitoris is seen as unclean, rendering the woman/young girl dirty until it is excised. Awa Thiam notes that the Bambara "excise the clitoris on the pretext that its dagger can wound the man and even cause his death. The Nandi have observed that girls in whom this harmful organ has not been removed, waste away and die at puberty"(6). Many women believe that men will ultimately derive more sexual pleasure through tight circumcisions. However, 90% of infibulated women experience no form of sexual pleasure during intercourse, according to statistics by Efua Dorkenoo (7).

Though there are no religious documents which prescribe female circumcision, Islam has subscribed to the practice the most severely, because, "virginity is still considered the most precious possession of the unmarried woman"(8). Female circumcision within Islam ultimately maintains chastity and virginity in order to secure patrilineal rights, "thus the genital operations can serve as a means for protecting lineage purity"(9). In Islam, patrilineal rights are defined within the Koran. If a mother divorces, the children belong to the father after the time of breastfeeding. Thus, to ensure that a man's children were rightfully his, he married an infibulated virgin.

Midwives developed relationships with the women they circumcised throughout the duration of their lives. Not only present at circumcisions but on the wedding night, countless midwives are called secretly to the bed chamber (so as not to lessen notions of the man's virility), in order to de-infibulate - or cut the young bride open for penetration. Alison Slack notes, "the consummation of a marriage may take several weeks... without exception, women experience a great deal of suffering during a process of gradual penetration which can last up to 2-3 months. The opening is just big enough for penetration, which has to take place frequently during the early days and weeks of the marriage in order to prevent the open wound from closing"(10).

In considering the health risks caused by female circumcision, Slack explains that the average period of time required by a Pharonically circumcised virgin to urinate is 10 to 15 minutes (11). The most immediate risk is death. There are no current statistics which indicate how many girls have bled to death from botched circumcisions because many parents have chosen to let their daughters die, rather than face public humiliation at hospitals or clinics. Rose Oldfield notes that some Sudanese families reason that a botched circumcision is an indication that their daughter was not a virgin or was disliked by the spirits thus death becomes the logical solution (12).

In order to fully conceptualize the practice of female circumcision, one must consider it's socio-cultural contexts. The scarification of the circumcision and in particular, infibulation, is an actual and immediate mapping/drawing upon the body of women so that their commitment to the social responsibilities (defined in many ways through their sex) is ensured and manifests in their socio-economic relations once they have entered womanhood. The body becomes re-inscribed, when circumcised, as a new birth along cultural lines and expectations. The flesh manifests itself into an image of society, thus a language is created between the women who are circumcised and the women who perform the surgery. The social relevance of the operation does not lay wholly in the insurance of virginity, but rather in the actual societal 'making' or 'construction' of the woman through the operation, by other FEMALE hands, which is pertinent in the development of gender roles in the community.

The closure of the vagina is a human operation and renders the circumciser at once god-like and powerful, as her act creates or gives birth to a new woman in the community. Once circumcised, the woman becomes a thread in the fabric of her society, thus her body joins the language of women, which is at once muted because there is the instant separation of her sexuality from her female function - reproduction. Yet this language helps develop the dynamics which enable the practice to become the primary step with which women create their communal identity. Circumcision maintains the cultural norms and life cycles thus allowing it to become an unquestioned communal foundation. For many communities, take for instance in Northern Africa, circumcision becomes the determining factor upon which women become decent and marriageable. Thus women decide to infibulate their daughters so as to make their life choices easier as women. The sense of belonging within one community weighs so heavily that many women do not view circumcision as a sacrifice of one's health and life-long sexual pleasure.

There are a number of African women writers and activists who have taken up the fight for the eradication of female circumcision. Unfortunately, there has been recent backlash amongst Third World/Western feminist debates, as Third World/African women fight to own female circumcision because they fear Western feminist imperialism and silencing. The problem here remains that once again the debates never really get to the underlying problem at hand, namely circumcision. Also there is the danger of Africa owning circumcision which simply silences other women around the world who also experience circumcision. Writers such as Alifa Rifaat, Nawal el Saadawi, Charity Waciuma, Awa Thiam, Asma El Dareer, Marie Assad, Saida Herzi, Chandra Mohanty, and others are motivating towards self-empowerment within and amongst African women without ostracising the men in their communities.

How does this tradition remain alive in 1997 amongst communities of women in the world, when the physical, emotional and mental traumas which result from it are so blatant? Is it possible for people outside of these communities to fairly access the information about the practice and conceptualize it within its specific socio-cultural/economic matrix without tinging it with Western imperialistic labels? The challenge remains for one to create spaces where female circumcision has proper self-articulation without being silenced by other 'do-good' communities. Rather than fit it neatly within anti-patriarchal paradigms or own it exclusively as an African situation, one has to try and conceptualize how women interact and maintain power relationships with each other and their bodies. Until the world comes to terms with the fact that women are as accountable and responsible for the practice as their male counterparts, the practice remains a taboo and silenced subject.

Born in the USA to Costa Rican / Panamanian parents, Natasha M. Gordon is actually lecturing in the African Literature Dept. At the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her MA thesis is entitled: "Tonguing the Body: Re-Membering Female Circumcision in African Women's Writings".

(1) For the purpose of this paper, I will use the generic term 'female circumcision'
(2) Slack, Alison. "Female Circumcision: A Critical Appraisal." Human Rights Quarterly. p. 489.
(3) Dorkenoo, Efua; Elworthy, Scilla. Female Genital Mutilation: Proposals for Change. p. 6
(4) Hosken, Fran P. The Hosken Report: Genital and Sexual Mutilation of Females. p. 45
(5) Assad, Marie Bassili. "Female Circumcision in Egypt: Social Implications, Current Research and Prospects for Change." Studies in Family Planning. p. 4.
(6) Thiam, Awa. Black Sisters Speak Out: Feminism and Oppression in Black Africa. p. 74.
(7) Dorkenoo, Efua. p. 9
(8) Slack, Alison. "Female Circumcision: A Critical Appraisal." p. 447.
(9) Gordon, Daniel. "Female Circumcision and Genital Operations in Egypt and the Sudan: A Dilemma for Medical Anthropology." Medical Anthropology Quarterly. p. 10.
(10) Slack. p. 453.
(11) Slack. p. 452.
(12) Hayes, Rose, Oldfield. "Female Genital Mutilation, Fertility Control, Women's Roles and the Patrilineage in Modern Sudan: A Functional Analysis." American Ethnologist. p. 620.

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