Why Stop Female Circumcision?

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Tuesday, May 2, 2000 to French to Spanish to German to Italian to Portuguese  Fada Eliss  [email protected]

The debate in the Nigerian Lower House of Parliament on female circumcision has moved beyond its condemnation based on medical hazard, to the level of moral accusation. The very practice of circumcision is now found lacking with regards to its moral integrity. This seems to be the real issue behind the Bill, sponsored by Janet Adeyemi (Odigbo, Ondo: AD) to stop the continuous practice. The debate in the Nigerian Lower House emphasizes that besides being detrimental to the health of women, it had led to broken marriages. Binta Garba Koji (Kaduna South: APP) described the act as barbaric, saying there was the need to stop the dehumanization of women. Also contributing to the debate, Yari Gandi (Wurno; Sokoto: APP) said the practice had rendered women useless to their husbands, thus leading to frequency in divorce rates. Dr. Okey Ude (Orumba; Anambra: PDP) said the act has led to women being treated as outcasts due to Vagina Vesticula Fistula (VVF) disease, adding that it had affected women during child birth. At first sight there seem to be two easy ways of doing away with the debate in the larger public. One approach denies the allegation and claims that the practice is not oppressive, thus making room for the continuation of circumcision. The other pleads guilty, admits the oppressiveness of the practice and effectively denies any significance of circumcision. None of these two, rather simplistic solutions will be defended as my hypothesis in what follows. I will rather face the challenge of finding a way, which allows me to acknowledge some positive elements in the practice of circumcision, and then condemn the elements that needs transformation based the present physiological findings. GOLDEN NUGGET To be successful, the campaigns on genital mutilation should consider carefully not eliminating, but replacing the custom. Circumcision encompasses more than the practice of excision itself. It is often a deeply entrenched, wrapped in a complex shroud of assumptions, taboos, and beliefs that impact the woman's social status and social identity. Very frequently, the reason offered by both men and women for the practice of circumcision with excision is 'the attenuation of sexual desire'. There are some cultural explanations that since the focus of this desire is clearly recognized to be the clitoris, excision is believed to protect a woman against her over-sexed nature, saving her from temptation, suspicion and disgrace, whilst preserving her chastity. These beliefs, some sociologists insist must be understood in context of societies where virginity (for woman) is an absolute perquisite for marriage, and where an extra-marital relationship provokes the most severe penalties. So strong is the association of mutilation with pre-marital chastity that in many societies a non-excised girl is ridiculed and often forced to leave the community, and regardless of her virginity will stand little or no chance of marriage. It is further believed in some societies that an unmodified clitoris can lead to masturbation or lesbianism, and that masturbation and lesbianism cause blindness, mental illness, alcoholism, epilepsy and a host of other ills. In societies where a man has several wives, it is said that since it is physically impossible for him to satisfy them all, it helps if they are not too demanding. On a strictly practical level, a bride price cannot be obtained if a girl is not 'pure'. The operation serves the purpose of enabling the potential mother-in-law to discover whether or not the girl is a virgin: "If she is found not to be a virgin, the husband-to-be has the right to reject her and refuse to go along with the marriage. While still, for some others the clitoris is dangerous and must be removed for health reasons. Removing the clitoris and labia minora can only eliminate bad genital odors. Some believe that it is a poisonous organ that can cause a man to sicken or die if contact with a man's penis. Other believe that men can become impotent by contacting a clitoris or that a baby will be hydrocephalic (born with excess cranial fluid) if the head contacts the clitoris. Some even believes that the milk of the mother will become poisonous if her clitoris touches the baby. The members of parliament have done well in educating the public on how excision (one element in the circumcision process) has a lot of medical implications. It must be recognized that the child is normal as born and that excision inflicts loss of normal body part and leaves a scar. For those who advocate that it can neatly be done in hospital, excision is contrary to the practice of medicine "First, do not harm". Excision is not surgery, by definition and therefore cannot professionally take place under medical ethics. Doctor's profession does not permit them to cut people unless they are performing surgery, nor may they harm the patient. There is no one medical voice which insists that mutilation is good for the physical or mental health of girls and women, and a growing number offer research indicating the grave permanent damage to health and the underlining risks of death. Medical facts, carefully explained, may well be the way to discourage the practice, since these facts are almost always the contrary of what is believed, and can be shown and demonstrated. However, circumcision is not all about excision. I believe that historical and anthropological study of circumcision rites in Nigeria should go beyond emphasis on social status to stress the mystic and ascetic treasures implicated in the practice. The term circumcision generally denotes "a body of rites and oral teachings whose purpose is to produce a decisive alteration in the religious and social status of the person to be circumcised". The rite is a language, a symbolic action, and a prescribed way of doing which characterizes a particular group and through which individuals project their belonging to the group. At its highest expression, the rite has reference to mystical beings or powers and claims results which far outstrip the physical action posited". The first step in the circumcision process is the seclusion (symbolic death), the experience of being 'neither here nor there' 'neither this nor that, and yet both', 'betwixt and between. The novices are instructed in the lore of the society and the truth about the forthcoming state. And, the people themselves see this in terms of bringing neophytes into close connection with deity or with supernatural power, with what is, in fact, often regarded as the unbounded, infinite, the limitless. A religious approach shows liminal experiences as the opening up or expansion of person to beat the universe. If the body is dead (symbolic or real death), if it is made to submit to the authority of the community, it is not to assert its inferiority or to declare it as prison. Rather through it the body shines out. It is the point of revelation of the totality of person in gestures. Thus in the ritual process the whole person is being interrogated- and not just the body being brought under control. One is opened up bodily to be awake to the depth of life and meaning in the universe. Relying on the interpretation of anthropologists, the cutting of the skin from the sexual organs symbolizes and dramatizes separation from childhood: it is parallel to the cutting of the umbilical cord when the child is born. The sexual organ attaches the child to the stage of ignorance, the state of inactivity and the state of potential impotence (asexuality). But once the link is severed, the young person is freed from that state of ignorance and inactivity. She is born into another state, which is the state of knowledge, of activity, of reproduction. So as long as the person is not initiated, she cannot get married and she is not supposed to reproduce or bear children. The shedding of the blood binds the person mystically to the living-dead that is symbolically living in the ground. It is the blood of new birth. The physical pain, which the children are encouraged to endure, is the beginning of training them for difficulties and sufferings of later life. Endurance of physical or emotional pain is great virtue among some Nigerian communities. The presents given to the initiates are tokens of welcome into the full community. They also demonstrate and symbolize the fact that now the young people can begin to have and inherit property, they are entitled to new rights and can say: 'This is my property', even if they own it jointly with the corporate group. Owning property leads eventually to the next important stage, which is the period of marriage. The dancing and singing strengthen community solidarity, and emphasize the corporateness of the whole group. It is only after this initiation rite that young people are allowed to join in public dances. Making of offerings and libation to the living -dead emphasizes and renews the link between human beings and the departed, between the visible and the invisible worlds. To be successful, the campaigns on genital mutilation should consider carefully not eliminating, but replacing the custom. Circumcision encompasses more than the practice of excision itself. It is often a deeply entrenched, wrapped in a complex shroud of assumptions, taboos, and beliefs that impact the woman's social status and social identity. In answer to that, Circumcision through Words is becoming an accepted alternative. It brings the young candidates together for a week of seclusion during which they learn traditional teachings about their coming roles as women, parents, and adults in the community, as well as more modern messages about personal health, reproductive issues, hygiene, communications skills, self-esteem, and dealing with peer pressure. The week is capped by a community celebration of song, dancing, and feasting which affirms the girls and their new place in the community: Conclusion If we are to return to the question how can practices in an oppressive worldview be of any significance? We shall now propose our hypothesis. It is obvious that a one-dimensional approach to the practice of circumcision finds it difficult to accept the challenge of the above question. This conclusion will not propose the rigid application of stopping circumcision for physiological reasons. While I endorse the stoppage of excision for the obvious medical and physiological evidences, it will not be easy to eradicate the entire circumcision process without addressing the mystical and anthropological reasons behind the practice. I propose a creative solution with the endorsement of Circumcision without excision, through Word. Indeed, it seems the central defining achievement of Circumcision through Words is not that it saves young women from the dangers of Female Genital Mutilation, but that it captures the cultural significance of female circumcision while doing away with the dangerous practice itself. Fada Eliss Brussel, Belgium