Yes, it is true in West Africa as well. Many children literally have their external genitalia amputated and have their remaining parts sewed up (infibulation). Many die from shock and infection. Female mutilation seems primarily to be practiced in Islamic countries -- especially Egypt, but it is also practiced by some Christians and pagans. Marilyn French, The War Against Women 1992 0-345-38248-X presents an estimate of 20,000,000 as genitally mutilated.
She also reports:
"Holt's Diseases of Infancy 1936 recommended cauterization or removal of the clitoris to cure masturbation in girls.112 Fran Josken, who first revealed the dimensions of female genital mutilation, cites a 1982 issue of New National Black Monitor, an American Sunday supplement, which published an editorial proposing using excision and infibulation to eliminate premarital sexual activity by teenage girls in the United States. Scholar Lilian Passmore Sanderson writes that both are still performed in the United State and Europe. fn113"
I believe that adults should keep their hands off of childhood and teenage sexuality except for sex education, drugs, and divices that prevent conception and disease. Parents who are close and nonjudgmental with their kids can help children make the difficult adjustment to adolescence and adulthood. Of course, parents need to have made a successful sexual adjustment themselves. |
