The Secret World of Female Circumcision

What we have here is female circumcision.

Female circumcision and polygamy are banned, and Muslims accept this.

In an instant, my view of female circumcision changed forever.

But punishment for the perpetrators of female circumcision remains rare.

What we have here is circumcision and that is our religion.

Western culture is shunned and traditional Kikuyu beliefs like female circumcision promoted.

We know that circumcision reduces HIV infection by 60 percent in men.

I tried to persuade my mother to permit my circumcision, but she refused.

How did female circumcision come to the Americas swings between history and myth.

The practice of male circumcision is ancient and developed in parallel amongst different cultures.

So one August, during my school holidays, I decided to learn more about female genital circumcision.

In Colombia, there are indigenous communities that still practice female genital mutilation, also known as female circumcision.

IT IS BELIEVED THAT....it is a religious obligation BUT the quran does not mention female genital mutilation nor circumcision.

Well into the 21st century, female circumcision affects 140 million women and 26 countries in the world, among these Colombia.

Circumcision, which has been proven to reduce the risk of contracting the virus by half, is barely practised by the population.

And by then he'll be older and more aware of the pain, and I would regret not getting the circumcision done sooner.

One is a clash of practices,'' including demands for Halal meat for Muslim schoolchildren, Muslim dress, prayer time, female circumcision, polygamy, and arranged marriages.

Today, living and working in cosmopolitan Nairobi, I look back with a mixture of horror and bemusement on my girlhood fascination with female circumcision.

Recent studies suggest that adult male circumcision can be a promising prevention strategy, if properly and hygienically performed and accompanied by appropriate counseling and post surgical care.

Each of them gave a different version of the process, but they held a common view circumcision is intensely painful, and I must be prepared for much bleeding.

But also the non Muslim communities of North Africa the Animists, even some Christians and even a Jewish tribe in North Africa is known to practice female circumcision.

Each of them gave a different version of the process, but they held a common view  circumcision is intensely painful, and I must be prepared for much bleeding.

Female circumcision is banned in The Gambia from Kartong to Koina . For 21 years, I have been researching from the Qur an and consulting religious leaders whether female circumcision is mentioned in the Qur an but I did not find it there. The world media reverberated with the news in a somewhat jubilant mood, paying tributes to decades of advocacy by feminists and human rights activists.

Let us concede that child marriage, female circumcision, and the like are not found reprehensible by many societies but let us also ask the victims of these practices how they feel.

Likewise, the tradition of female circumcision is still a common practice in African countries such as Guinea, Sudan, Mali, Somalia, and Eritrea, where more than 85 of young women suffer from it.

So one August, during my school holidays, I decided to learn more about female genital circumcision. I decided to witness a girl undergoing the practice, and perhaps see her cry and bleed.

Only last month, in Narok, the town nearest my childhood village, a 13 year old girl died after undergoing circumcision as a preparation for her marriage to a man who already had five wives.

He advised the parents of a boy whose penis had been severed in a botched circumcision to have the child fully castrated, removing his testicles, as well, and to raise him as a girl.

A wide array of prevention strategies, including behavioral modification, distribution of condoms, and the provision of clean needles and syringes to intravenous drug users, has emerged. Recent studies suggest that adult male circumcision can be a promising prevention strategy, if properly and hygienically performed and accompanied by appropriate counseling and post surgical care.