Female circumcision leads to obstructed labor and birth trauma due to scarring of the genitals. I learned early in my career that if I was delivering a women who had had a previous clitorectomy, I needed to cut a good episiotomy, even if she had had prior children, because the scarred upper portion of her genital tract would massively tear at delivery.
The most tragic consequence of female genital mutilation is the formation of fistulas – holes between the bladder or rectum and the vagina that cause a woman to constantly leak urine or feces. It is estimate that over 200,000 women in Niger suffer from fistulas, which causes them to be ostracized by their villages and abandoned by their husbands. The risk for fistula is compounded among young women who are married and give birth in their teens – in Niger, half of all girls are married by age 15. Unicef is working to persuade the Niger government to raise the marriage age to 18. In the meantime, educating fathers about the health risks of early childbearing for their daughters has prevented early marriage in some families.
This sort of approach, which respects the dignity of villagers and uses education rather than punitive methods, appears to be effective in moving groups away from tribal customs that negatively impact the lives of women. Kudos to Unicef and other NGO’s involved in the campaign to end female genital mutilation.
Thank you for this post. Female genital mutilation is terrible on so many different levels. Even if not for fistulas and tearing, FGM is harmful and wrong simply because it takes away a woman’s right to enjoy sex. The primary (sole) function of the clitoris is to generate erotic pleasure, and I think that should be celebrated. Practitioners of FGM, however, find that fact dangerous.
FGM is misogynistic because the idea behind it is that women do not need or deserve to experience sexual pleasure. And that, to me, is a grave violation of human rights.