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| | Boston Review: Yael Tamir Reponds to Critics of "Hands Off Clitoridectomy" |
 | | One may of course claim that this is the wrong question to ask, that it is precisely the multi-layered nature of the harm caused by clitoridectomy that accounts for the frequent reference made to it. | | | Focusing on this meta-theoretical point, I try to understand which of the many troubling aspects of clitoridectomy -- pain, risks for the girl's physical and psychological health, mutilation of the body, prevention of sexual enjoyment, coercion, or social implications -- makes it such a popular example. | | | She then points to the basic explanation of that difference -- the high level of female illiteracy -- but her conclusion that this "suggests limits to the notion of consent" is dangerously misleading. |
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http://www.bostonreview.net/BR21.5/Tamir.html
(1612 words)
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| | Female Subjects of Public International Law: Human Rights and the Exotic Other Female* |
| | Rather, they focus so much on the subordination of women by men that they tend to generalize the extent to which all women have an interest in overcoming men's power, the assumption here being that "genital mutilation" (as they call the practice) is a clear exercise of male power. | | | Applying their analysis to clitoridectomy, institutionalists would argue that international institutions could in theory, and partly within their present structure, address the issue. | | | Just as it seems that a universal human rights approach would prohibit discussion of cultural relativism, it also would seem that those advocates most committed to formal international legal doctrine would be less sensitive to discussion of cultural difference than those advocates who appear to have a sophisticated understanding of the nuances of legal doctrine. |
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http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/Diana/fulltext/engl.htm
(7156 words)
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| | Clitoridectomy and Medical Ethics |
| | In this editorial the Medical Times and Gazette explains why clitoridectomy is both scientifically unsound as medical therapy and a violation of medical ethics in terms which are still relevant today. | | | Thus, then, we have shown, as shortly as possible, the real position of clitoridectomy as an offence against science and morality, and the reasons why the Medical Profession, as an honourable, moral Profession, whose members have free and familial access to families, must repudiate and utterly reject it. | | | We think we are justified in saying that the kind of evidence on which the guilt of the woman is assumed is itself an ethical offence. |
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http://www.cirp.org/library/history/medicaltimes1867
(1743 words)
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| | Severity of Genital Cutting Is Linked to Complications Experienced Later in Life |
| | According to observational data collected at the clinics, clitoridectomy was the most common form of genital cutting among the women in Burkina Faso, while excision was the type most frequently observed among those in Mali. | | | Women receiving any service that included a pelvic examination at selected health clinics in Mali and Burkina Faso were invited to participate in a study of complications associated with female genital cutting. | | | More than nine in 10 women attending selected rural health clinics in Burkina Faso and urban and rural clinics in Mali have experienced some form of genital cutting. |
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http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/journals/2604500.html
(1326 words)
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| | Cutclit |
| | Therefore clitoridectomy, when voluntarily chosen, represents taking charge of your own body, and reclaiming it from any sense of others telling you what to do with it. | | | While I could talk to my aunt about her clitoridectomy it was not a subject I could discuss with my girlfriends. | | | But what that does is remind you that masturbation and orgasm are not the most important things in life, as much as it's how you feel about your partner. |
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http://homepage.mac.com/channelsr2/cutclit.htm
(8901 words)
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| | [No title] |
| | By the beginning of the nineteenth century clitoridectomy had become prevalent and by the height of Victorian prudery, "A kind of occupational folklore about the clitoris and benefits of declitorization developed within the medical profession" (Huelsman, 1976:129). | | | As would be expected and as has been documented, clitoridectomy does not reduce sexual desire but it virtually eliminates the capacity to have an orgasm, which, in turn, may heighten sexual desire and frustration even more (United Nations, 1978; Baasher, 1977; Wolkoff, 1976; Lenzi, 1970; Modawi, 1973; Hanson, 1973). | | | In 1957 the related drug use was considered serious enough in Egypt that the newspaper el Tahrir advocated the outlawing of clitoridectomy as a means of combatting drug taking. |
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http://www.colorado.edu/Sociology/gimenez/Betsy/moen.html
(7682 words)
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| | Circumcision and HIV -- Montreal Gazette |
| | Whereas male circumcision is probably the least complex of all surgical procedures, with the lowest rate of complications, clitoridectomy, by contrast, is a relatively complex operation that is most commonly practiced in rural areas in developing countries. | | | The latter practice involves the surgical removal of part of the clitoris and is enacted on pre-adolescent girls in some societies, for cultural and/or religious reasons, to limit sexual arousal and enjoyment in later life. | | | Indeed, the major ethical objection in this scenario is that a well-known academic would equate the sexual mutilation of young women, as practiced through clitoridectomy, with the virtually benign procedure that is practiced on very young males. |
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http://www.courtchallenge.com/news/mgaz1.html
(1953 words)
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| | Hands off clitoridectomy? |
| | Specifically: (1) we can think a practice is morally wrong, in this case, clitoridectomy but (2) we should take a "hands off" attitude towards the practice in other cultures. | | | But, one might say, it doesn't follow that we should take a "hands off" attitude towards clitoridectomy because it is practiced, usually by immigrants, within our society (see Linda Burstyn's article Female Circumcision Comes to America from The Atlantic Monthly October 1995). | | | We think it's bad because it involves pain and mutilation, not just because it means social ostracism. |
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http://humanities.uchicago.edu/faculty/mgreen/IntroEthicsF00/Notes/Class/mHandsOff.html
(844 words)
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| | STANDARDS: Editorial -- FGM |
| | Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the term used by the World Health Organization and other opponents of the practices to refer to the removal of part, or all, of the female genitalia. | | | The performance of the procedures range from operations on anesthetized women or girls by skilled medical professionals in sterile clinical settings to the use of glass shards, tin edges, razor blades, or other slicing implements -- without anesthesia. | | | The struggle to end forced female genital mutilation (FGM) on the bodies of girls and young women world-wide is making slow progress. |
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http://www.colorado.edu/journals/standards/V7N2/EDITORIAL/edfgm.html
(1485 words)
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| | Making The Cut (Ms. Magazine) |
| | Toward the middle of the 1950s, just as U.S. medicine seemed to be awakening to the brutality and ineffectiveness of clitoridectomies as a means to control behavior, it found another use for the procedure. | | | We have been altering the healthy genitals of our children -- boys as well as girls -- for 135 years so that a girl will look and act like a girl, and a boy will look and act like a boy, according to social norms. | | | By contrast, modern theories seem slightly more humane, but when you get down to it, the same question of gender links the Victorian Age's clitoridectomy to its Dot-Com Age cousin. |
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http://www.pfc.org.uk/news/2000/mtcut-ms.htm
(4349 words)
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| | MUTILATE.FEM |
| | The sections entitled "Zainaba" and "Lecture on Clitoridectomy to the Midwives of Touil, Mauntania" give an account of one attempt to work within the existing framework of African culture to bring about improvements in the medical practices of clitoridectomies. | | | Passages of this novel are a good choice for students because they help personalize the issue of genital mutilation. | | | These articles present the reader with a different perspective (other than a Western one) on how change can occur in the area of genital mutilation. |
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http://www.holysmoke.org/fem/fem0470.htm
(690 words)
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| | Template |
| | While the clitoridectomy was only rarely performed in the English-speaking nations, the subject of female masturbation continued to intrigue the public and the medical profession. | | | As the century drew on, more article on the subject began appearing in medical journals and the clitoridectomy was revived. | | | In 1889, Dr. Joseph Jones, a former president of the Louisiana State Board of Health and a medical professor, stated that "hopeless insanity" was one of the many consequences of masturbation and that the child of a masturbator was liable to hereditary insanity. |
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http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/first/duffy.html
(1019 words)
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| | Female Genital Mutilation |
| | West, and that "the practice of clitoridectomy was actually promoted in the United States and Britain during the 19th and early 20th centuries as a cure for lesbian practices or suspected inclinations, masturbation, hysteria, epilepsy, and nervousness." This fact brings up interesting issues about the cultural relativity of this practice. | | | It is important to point out, however, that FGM has also been practiced in the | | | There is serious disagreement about whether the practice of FGM is an issue of cultural relativism or an issue of human rights. |
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http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/jc.htm
(1566 words)
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| | Process of Socialization: Rites of Passage |
| | All of these rite of passage rituals were intended to be painful in order to increase the importance of the transition to adulthood. | | | For girls, genital surgery connected with rites of passage usually involves clitoridectomy | | | They say that these practices are crucial parts of their cultures and that they do not want to give them up. |
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http://anthro.palomar.edu/social/soc_4.htm
(936 words)
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| | Women's Action 8.1 : March 1995 |
| | In Egypt, an estimated 80%-90% of the female population is subjected to female genital mutilation, usually in the form of clitoridectomy or excision. | | | This effort has culminated in the formation of the Egyptian Society for the Prevention of Harmful Practices to Woman and Child. | | | The declared reason for the recent decree is to limit the practice of FGM. |
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http://www.equalitynow.org/english/actions/action_0801_en.html
(919 words)
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| | Natural Causes by Peter Feibleman |
| | Yet now – over forty years after I first found out – people who express such tender outrage at the practice of clitoridectomy in Africa still reject out of hand the mere suggestion that the custom was once popular in our own country. | | | Men who came tumbling off the analysts couch – men who were failures – men who doubted there masculinity – all blamed it on the same thing: "castrating women." | | | By the mid 1800s, most American gynecologists (limited at the time to males) came to believe that the first logical step toward controlling erratic female behavior was to remove certain sexual organs. |
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http://www.fictionwriter.com/double.htm
(4071 words)
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| | [lbo-talk] Clitoridectomy in Britain and America (circumcision) |
| | The fact that the operation is described in literature published well after the 1860s lends support to the idea that only Brown's particularly well-publicized application of the procedure was discouraged, while clitoridectomy in and of itself remained an acceptable medical technique. | | | Clitoridectomy was practiced in Victorian England in spite of its failure to effect cures for the disorders it was intended to relieve. | | | The last clitoridectomy known to have been performed in this country to correct emotional disorder was done in the 1940s on a five-year-old girl (Ehrenreich and English [_Complaints and Disorders: The Sexual Politics of Sickness_, Old Westbury: Feminist Press] 1973: 34). |
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http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/pipermail/lbo-talk/Week-of-Mon-20050207/003052.html
(695 words)
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| | Women's and Gender Studies Newsletter |
| | But first we women have to feel this in our bones. | | | This is a human rights issue and a living example of how men work their will upon women. | | | A more radical form of clitoridectomy, known as Sudanese or Pharaonic clitoridectomy, is practiced widely in Sudan, generally between the ages of 4 and 8. |
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http://wgst.intrasun.tcnj.edu/newsletter/archives/april1993.html
(634 words)
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| | Mutilation by tradition - Film - www.theage.com.au |
| | There are no euphemisms or fuzzy dance sequences to make it a little more palatable, no experts or Western interpreters. | | | Some are against clitoridectomy, while many others support it, even carry it out. | | | Fardhosa has spent most of her working life trying to mitigate the terrible effects of clitoridectomy on girls having sex for the first time and women attempting to give birth through a web of scar tissue. |
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http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/27/1082831549968.html
(1142 words)
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| | [No title] |
| | In 1990 a govern- ment decree established the Niger Committee Against Harmful Traditional Practices (CONIPRAT), which has studied the prevalence of FGM and organized sensitization seminars and workshops. | | | More commonly, the chronic infections, intermittent bleeding, abscesses and small benign tumours of the nerve which can result from clitoridectomy and excision cause discomfort and extreme pain. | | | However, health benefits are not the most frequently cited reason for mutilation in societies where it is still practised; where they are, it is more likely to be because mutilation is part of an initiation where women are taught to be strong and uncomplaining about illness. |
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http://www.chss.iup.edu/certj/JitCH.htm
(8646 words)
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| | Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine: Female genital mutilation |
| | The most extreme form of genital mutilation is excision and infibulation, in which the clitoris and all of the surround tissue are cut away and the remaining skin is sewn together. | | | A clitoridectomy removes the entire clitoris and some or all of the surrounding tissue. | | | A Sunna circumcision removes the prepuce (a fold of skin that covers the clitoris) and/or the tip of the clitoris. |
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http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2601/is_0005/ai_2601000535
(991 words)
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| | Masturbation is Un-American: Operation Infinite Purity: Winning the War on Masturbation - WHITEHOUSE.ORG |
| | A clitoridectomized woman is permanently cured of masturbation and other lascivious behavior, and is ready to resume her life as a decent and productive member of American society. | | | Clitoridectomy may have a bad reputation in the West, but only because in Africa it is often performed with crude instruments, without anesthesia, and under highly unsanitary conditions. | | | President Bush is proud to unilaterally overturn this law by the power of Executive Order #13252-V, clearing the way for safe and effective clitoridectomies for all American females – performed in sterile, modern operating rooms with plenty of soothing anesthesia. |
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http://www.whitehouse.org/initiatives/purity/index.asp
(767 words)
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| | Hillary and the Clitoridectomy hoax |
| | However, the fact that (except for the backhanded "not practiced in that region") she doesn't even mention the fact of female circumcision -- and the fact that it actually happens, makes it a legitimate issue. | | | The young "Princess Abankwah" said she feared she would be involuntarily subjected to a cutting ritual, known as a clitoridectomy, if tribal members discovered she had engaged in premarital sex. | | | However, regardless of the merits of this particular case, female genital mutilation in Africa has long been documented. |
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/752637/posts
(1662 words)
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| | Circumcision |
| | (85%) of genital mutilations performed in Africa consist of clitoridectomy or | | | Claimed cures were denied; clitoridectomy was called quackery. | | | one year after the publication of his book on clitoridectomy, he was disgraced |
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http://www.adelaideinstitute.org/Mental_Illness/f_circumcision.htm
(1935 words)
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| | Amazon.de: English Books: Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women (Harvest Book) |
| | Included is medical testimony suggesting that female genital mutilation may contribute to the spead of AIDS. | | | Walker, whose 1992 novel Possessing the Secret of Joy explored the life of a genitally mutilated African woman, teamed up with Indian filmmaker Parmar (who was born in Kenya and is based in London) to make a documentary film about this abhorrent practice. | | | This forceful account of how they filmed Warrior Marks in Africa in 1992-93 splices letters, journal entries, photographs, poems and interviews with victims of "female circumcision," their families, women who perform clitoridectomies and activists opposed to the practice. |
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http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0156002140/pokeritiscom-21
(615 words)
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| | Female Genital Mutilation, II |
| | Let's call it what it is: a CLITORIDECTOMY, the | | | wider in meaning than clitoridectomy which as someone pointed out is not always all | | | circumcision and clitoridectomy are also problematic as terms used to cover a |
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http://research.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/fgm2000.html
(2435 words)
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| | Intersexuality and Intersex Conditions FAQ |
| | meaning that clitoridectomy and possibly more extensive procedures are often performed early in life, most often with the effect of loss of erotic sensation and ensueing psychological trauma. |
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http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/Gender/intersexuals/intersexuality_faq.htm
(3756 words)
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| | BIO 226W Nazareth College |
| | Clitoridectomy can result in chronic infections, intermittent bleeding, abscesses and small benign tumors of the nerve which cause discomfort and extreme pain, and infections from urine retention (6). | | | This is also frequent in cases where the practice is unlawful, as families will seek to have it done in secret. | | | This is an example of a combination of a clitorodectomy and the most drastic type, infibulation, and is generally not recognized as one of the main types (1). |
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http://www.naz.edu:9000/~bio226w/cultural/circumcision/femalecirc.htm
(1398 words)
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| | "Female Circumcision and Conflict in Kenya, 1929-1960" |
| | Vaginal wounds on her body suggested her attackers had attempted to “circumcise” her. | | | The Governor of Kenya reported the results of a medical doctor who examined many of the girls, stating that it was obvious the girls did not understand what female circumcision required. | | | Most Europeans opposed it on moral grounds, also claiming that it caused severe health problems. |
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http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/african_history/45388
(1296 words)
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| | Infibulation in the Horn of Africa |
| | The term has been given to a mulative procedure in which the vagina is partially closed by approximating the labia majora in the midline. | | | Clitoridectomy may or may not be included, but the essential part of the operation consists of partial closure of the vulva and the vaginal orifice. | | | Although clitoridectomy is usually included, the important part is closing the vulva and vagina. |
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http://www.cirp.org/pages/female/pieters1
(1494 words)
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| | JAST 5 Vega |
| | Clitoridectomy, rather than infibulation, is closely related to religion (see Mbiti 96-102 for an analysis of the religious meaning of clitoridectomy). | | | Through the “barbaric” exoticism of such practices as clitoridectomy and infibulation (see below), she presents us with the real suffering and unwillingness of their very victims, as narrated by themselves—although Walker’s own voice and political stand are obviously behind them. | | | Infibulation and different types of clitoridectomy are still practiced in some parts of Africa, and there are also cases in Europe, the United States, Central and South America, and Australia, mainly among immigrants from countries where they are a common practice. |
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http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~jast/Number5/Vega.html
(3325 words)
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| | IUCISD: Article List |
| | Such efforts are hampered by centre-local government relations, negative attitudes of people towards development and lack of skills for effective participation. | | | Clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation (CEI) - known to human rights activists as female genital mutilation and to indigenous adherents as female circumcision - impacts the physical integrity and health of some 80 million to 130 million women and girls in 40 developing countries around the world. | | | Clitoridectomy, Excision and Infibulation: Implications for Social Development |
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http://www.iucisd.org/ArticleList.asp?JournalId=42
(1204 words)
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| | In Focus: Speaking Out About FGM — teenwire.com |
| | The most extreme form of this procedure is known as infibulation or pharaonic circumcision &; the removal of the clitoris, inner labia, and the internal part of the outer labia. | | | The most common type of procedure is clitoridectomy or excision — cutting off the clitoris and most of the external genitalia. |
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http://www.teenwire.com/infocus/2003/if-20030401p065-FGM.php
(755 words)
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| | FGM pathfinder |
| | 76-81 refers to clitoridectomies in the US and traditional practices in Africa]. | | | A resource guide for university students with academic research paper assignments on topics related to female circumcision, clitoridectomy, female genital mutilation or cutting, infibulation and related health, legal, cultural and religious issues. | | | I don't "like" the idea of clitoridectomy any better than any other woman I know. |
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http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/africana/fgm_pathfinder.htm
(2022 words)
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| | MUTILATE - ABUSE: SEXUALITY; Sexual Mutilation: Clitoridectomy, Circumcision. |
| | Coventry, "so I had a clitoridectomy when I was 6. | | | The mother had taken her to another surgeon for the clitoridectomy, and that doctor agreed to do it, although he had never done one before. | | | Coventry was told only that she had had "something cut off between her legs," and when, at the age of 11, she pressed her father for details, he warned, "Don't be so self-examining." |
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http://www.earthtym.net/mutilate.htm
(1819 words)
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| | clitoridectomy -- Encyclopædia Britannica |
| | In the Eastern Rift region, however, clitoridectomy and circumcision were practiced, and male age-sets were found in all its areas except some border zones. | | | The practice of female circumcision dates to ancient times… | | | (This region, it must be said, extended westward along the northern savanna of Africa into parts of West Africa, and there circumcision and clitoridectomy were found in places. |
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http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9024411
(499 words)
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| | clitoridectomy |
| | It ranges from clitoridectomy and excision to infibulation (also called Pharaonic circumcision). | | | The usual age for excision ranges from 3 to 8, although it may vary depending on the type of the ritual, the customs and the regions. |
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http://acacia.cnice.mecd.es/~agip0002/auro/clitoridectomy2.html
(992 words)
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| | The True Story of John/Joan (Rolling Stone) |
| | She began an investigation into her medical history but was thwarted by her doctors, who refused to reveal her past. | | | At 19, Chase understood that she'd been subjected to a clitoridectomy. |
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http://www.pfc.org.uk/news/1998/johnjoan.htm
(16050 words)
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| | 22 Jan 98 (Ftrain.com) |
| | It occurred to me, as it no doubt has occurred to you, as you are esteemed and thoughtful, that the word "Clitoridectomy" (henceforth referred to as Clit., et. | | | Please allow my humble self to make a considered suggestion to your esteemed personage. |
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http://www.ftrain.com/archive_subway_19980122.html
(571 words)
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| | Clitoridectomy Today: Barbara Bush's Remarks to Concerned Women for America Announcing National Clitoridectomy Day - ... |
| | And, contrary to what you may have heard, a clitoridectomy is not that hard to do. | | | In fact, I gave my son Neil's soon-to-be-divorced wife Sharon one myself with a pair of cuticle scissors and a shoehorn I just happened to have in my purse when she told me she was going to write a "tell all" book about our family. | | | It is with this problem in mind that I am appearing before all of you carefully culled supporters of my son George W. Bush to announce that He has declared May 17, 2003 to be our country's first annual Clitoridectomy Day. |
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http://www.whitehouse.org/news/2003/051603.asp
(970 words)
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| | Silence = Mutilation |
| | Another, and perhaps more significant factor in the adherence to a policy of denial, is the mass psychological effect of an individual's or a society's unwillingness to give up long held, cherished enmities. | | | Another, and perhaps more significant factor is the adherence to a policy of denial, the mass psychological effect of an individual's or a society's unwillingness to relinquish long held, cherished enmities. | | | It is not surprising that the medical profession is silent about the mass clitoridectomy campaigns of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. |
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http://www.noharmm.org/silence.htm
(5361 words)
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