The concerns of continuing female genital mutilation practices.

Essay by anonymous82743University, Bachelor's December 2005

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The article, "In Africa, FGM Checks into Hospitals," journalist Fredrick Nwzili writes about the concerns of continuing female genital mutilation practices. According to Nwzili, "now that some traditional practitioners have disavowed it, many doctors and nurses are taking up the illegal practice" (Nwzili). Apparently, some of the old traditional doctors discontinued female genital mutilation and also, another assumption for the increase in illegal practices of doctors performing the surgery, is the shift from rural to urban areas. "'With activists campaigning about the unhygienic conditions in which traditional circumcisers carry out their trade, some parents are taking their daughter to the modern doctors,' says Efua Dorkenoo, a Ghanaian activist against FGM" (Nwzili). The families trust the doctors to be sanitary in this procedure, more so than in rural setting. "The procedure is often performed under the pretext of illness and often takes place early in the morning or late at night to avoid possible detection" (Nwzili).

Faking illness, families will illegally permit doctors to operate on their daughters for the sake of upholding traditions centuries old. Although female genital mutilation is outlawed in numerous African countries, nurses and doctors will take the practice outside of the hospital for a little extra money to line the inside of their pockets and these nurses and doctors can draw in customers who trust in their expertise and training.

The first map, "Under the Knife," (Seager, p.54), shows that there are "more than fifty percent of women and girls mutilated" (Seager, p.55) in the Djibouti. Female genital mutilation is a common practice in the country of Djibouti even though it is supposed to be outlawed throughout all the states in the country. This may be because "the practice is so culturally embedded in some societies that it is proving difficult to challenge" (Seager, p.54).