Ahmadu is known for her work on female circumcision or what opponents refer to as female genital mutilation (FGM) and, in particular, for her decision as an adult and member of the Kono ethnic group to undergo initiation into the female controlled Bundu secret society.[3][4] Contrary to the position of the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other UN bodies, she has argued that the health risks of most types of female circumcision are exaggerated, its effect on women's sexuality misunderstood, and that most affected women do not experience it as an oppressive practice.[5] Ahmadu's views are shared by several other anthropologists.[6]
↑ Hernlund, Ylva (2003). "Childhood: Coming of Age Rituals", in Suad Joseph, Afsāna Naǧmābādī (eds.). Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures: Family, Body, Sexuality And Health. Volume 3, Brill, p.74.
↑ Ahmadu, Fuambai (2000). "Rites and Wrongs: An Insider/Outsider Reflects on Power and Excision", in Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund (eds.). Female "circumcision" in Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change. Lynne Rienner Publishers, pp.283–312.
↑ Ahmadu, Fuambai S.; Shweder, Richard A. (December 2009). "Disputing the myth of the sexual dysfunction of circumcised women: An interview with Fuambai S. Ahmadu by Richard A. Shweder". Anthropology Today. 25 (6): 14–17. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8322.2009.00699.x. S2CID17286057.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found in some countries of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and within their respective diasporas. As of 2023, UNICEF estimates that "at least 200 million girls... in 31 countries", including Indonesia, Iraq, Yemen, and 27 African countries including Egypt—had been subjected to one or more types of female genital mutilation.
Genital modifications are forms of body modifications applied to the human sexual organs, such as piercings, circumcision, or labiaplasty.
Infibulation is the ritual removal of the external female genitalia and the suturing of the vulva, a practice found mainly in northeastern Africa, particularly in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan. The World Health Organization refers to the procedure as Type III female genital mutilation. Infibulation can also refer to placing a clasp through the foreskin in men.
Applied anthropology is the practical application of anthropological theories, methods, and practices to the analysis and solution of practical problems. The term was first put forward by Daniel G. Brinton in his paper titled, "The Aims of Anthropology" and John Van Willengen simply defined applied anthropology as "anthropology put to use" Applied anthropology includes conducting research with a primary or tertiary purpose to solve real-world problems in areas such as public health, education, government, business, and more.
Khitan or Khatna is the Arabic term for circumcision, and the Islamic term for the practice of religious male circumcision in Islamic culture. Male circumcision is widespread in the Muslim world, and accepted as an established practice by all Islamic schools of jurisprudence. It is considered a sign of belonging to the wider Muslim community (Ummah).
There is a widespread view among practitioners of female genital mutilation (FGM) that it is a religious requirement, although prevalence rates often vary according to geography and ethnic group. There is an ongoing debate about the extent to which the practice's continuation is influenced by custom, social pressure, lack of health-care information, and the position of women in society. The procedures confer no health benefits and can lead to serious health problems.
Nahid Toubia is a Sudanese surgeon and women's health rights activist, specializing in research into female genital mutilation.
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting (FGC), female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is practiced in 30 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, in parts of the Middle East and Asia, and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia. The WHO defines the practice as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."
The campaign against female genital mutilation in colonial Kenya (1929–1932), also known as the female circumcision controversy, was a period within Kenyan historiography known for efforts by British missionaries, particularly from the Church of Scotland, to stop the practice of female genital mutilation in colonial Kenya. The campaign was met with resistance by the Kikuyu, the country's largest tribe. According to American historian Lynn M. Thomas, female genital mutilation became a focal point of the movement campaigning for independence from British rule, and a test of loyalty, either to the Christian churches or to the Kikuyu Central Association, the largest association of the Kikuyu people.
Ellen Gruenbaum is an American anthropologist. A specialist in researching medical practices that are based on a society’s culture.
Carla Makhlouf Obermeyer is a medical anthropologist and epidemiologist specializing in the study of fertility and HIV. A former associate professor of Population and International Health at Harvard University, Obermeyer was director of the Center for Research on Population and Health at the American University of Beirut as of 2013. She has also worked for the World Health Organization's Department of HIV/AIDS.
Hulda Jane Stumpf was an American Christian missionary who was murdered in her home near the Africa Inland Mission station in Kijabe, Kenya, where she worked as a secretary and administrator.
Female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone is the common practice of removing all or part of the female's genitalia for cultural and religious initiation purposes, or as a custom to prepare them for marriage. Sierra Leone is one of 28 countries in Africa where female genital mutilation (FGM) is known to be practiced and one of few that has not banned it. It is widespread in part due to it being an initiation rite into the "Bondo," though initiation rite-related FGM was criminalised in 2019. The type most commonly practised in Sierra Leone is Type IIb, removal of part or all of the clitoris and the labia minora. As of 2013, it had a prevalence of 89.6%.
Demba Diawara is an imam and village leader of Keur Simbara in Senegal. He is known for his leadership in encouraging village communities to abandon the tradition of female genital cutting. He knew of the first declarations at the Senegalse village of Malicounda Bambara to abandon FGC in 1997 and he led his village and many more to the first multilateral announcement at Diabougou in 1998.
Keur Simbara is a small village in the Thiès Region in Senegal. The village is known internationally because of the efforts of its village chief Demba Diawara. He persuaded a group of villages to co-operate to renounce Female Genital Cutting. Diawara believed that in order for Keur Simbara to renounce FGM then he would need to persuade the villages wider social network. This was achieved. Keur Simbara, a small village, has received Ministers from other countries.
The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (GAMCOTRAP) is a Gambian NGO established in 1984. It campaigns against female genital mutilation, and aims to promote and secure health and empowerment for women through community education.
Asma Abdel Rahim El Dareer is a Sudanese physician known for her research in the 1980s into female genital mutilation. She was one of the first Arab women and feminist doctors to speak out publicly against the practice.
Rose Oldfield Hayes was an American anthropologist at the State University of New York, Buffalo. After doing fieldwork in Sudan in 1970 interviewing women who had been infibulated, Hayes wrote the first scholarly paper on female genital mutilation (FGM) that used that term, and the first to incorporate information from the women themselves. Published in American Ethnologist in 1975, the paper represented an important step forward in understanding the practice.
Woman, Why Do You Weep? Circumcision and Its Consequences (1982) is a book by Sudanese physician Asma El Dareer about female genital mutilation in Sudan. Published in London by Zed Press in association with the Babiker Bedri Scientific Association for Women's Studies, the book summarizes research El Dareer conducted on female genital mutilation (FGM) for the medical faculty of the University of Khartoum.
Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf is a Sudanese ethnographer and is Professor of Anthropology at Georgetown University in Qatar.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
