Nawal M. Nour

Last updated
Nawal M. Nour
Born1966
NationalitySudanese American
Alma mater Brown University, Harvard Medical School
Known forAfrican Women's Health Practice
Awards MacArthur Fellows Program
Scientific career
Fieldsobstetrician and gynecologist

Nawal M. Nour is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist who directs the Ambulatory Obstetrics Practice at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. [1] Her research and practice focus on providing the right care to women who have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), also called female circumcision, and she founded the first and only hospital center in the U.S. that focuses on the medical needs of African women who have undergone FGM/C. [2] In 2017, she was listed in Forbes among 40 Women To Watch. [3]

Contents

Early life

Nour was born in 1966 [4] in Khartoum, Sudan, and was raised in Egypt and England. She reports that she always had two major interests as a young woman: women's health and helping the world. [2] As a child, she was surrounded by FGC/M [5] but was inspired to focus her work on it by Nawal El Saadawi's book, in which Saadawi describes her own circumcision [2] Nour attended Brown University, and went to Harvard Medical School to get her medical degree. [2]

Career

As a medical doctor, Nour gathered a group of patients who were all women who had undergone FGM/C. She worked at Brigham and Women's hospital, and in 1999 created the African Women's Health Center, which provides holistic care to women who have been circumcised. [2] She talks about the care they give women: "The kind of care we give is no better than any other care...We're basically physicians...who understand that there are some women out there who have been circumcised and in some ways it's not something we want to make a big deal about. We want to nurture these patients, but we don't want to ostracize them" [2] She researches health and policy of FGM/C. Nour has developed and studied difibulation, a surgical process to alleviate some of the negative effects FGM/C has on women's health. [6] Her work aims both to educate doctors caring for women who have been circumcised, and to eradicate FGM/C [1]

Awards

Other

Dr Nour joined other thought leaders at Oxford University's OAC: Breaking the Frame[works] conference at the Blavatnik School of Government. She took part initialing monumental heirloom the Philosophers Legacy. [8]

Works

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Female genital mutilation</span> Ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia

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. UNICEF estimated in 2016 that 200 million women in 30 countries—Indonesia, Iraq, Yemen, and 27 African countries including Egypt—had been subjected to one or more types of female genital mutilation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genital modification and mutilation</span> Permanent or temporary changes to human sex organs

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.

Khalid Misri Adem is an Ethiopian who was both the first person prosecuted and first person convicted for female genital mutilation (FGM) in the United States, stemming from charges that he had personally excised his 2-year-old daughter's clitoris with a pair of scissors.

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clitoral hood reduction</span> Cosmetic surgical procedure

Clitoral hood reduction, also termed clitoral hoodectomy, clitoral unhooding, clitoridotomy, or (partial) hoodectomy, is a plastic surgery procedure for reducing the size and the area of the clitoral hood (prepuce) in order to further expose the clitoral glans of the clitoris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religious views on female genital mutilation</span> Female genital mutilation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament. It extended previous legislation by also making it illegal for UK nationals to perform female genital mutilation outside the borders of the UK. There have been no known cases of girls from Scotland being sent abroad for the procedure. The Act also increased the maximum penalty from five to 14 years.

Nahid Toubia is a Sudanese surgeon and women's health rights activist, specializing in research into female genital mutilation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comfort Momoh</span> British midwife who specializes in the study of female genital mutilation

Comfort Iyabo Amah Momoh, is a British midwife who specializes in the treatment of female genital mutilation (FGM). Born in Nigeria, Momoh is a member of the British FGM national clinical group, established in 2007 to train health professionals in how to deal with the practice. Until 2017 she served as a public-health specialist at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London. She is the editor of Female Genital Mutilation (2005).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prevalence of female genital mutilation</span>

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."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Campaign against female genital mutilation in colonial Kenya</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fuambai Ahmadu</span> Sierra Leonean-American anthropologist

Fuambai Sia Ahmadu is a Sierra Leonean-American anthropologist. She has worked for UNICEF and the British Medical Research Council in the Gambia.

Female genital mutilation in the United Kingdom is the ritual removal of some or all of the external female genitalia of women and girls living in the UK. According to Equality Now and City University London, an estimated 103,000 women and girls aged 15–49 were thought to be living with female genital mutilation (FGM) in England and Wales as of 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Female genital mutilation in the United States</span> Occurrence and regulation of FGM in the US

Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female circumcision or female genital cutting, includes any procedure involving the removal or injury of part or all of external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. While the practice is most common in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, FGM is also widespread in immigrant communities and metropolitan areas in the United States, and was performed by doctors regularly until the 1980s.

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%.

Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as Female circumcision or Female Genital Cutting (FGC) in Nigeria accounts for the most female genital cutting/mutilation (FGM/C) cases worldwide. The practice is customarily a family tradition that the young female of the age 0-15 would experience. It is a procedure that involves partial or completely removing the external females genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whenever for non-medical reasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nice Nailantei Leng'ete</span>

Nice Nailantei Leng'ete is a Kenyan human rights activist, advocating for alternative rite of passage (ARP) for girls in Africa and campaigning to stop female genital mutilation (FGM). In her work with Amref Health Africa, Leng'ete has saved an estimated 15,000 girls from undergoing genital mutilation and for many, childhood marriages. She was named by Time Magazine in 2018 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is highly prevalent in Sudan. According to a 2014 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), 86.6 percent of women aged 15–49 in Sudan reported living with FGM, and said that 31.5 percent of their daughters had been cut. The most common FGM procedure in that country is Type III (infibulation); the 2014 survey found that 77 percent of respondents had experienced Type III.

<i>Woman, Why Do You Weep?</i> 1982 book by Asma El Dareer

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.

References

  1. 1 2 "African Women's Health Center | Bio of Nawal Nour, MD, MPH". www.brighamandwomens.org.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Nawal M. Nour | TEDxBrownUniversity". www.brown.edu.
  3. Johnson Whitney (Oct 10, 2017). "40 Women To Watch Over 40 Celebrates Possibilities Ahead For Women". Forbes . Retrieved Dec 10, 2017.
  4. "RelSci | The Relationship Capital Platform | Relationship Science". www.relsci.com.
  5. Dreifus, Claudia (July 11, 2000). "A CONVERSATION WITH/NAWAL NOUR; A Life Devoted to Stopping The Suffering of Mutilation". The New York Times.
  6. Nour NM, Michels KB, Bryant AE (2006). "Defibulation to treat female genital cutting: effect on symptoms and sexual function". Obstet Gynecol. 108 (1): 55–60. doi:10.1097/01.AOG.0000224613.72892.77. PMID   16816056. S2CID   1780433.
  7. http://www.reedescholars.org/scholars/scholar.cfm?id=43%5B%5D
  8. "Leaders endorse "Phylosophers Legacy", a monumental piece". Talk Media Africa. 28 October 2017. Retrieved Dec 10, 2017.