Genital Mutation

By

Genital Mutation

Background of the Study

In the world of today, most of the women experience various barriers in gaining rights including employment, land, food, social security and housing. These barriers also include obstacles such as the burden of disproportionate reproduction and the work of care providers offered by women, the division of labour based on gender and segregate practices of the employees etc. the social positions of the women, their marital status, membership or class in particular vulnerable groups, for example a migrant or a refugee women, urban or rural poor women are linked and sometimes used for promoting discrimination (Mohanty, 2003, p. 14).

Female genital mutilation, or “FGM”, has long been discussed within feminist discourses and activism, largely in terms of the need for harm reduction or eradication. Meanwhile, intersexuality has steadily been gaining the attention of Western feminists within the last decade and is beginning to be understood not just as a medical condition, but as part of a larger system of socialized gender and sex norms that have negative consequences and effects for those involved in the medical interventions that the treatment of intersexuality in infants entails. Still, intersexuality receives piecemeal attention from feminists in comparison to “FGM”, which is alarming given the areas in which these practices overlap physically and culturally, and the contradictions inherent in insisting upon regarding them so differently based solely on the global and social locations of these practices (Hernlund and Bettina, 2007, p. 15).

Aim and Objectives

The aim of this research study is to explore if the statement 'Female Genital Mutilation is an Abuse of Human Rights'. This research study will meet the below mentioned objectives of this research.

Problem Statement

Essentially the victims are becoming the perpetrators of the abuse. Thus, Bergen et al., (2006) insists that it is the malleable foundation of the child's brain, which is altered by internalizing the abuse through the overdevelopment of the brainstem and the midbrain causing hostility and hyper arousal. This is caused by the trauma inflicted by FGM. In addition, the social learning theory would predict that children model the behaviour of adults and continue the cycle of violence (Snow and Wacker 91). Prior research on FGM has focused primarily on documenting the many adverse short-term and long-term consequences of FGM (Patel and Amin 683). Other studies have attempted to secure data on prevalence of those that have been subjected to this form of abuse (Osten 26).

It is often simply assumed that FGM is rare to nonexistent in countries without research on the prevalence of FGM, particularly in the Middle East (Mathews 139). This is reinforced by the fact that government officials often deny that FGM exists in their country, yet refuse to allow research on this issue, including refusing to incorporate modules on FGM or any aspect of child sexual or physical abuse in the Demographic and Health Survey and Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (DHS/MICS) or other national surveys (Herieka and Dhar 79). It is inappropriate to assume that young girls ...