Female Genital Mutilation: A Practical Guide to Worldwide Laws & Policies

By Nahid Toubia and Anika Rahman

Book Overview

The book opens with a description of female circumcision/female genital mutilation, its history and its consequences for health. The authors look at the reasons used to justify it--control of women's sexuality, tradition, interpretation of religious dictates--and present a history of the movement working to combat it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1856497739
• ISBN13: 9781856497732
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Unfortunate title

Upon first glance, an unsuspecting reader might think that he or she had stumbled upon a practical guide to performing female genital mutilation. Keep reading this unwieldy title and you will find (thankfully)that this is not the case. It is actually a practical guide to worldwide laws and policies regarding FGM. Oops--maybe this press should be more careful in editing its titles!

gavami

This book has been very helpful in my research on female genital mutilation and the laws and policies regarding this issue.

FGM and American women

Nothing is quite so exciting as objectively watching human cultural prejudice. I believe the cutting of the genitals of both boys and girls is wrong, but look at the double standard women's groups have engendered. In the USA a family can be deported or denied admission if the circumcise a daughter. A medical doctor may be placed in prison if he performs a female circumcision, no matter how minor. But the UGLY duplicity of Americans soon is seen.After more than 30 years of no substantial medical benefit found for male circumcision, despite some shrill objections to ending it from a handful of agenda dedicated doctors, male circumcision remains alive and well. In fact, even funded by public money in many states.Yes many states actually pay tax dollars for this mutilation and insist a social disability if boys are not cut. Why not say same for girls in FGM areas?Although Moslems mutilate so do Jews, African tribes and at least half the... We indeed live as Einstein said, in a World of relativity!

Valuable resource

I used Female Genital Mutilation... as a source in the composition of my graduate project. I found it to be a valuable resource in the search for domestic and international female circumcision eradication policy. It provides insight into the approaches being utilized by governments to cease this controversial practice.

Valuable reference material

This book is edited by Nahia Toubia, who is a medical doctor born in Sudan who has written extensively on female circumcision or FGM.This is an atlas of the laws and practices in the 28 countries of Africa that actively engage in FGM as a tradition, and worldwide, where the laws vary from permissive to banned. It also has a history and guide to the cultural development of the practice as well as medical information.