Female Circumcision

Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf is Senior Research Associate at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University. She is the author of Wanderings: Sudanese Migrants and Exiles in North America.

Female CircumcisionMulticultural PerspectivesEdited by Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf"A provocative book, clearly written for both general and scholarly audiences."--American Ethnologist"Abusharaf's integrated collection of articles presents current international, cultural, and ideological debates as well as accounts of campaigns against the practices in several countries in Africa and of their impact in Europe and North America. . . . A provocative book, clearly written for both general and scholarly audiences."--American EthnologistBolokoli, khifad, tahara, tahoor, qudiin, irua, bondo, kuruna, negekorsigin, and kene-kene are a few of the terms used in local African languages to denote a set of cultural practices collectively known as female circumcision. Practiced in many countries across Africa and Asia, this ritual is hotly debated. Supporters regard it as a central coming-of-age ritual that ensures chastity and promotes fertility. Human rights groups denounce the procedure as barbaric. It is estimated that between 100 million and 130 million girls and women today have undergone forms of this genital surgery.Female Circumcision gathers together African activists to examine the issue within its various cultural and historical contexts, the debates on circumcision regarding African refugee and immigrant populations in the United States, and the human rights efforts to eradicate the practice. This work brings African women's voices into the discussion, foregrounds indigenous processes of social and cultural change, and demonstrates the manifold linkages between respect for women's bodily integrity, the empowerment of women, and democratic modes of economic development.This volume does not focus narrowly on female circumcision as a set of ritualized surgeries sanctioned by society. Instead, the contributors explore a chain of connecting issues and processes through which the practice is being transformed in local and transnational contexts. The authors document shifts in local views to highlight processes of change and chronicle the efforts of diverse communities as agents in the process of cultural and social transformation.Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf is Senior Research Associate at the Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University. She is the author of Wanderings: Sudanese Migrants and Exiles in North America.Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights2006 | 296 pages | 6 x 9 | 2 illus.ISBN 978-0-8122-1941-8 | Paper | $24.95s | £16.50 ISBN 978-0-8122-0102-4 | Ebook | $24.95s | £16.50 World Rights | Anthropology, Women's/Gender StudiesShort copy:Female Circumcision brings together African activists to examine the issue within its various cultural and historical contexts, the debates on circumcision regarding African refugee and immigrant populations in the U.S. and the human rights efforts to eradicate the practice.

1. Introduction: The Custom in Question—Rogaia Mustafa AbusharafPART I: LOCAL CONTEXTS AND CURRENT DEBATES2. "Had This Been Your Face, Would You leave It as Is?" Female Circumcision Among Nubians of Egypt—Fadwa El Guindi3. Male and Female Circumcision: The Myth of the Difference—Sami A. Aldeeb Abu-SahliehPART II: AFRICAN CAMPAIGNS TO ERADICATE FEMALE CIRCUMCISION4. Community-Based Efforts to End Female Genital Mutilation in Kenya: Raising Awareness and Organizing Alternative Rites of Passage—Asha Mohamud, Samson Radeny, and Karin Ringheim5. A Community of Women Empowered: The Story of Deir Al Barsha—Amal Abdel Hadi6. Strategies for Encouraging the Abandonment of Female Genital Cutting: Experiences from Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Mali—Nafissatou J. Diop and Ian Askew7. The Sudanese National Committee on the Eradication of Harmful Traditional Practices and the Campaign Against Female Genital Mutilation—Hamid El Bashir8. The Babiker Badri Scientific Association for Women's Studies and the Eradication of Female Circumcision in the Sudan—Shahira Ahmed9. "My Grandmother Called It the Three Feminine Sorrows": The Struggle of Women Against Female Circumcision in Somalia—Raqiya D. AbdallaPART III: DEBATES IN IMMIGRANT-RECEIVING SOCIETIES10. The Double-Edged Sword: Using Criminal Law Against Female Genital Mutilation—Audrey Macklin11. Representing Africa in the Kasinga Asylum Case—Charles Piot12. Afterword: Safe Harbor and Homage—L. Amede ObioraNotesList of ReferencesList of ContributorsIndexAcknowledgments