Since the beginning of time, men have been the more dominating sex. Women have always had to serve and be inferior to men. FGM is performed all over the world. It mostly takes place in West Africa, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, and Iran. FGM is even performed in countries where it is illegal; such as the United States, Canada and Europe. Women should be allowed to be educated, work, and in charge of her body and soul. Although we are in the twenty first century, women all over the world are still constantly struggling. While women have progressed in some areas, there are still practices like FGM that dehumanizes, degrade, declass, diminish and weaken women. .
The term Female Genital Mutilation was adopted in the 1970's and it replaced the term "female circumcision. " However, FGM was practiced way before. It has been in practice for about 1400 years. FGM, to sum it up, is the removal of part, or all, of the female genitalia. According to Walker and Parmar, FGM was practiced on slaves bought to the United States from Africa (Walker, 1993). It has just been passed from family to family. According to Walker there are Four Cardinal Virtues of true Womanhood: This ideal of womanhood has essentially four parts--four characteristics any good and proper young woman should cultivate: piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness (Walker, 1993). Women in countries such as Somalia are considered to be a burden and therefore must sacrifice themselves. They're considered burdens because they aren't men and they can't carry on the name of their family. Sometimes they're considered burdens because they can't work and make money. FGM is for the most part done so that a girl stays "pure " for marriage. It is usually practiced in countries in Africa. According to Women's Human Rights "it is common in a band that stretches from Senegal in West Africa to Ethiopia on the East Coast as well as from Egypt in the north to Tanzania in the South ".
