As you are reading this, there are between eight and ten million women, girls and boys in the Middle East who are at risk of undergoing a form of genital cutting. This procedure has been given the names of Female and Male Genital Mutilation, or FGM/MGM, by its opponents. It occurs everyday in Middle Eastern countries, such as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Syria. It is also prevalent in many African countries, parts of Asia and Europe, and has begun to surface in certain immigrant societies in Canada, Australia, and the United States. FGM is the " term used to refer to any practice which includes the removal or alteration of the female genitalia."" (FGM Network). It is practiced as a religious and social custom. Sometimes referred to as "the cutting of the rose- (Ellis, 1998, p. 3), this procedure is usually performed immediately after birth, but usually occurs before puberty. It is frequently done without the care of medically trained people and without anesthesia. It is usually performed by a midwife, in certain cultures called a daja. The girl is held down by other women to prevent her from moving. The instruments used by these un-medically trained people include the following: broken glass, a tin lid, razor blades, knives, scissors or any sharp object found lying around which are often not sterile. The same instrument is repeatedly used on a number of women at the same time without cleaning any of them. Once the genital area for removal is gone, the child is stitched up, sometimes using thorns to poke holes in the skin and a heavy thread is pulled through. The child's legs are then bound for up to 40 days for healing. The boys' procedure requires some of the same methods. They are held down by other women and the same instruments used on girls are used on the boys. The foreskin, and sometimes all the skin surrounding the penis, is cut off. Side effects for men and women include " death, serious infections, HIV, abscesses and small benign tumors, hemorrhages, shock, clitoral cysts Long term effects include kidney stones, sterility, sexual dysfunction, depression, various urinary tract infections, various gynecological and obstetric problems.
