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Female genital mutilation is torture
The term "circumcision"
sounds harmless. However, the practice means torture since the
genitals of girls and women are mutilated in the worst manner.
And they remain mutilated for the rest of their lives, because
the intervention is irreversible. The human right to life and
physical integrity is violated.
The World Health Organization, UNICEF and UNFPA distinguish four
forms of female genital mutilation:
| Type I: |
Partial or
total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce (clitoridectomy) |
| Type II: |
Partial or
total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with
or without excision of the labia majora (excision) |
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Type III:
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Narrowing of
the vaginal orifice with creation of a covering seal by
cutting and appositioning the labia minora and/or the
labia majora, with or without excision of the clitoris (infibulation) |
| Type IV: |
All other
harmful procedures to the female genitalia for
non-medical purposes, for example: pricking, piercing,
incising, scraping and cauterization |
In the majority of
cases, the procedure takes place within humble huts under
disastrous sanitary conditions. The surgeons are traditional
healers, midwives and barbers. The mutilation which often
takes about half an hour is carried out without anaesthesia.
During the operation, several women forcibly hold down the
girl. The instruments range from razor blades, knives, blunt
scissors, glass shards to lids of tins.
More and more often
mutilations are carried out by trained staff in medical
facilities in order to prevent undesirable side effects.
However, international organisations reject the medicalization
of the practice. Even those who were cut under more hygienic
conditions must bear the consequences of the mutilation. In the
end it still constitutes a violation of human rights of girls
and women.
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