International Day Against Female Genital Mutilation (11)
--------------------------------------------------------
Dear Rosenquist,
Your views on female genital "mutilation" are interesting, actually
they echo intellectual reasoning. I am an African, I believe in cer-
tain aspects of our culture and what purpose certain cultural prac-
tices were meant to serve. What is being termed "Genital Mutilation"
is a misnomer and I am sure it's an equivalent of female circumci-
sion. There is nothing wrong with that, I support it fully except
that since we are now living in modern times, the methods we should
deploy to achieve the same results should be modern. People should
campaign against use of sharp razors or knives without pain suppres-
sors and not the act. Female circumcision should be restricted to li-
censed medical personnel.
What those who advocate the ban of this practice should know is that
there are certain countries within Africa e.g. Zambia (my country)
where male circumcision is practiced by all tribes of North-western
Province. The practice is done in a traditional way (use of a sharp
knife). Is it that people have not done much research and don't know
about this practice ? If they know, why don't they call it "male
genital mutilation" and campaign against the act too?
I agree with your professor that that one sure way of provoking a
riot at an international medicine conference is to bring up this mat-
ter... and I add in "with the view of changing our society's norm".
Michael Banda
Assistant Research Officer
University of Zambia
Lusaka, Central Africa
mailto:nankamba@hotmail.com
--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.