I’ve known about female circumcision, or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) for a long time. When I was a college student, my hate for the practice was solidified when it was coincidentally discussed in two separate classes on the same morning.
After the talk in Geography gave me an upset stomach, the detailed written account in Child Psychology pushed me to the brink of faint. Even as my vision went black and my hearing faded, all I could think about was how wrong FGM is. If it could have such an impact on a 22 year-old white girl in hyper-Christian West Michigan, imagine what it does to the underprivileged Muslim women in Egypt.
Without going into too much detail, let me clarify what female circumcision is. Like male circumcision, it removes part of the genitalia. Unlike typical male circumcision in the west, female circumcision is often intended to preserve virginity, and perpetuate what you and I might see as oppressive and sexist tradition. More information is available on this Equality Now PDF.
