Female Genital Mutilation 2

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who are infibulated will probably not find husbands. In most cases they will become outcasts.”
Female genital mutilation is not a new practice. In fact circumcised females have been discovered among the mummies of ancient Egyptians. A Greek papyrus dated 163 BC refers to operations performed on girls at the age they received their dowries. A Greek geographer reported the custom of circumcision of girls he found while visiting Egypt in 25 BC. In Africa female circumcision has been reported in at least twenty-six countries and can be viewed as a public health problem “because of its wide geographic distribution, the number of females involved and the serious complications caused by the operation.”
Female genital mutilation is practiced in three major forms: “Sunna” circumcision, Clitoridectomy, and Infibulation. Sunna circumcision consists of the removal of the tip of the clitoris and/or the prepuce (covering). Clitoridectomy, also ...

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are minimal. The tools they use to operate with are rarely sterilized and include knives, razor blades, scissors, and in some cases sharp stones and pieces of broken glass. These instruments are used on several girls in succession without being sterilized and the patient is rarely given anesthesia.
Circumcision among the Yoruba occurs one week after birth while in Ethiopia girls are operated on after they are forty days old. In Somalia individuals or groups of girls are operated when they are between the ages of five and eight. In Kenya, many girls are circumcised between the ages of eleven and fifteen while in the Ivory Coast the operations are performed as a village puberty rite. ...

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