[Terms]
Female Circumcision (n): partial or complete removal of the clitoris, prepuce, or labia of a girl or young woman, as practiced among certain cultures, especially in parts of Africa or western Africa.
Infibulation (n): the stitching together of the vulva, often after a clitoridectomy, leaving a small opening for the passage of urine or menstrual blood. The most severe form of female circumcision.
A survey of female circumcision in the Sudan by Lindy Williams and Teresa Sobieszczyk:
"90% of all women surveyed either had circumcised or planned to circumcise all of their daughters. Roughly, half of those women reported favoring the most severe procedures."
The practice of female circumcision ranges in severity, either a one-time ceremonial washing of the tip of the clitoris to the removal of all female genitalia.
The severity of infibulation:
- From Williams, "Infibulation or Pharaonic circumcision involves ... the scraping or cutting away of most of the labia majora with knives, razor blades or broken bottles.Any remnants...stitched shut with cat gut or thread. What remains is a tiny opening, roughly the size of a match stick...the girl's legs are then tied together - ankles, knees, and thighs - and she is immobilized for an extended period."
- Deinfibulation - a breaking of the scar - must occur for childbirth and typically for their first experience of sexual intercourse.
- Reinfibulation - re-sewing the scar - occurs after each birth, then they are deinfibulated when sex resumes, and reinfibulation may again occur if husbands leave for an extended period of time in order to ensure the wife's fidelity.
The custom of female circumcision continues because it "serves as an important initiation ot the adult community...it serves to construct, enhance, or reinforce femininity, female purity, or virginity in conjunction with cultural norms that govern family honor, women, in gneral, and female sexuality and marriageability."
