Female Genital Mutilation

Culture

• Sami Aldeeb Abu-Sahlieh. To Mutilate in the Name of Jehovah or Allah: Legitimization of Male and Female Circumcision. (Translation by Frederick M. Hodges, D. Phil. (Oxon)) Medicine and Law, vol. 13, no. 7-8 ( July 1994): pp. 575-622.

Medical Society Statements

• World Medical Association. Statement on Condemnation of Female Genital Mutilation, Adopted by the 45th World Medical Assembly, Budapest, Hungary, October 1993.
• American Medical Association, Council on Scientific Affairs, Report 5 (I-94): Female Genital Mutilation, Chicago, 1994.
• Commitee on Medical Ethics. Guidance for doctors approached by victims of female genital mutilation. London: British Medical Association, 1996.
• Committee on Bioethics, American Academy of Pediatrics. Female Genital Mutilation (RE9749). Pediatrics 1998; 102(1):153-156.
• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Female Circumcision/Female Genital Mutilation (FC/FGM) Fact Sheet.

Links to Organizations

• Amnesty International: Female Genital Mutilation Information Pack
• Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Africa (Link to new Web site by noted author Hanny Lightfoot-Klein)
• Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey Into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa by Hanny Lightfoot-Klein
• Female Genital Mutilation Research Home Page (Marianne Sarkis)
• The Tahara Project. From filmmaker Sara Rashad
• Research, Action, and Information Network for the Bodily Integrity of Women (RAINBO)
• Deutsch-Afrikanische Frauen Initiative
• Rising Daughters Aware.
• PATH Female Genital Mutilation page
• FGM Network
• Women's International Network

Some Scholarly Journal Articles On The Internet

• Pieters G, Lowenfels AB. Infibulation in the horn of Africa. N Y State Med J 1977;77(5):729-731.
• Hrdy DB. Cultural practices contributing to the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus in Africa. Rev Infect Dis 1987;9(6):1109-19.
• Mohamed Badawi. Epidemiology of female sexual castration in Cairo, Egypt. Presented at The First International Symposium on Circumcision, Anaheim, California, March 1-2, 1989.
• Fran P. Hosken. Female genital mutilation: strategies for eradication. Presented at The First International Symposium on Circumcision, Anaheim, California, March 1-2, 1989.
• Lightfoot-Klein, H. The sexual adjustment of genitally circumcised and infibulated females in the Sudan. J Sex Res 1989;26(3):375-392.
• Lightfoot-Klein H, Shaw E. Special needs of ritually circumcised women patients. JOGNN 1991;20(2):102-107.
• Dirie MA, Lindmark G. The risk of medical complications after female circumcision. East Afr Med J 1992;69(9):479-482.
• Menage J. Post-traumatic stress disorder in women who have undergone obstetric and/or gynaecological procedures. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology 1993; 11:221-228.
• Hanny Lightfoot-Klein. Erroneous Belief Systems Underlying Female Genital Mutilation in Sub-Saharan Africa and Male Neonatal Circumcision in the United States: a Brief Report Updated. Presented at The Third International Symposium on Circumcision, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland May 22-25, 1994.
• Black JA, DeBelle GD. Female genital mutilation in Britain. BMJ 1995;310:1590-1592.
• Gallard C. Female genital mutlation in France. BMJ 1995;310:1592-1593.
• Meniru GI, Meniru MO, Ezeh UO. Female genital mutilation. BMJ 1995;311:1088.
• Menage J. Professionals should not collude with abusive systems. BMJ 1995;311:1088-1089.
• Hamilton J. UN condemns female circumcision. BMJ 1997;314:1145.
• Brady M. Female genital mutilation: complications and risk of HIV transmission. Aids Patient Care STDS 1999;13(12):709-16.
• Ciment J. Senegal outlaws female genital mutilation. BMJ 1999;318:348.
• Abboud P, Christian Quereux C, et al. Stronger campaign needed to end female genital mutilation. BMJ 2000;320:1153.
• Welch J. Caring for Women with Circumcision: A Technical Manual for Health Care Providers. BMJ 2000;320:1481.
• News. Concern mounts over female genital mutilation. BMJ 2000;321:2.
• Scherf C. Women in Africa have many other problems besides genital mutilation. BMJ 2000;321:570.
• Avshalom Zoossmann-Diskin. Male genital mutilation in any society is surely abhorrent too. BMJ 2000;321:570.

Some Law Resources on the Internet

• Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985, United Kingdom
• Female Genital Mutilation: A Report to the Attorney-General, prepared by the Family Law Council June 1994 (Australia).
• Criminalization of Female Genital Mutilation Act. Pub. L. No. 104-208, § 645, 110 Stat. 3009, 3009-708 (1996) 18 U.S.C. 116. (United States)
• Prohibition of female genital mutilation act, New South Wales, Australia
• Section 268, Criminal Code of Canada, 1997.
• Abbie J. Chessler. Justifying the Unjustifable: Rite v. Wrong, 45 Buffalo L. Rev. 555 (1997).
• Doriane Lambelet Coleman, The Seattle Compromise: Multicultural Sensitivity and Americanization, 47 DUKE L.J. 717, 739 (1998).
• Dena S. Davis. Male and Female Genital Alteration: A Collision Course with the Law? 11 Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine 487 (2001).
• Christine Mason. Exorcising excision: medico-legal issues arising from male and female genital surgery in Australia, 9 J Law Med 58 (2001).

International Human Rights Instruments

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, G.A. res. 217A (III), U.N. Doc A/810 at 71 (1948)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), (U.N.T.S. No. 20378, vol. 1249 (1981).
• African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/ (1981).
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), A/RES/44/25 (1989).
• Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women G.A. res. 48/104, 48 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 217, U.N. Doc. A/48/49 (1993).

Bibliographies

• National Child Protection Clearing House Bibliography
• World Health Organization Bibliographic Data Base
• Amnesty International Female Genital Mutilation Bibliography

Female Circumcision in the United States

• Dawson BE. Circumcision in the female: Its necessity and how to perform it. American J Clin Med 1915;22(6):520-523.
• McDonald CF. Circumcision in the female. GP 1958;XVIII(3):98-99.
• Rathman WG. Female circumcision: Indications and a new technique. GP 1959;XX(3):115-120.
• Duffy J. Clitoridectomy: A nineteeth century answer to masturbation. Presented at The First International Symposium on Circumcision, Anaheim, California, March 1-2, 1989.
• Linda Burstyn. Female circumcision comes to America. The Atlantic Monthly 1996;276(4):28-35.
• Celia Dugger. Congress bans genital rite. New York Times, October 12, 1996: A1.
• Christopher Baughman. Doctors Testifies Surgeon Secretly Circumcised Woman. The Advocate, Baton Rouge, October 30, 1996.
• Barbara Crossette. Mutilation Seen as Risk for the Girls of Immigrants. The New York Times, March 23, 1998.
• Michelle Milholland. Woman circumcised by ex-husband awarded $35,000. The Advocate, Baton Rouge, 10 April 2001: 1B-2B.