Cultural Relativism Essay

In Chapter Thirteen, “Grassroots vs. Treetops” of Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn the act of genital mutilation is discussed. It starts off by giving gory details on genital mutilation, stating that every ten a girl is mutilated. Despite the medical problems surrounding female genital mutilation, it thrived in parts of Africa as a serious problem for young girls. FGM is sometimes described as a female circumcision, it’s cultural significance is to reduce sexual trends and to make the girls more marriageable. However, often these procedures are done with no new medical supplies and are performed with dirty materials leading to infection and sometimes death for girls partaking. A woman in Illinois is doing her best to stop female genital mutilation by working closely with each village and getting to the main source of the problem. Most people were under educated about what was wrong with female genital mutilation, it was a cultural rite of passage. But through working with each individual village, this woman could help ban female genital mutilation is thousands of villages and increased school attendance at the same time.

This week's encounter with FGC or Female Genital Cutting disturbed me and my eyes were opened to some of the harsh realities in the world. Everyone in the class was either assigned to be "pro" FGC or against. Based on which side of the argument you were assigned, each side read an article defending that side, and everyone watched the same documentary on a journey of a young woman in Africa leading up to her coming of age ceremony involving genital cutting. Throughout the video, you can tell that FGC is a common and important practice in West African Societies. A teenager named Mary was preparing for the coming of age ceremony, and the nervousness was noticeable. Someone who actually does the cutting was interviewed, and she discussed her livelihood and how there is a certain technique to the practice. Finally the time come for Mary to "become a woman" and the cutting came and went. The ceremony was at the very least hard to watch. The pain was clear in the aftermath, but the celebration continued and Mary seemed fine at the end. Also, a woman named Alice

The horrible practice of female circumcision in sections of Africa as summarized in Female Circumcision: Rite of Passage or Violation of Rights? must be stopped. Female circumcision has been exercised for centuries in Africa and is usually performed without any anesthetic by practitioners with insufficient knowledge of human medicine or anatomy. Female genital cutting is a component for preparing adolescent girls for womanhood and marriage. There are three general types of genital excision: clitoridectomy, excision, and infibulation - the severity is in ascending order. Infibulation is the most severe and is “particularly likely to cause long-term health problems” (Althaus 245). Despite the ample amount of risks and health problems, some practitioners view female circumcision as an “integral part of their cultural and ethnic identity, and some perceive it as a religious obligation” (Althaus 243). The cultural practice of female circumcision requires the scrutiny of the West and should be abolished altogether because genital excision is injurious to women's health, has no health benefits, and is a violation of human rights.

Female Genital Mutilation, is a topic which has caused many controversies worldwide. Female Genital Mutilation is a tradition since antiquity, which occurs in twenty eight countries in Africa, and among certain communities in the Middle East, and Asia. The latitude of this issue is massive. The United Nations estimates that this practice has been performed on about 140 million females, who encounter immediate complications of shock, infections, damage to the urethra, scar formation, tetanus, bladder infections, HIV, along with long -term complications that lead to death (Lauren V, 2011). It is estimated that 3 million girls are at risk annually! During this paper, I will discuss in depth the two ethical theories (Deontology and Utilitarianism). These ethical theories will be a guide, to help understand the moral issues of Female Mutilation, and whether one can view female mutilation to be right or wrong. Aside from the ethical theories, I

Female circumcision will continue to be a terrorizing practice in Africa and will continue until laws are strictly enforced or certain religious practices are stopped.FC/GM is a practice that is hardly spoken of even though it is going on all around us. Just because it primarily happens in Africa does not mean women are affected in the Unite States also. Over 180 million women worldwide have been affected. Laws have been put in place but, they are hardly followed. This practice is strictly a religious based practice with no health benefits. If anything it causes more deaths. Survivors of FC/GM remember the procedure like it was yesterday and have terrorizing memories of. Over 20 years late one women is still horrified by her own memories and

The article, Female Genital Mutilation Is a Canadian Issue Too, explores how the act of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a social justice issues beyond the foreign nations it is associated with. While FGM is associated with countries in Africa and the Middle East where it is seen as the norm, we see cases in our modern and progressive nation. The article first defines FGM as girls being forced to have some or all of their external genitalia cut off and, in some cases, having their vaginal opening sown closed. This may be performed on girls anytime from infancy to puberty and can result in multiple life threatening health complications. The article goes on to explain how the act is deeply rooted in different cultures but is also experienced

Female Genital Mutilation is practiced in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East as a way for girls to be inducted into womanhood. This medical procedure is extremely controversial for it goes against many westernized feminist ideologies. Though seemingly hurtful and damaging towards the women in these cultures, there are still large amounts of girls who willingly chose to have this done to them. This conflict of opinions of what is right and what is wrong to do to women’s genitalia has been contested for a long time, and the answer to this question has not been solved. For one, the answer of what is moral in this situation is different and divided among all different cultures and societies

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), who term the practice female genital mutilation (for the purposes of readability, I will refer to the act as FGM throughout this paper), it involves ‘all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons’ (World Health Organisation 2014). FGM is culturally significant to communities in many sub-Saharan and North African nations, as well as parts of the Middle East. As of 2013, 33 countries had a legal framework in place to ban or restrict FGM occurring in their populaces, including the Crimes (Female Genital Mutilation) Act 1996 Vic. It is reported that over 125 million women worldwide have had some form of FGM conducted (UNICEF

Imagine being, forced down and having a sacred body part cut off, without any anesthetics or hope for any health benefit just because a cultural belief permits it. This is the nonconsensual fate of innocent women worldwide that are victims of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). FGM, often referred to as female circumcision, is where the woman's outer gential parts are partially or completely cut off and the vaginal opening is then sewned together. FGM is an international issue as a violation of the female body and their rights. By promoting awareness of this wrong and immoral ongoing current issue, actions can be taken to help prevent any further damage.

Imagine this! Being either a young girl or a woman forcefully bound against your will while elders perform a procedure called Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The young girls and women who are forced to have this procedure done not only loses their rights to sexual pleasure but their rights are sliced, chopped, punctured, and finally burnt away. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) otherwise known as Female Genital Circumcision (FGC) is also a controversial topic in Western societies. This paper will examine the history of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), hegemonic perspective on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), health consequences of having this procedure done, how Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) affects women’s sexual function, and women who

     Many of us never heard of Female Genital Mutilation until the story of Kauziya Kasinga, a woman from West Africa. Her father did not believe in polygamy, forced marriage, or "female circumcision". He died when she was 17 and the father's sister inherited the home, banished the mother, ended Fauziya's schooling, and

Even before the declaration of human rights came into existence, societies across Africa, Asia and Latin America felt pressured by the Western world to revise certain of their traditional customs and beliefs (Hayter, 1984). Human rights activists especially have deemed certain aspects of their traditional cultures harmful to their people, a violation of their human rights, and female circumcision is one of them. Even though human rights activists perceive this practice as a clear violation of women and children’s rights, in African and Arabic societies where the custom is prevalent, it is considered an essential part of a woman’s life and cultural identity. They argue that those who are not part of the culture shouldn’t take part in the debate over the issue. The debate over female genital mutilation reflects the incompatibility of human rights with cultural relativism and what a challenge it is for everyone involved.

Female Genital Mutilation refers to several manners of conducting operations of women and girls, involving the partial or total removal of external genitalia. This practice is considered a traditional practice amongst many people and communities throughout the world. While the practice has been ongoing for centuries it has been deemed a human rights violation on the grounds that it inflicts harm on females, including damaging them in a physical, sexual, and psychological manner. These rights violations fall under The Convention of the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

Female genital mutilation is a practice deeply enmeshed in the cultural beliefs of many Africans and select groups around the world. Also, just like any other culture, they will cling even more strongly to their ancient traditions when their beliefs are challenged by people from an outside culture. When someone from another country comes to a tribe to essentially tell them that one of their most basic traditions is wrong, problems usually ensue. This is mainly because, in an African’s point of view, the outsider does not understand the tribe’s beliefs and so has no valid privilege to tell the tribe what they should or should not do. In this way, even if there are a select few men and women that support the foreigner’s view, they run the

“More than 90 per cent of women aged 15–49 years have been cut in Djibouti, Egypt, Guinea and Somalia.” (Childinfo.org, 2013) The act of female circumcision can degrade a woman’s body, mind, and spirit. In some cases, death or a disease could even be a result of this horrific procedure, because it is no longer a legal practice in Egypt, so people go to unlicenced doctors where it is done in unsanitary conditions. The most horrific and only story I ever had the misfortune of reading was that of Egyptian feminist and activist Nawal El Saadawi as she described her traumatic circumsison procedure "Since I was a child that deep wound left in my body has never healed, “I lay in a pool of blood. After a few days, the bleeding stopped, and the daya [midwife] peered between my thighs and said, 'All is well. The wound has healed, thanks be to God.' But the pain was there, like an abscess in my flesh. I just wept, and called out to my mother for help. But the worst shock of all was when I looked around and found her standing by my side. Yes. It was her, I could not be mistaken, in flesh and blood, right in the midst of these strangers, talking to them and smiling at them as though they had not participated in slaughtering her daughter just a few minutes ago.” (El Saadawi 1980) This just shows how she had all those hurtful feelings at once, the pain physically caused by the action, the psychological pain of what had just happened to her, and