Breaking the taboo: Sudanese women speak out against genital mutilation

Well over half of all Sudanese women are circumcised and many girls are subjected to female genital mutilation when they are just 12 years old, according to a United Nations Population Fund’s report which put the country fifth place world-wide for its record on circumcision.

In 1946 Sudan became the first African country to legislate against female circumcision, but the current law, which dates from 1991, does not specifically define circumcision. This means the practice falls into a legal grey zone and hampers organisations in their struggle to end the practice.

Circumcision is one of the hideous aspects of a society’s backwardness.”
Sadia Ali MousaTalking about female circumcision remains a taboo in Sudan but several women spoke to The Niles on the subject, breaking the culture of silence.

Circumcision is one of the hideous aspects of a society’s backwardness,” says Sadia Ali Mousa who works as a nurse.

Although educated Sudanese women are well aware that circumcision can have potentially fatal complications, circumcised women are often shamed into keeping quiet about their injuries. Social activist Mohammadin Issa says the secrecy surrounding the subject makes women prefer silence than speaking about sex-related pain. They need serious awareness campaigns.”

Female genital mutilation is divided into three categories. The first type is the removal of varying proportions the clitoris hood. The second type includes partial or total removal of the clitoris along the adjacent parts of the inner labia. The third type, called infibulation, involves the removal of all external genitalia including the inner and outer labia with the excision of the clitoris where the cut is stitched apart from a small hole for the passage of urine and menstrual blood.

Female genital mutilation distorts the woman’s sexual organs leaving her psychologically and physically scarred,” says Dr. Abdulwadud Morsi about the practice which has been carried out on an estimated 140 million women and girls globally. There is no difference between all types of circumcision in terms of the amount of resulting damage,” Morsi adds.
 
Circumcision is an old habit related to the values ​​of the Sudanese society where uncircumcised females are deemed impure.”
Professor NafisaAmong the ideas underpinning the practice, many believe that sexual mutilation facilitates the passage from childhood to womanhood. Practitioners have long believed that humans are born bisexual and removing a part of his/her sexual organs is necessary for male or female maturity. Others fear that uncircumcised females would become male. Finally, some advocate circumcision, arguing that female organs are superfluous.

In his research about female circumcision, Noor Ahmed Goni wrote that it is linked to a faulty understanding of such harmful habit’s relevance to religion” as well as an unawareness about its negative impact on young women.

Circumcision is an old habit related to the values ​​of the Sudanese society where uncircumcised females are deemed impure. That leads their mothers to subject them to such experience despite their awareness of its harmful impacts to avoid social ostracism,” Professor Nafisa explains.
 
It is mistakenly believed that female circumcision preserves a woman’s chastity by reducing her sexual desire. The assumption is that her pleasure should derive from fulfilling her man’s pleasure.

Some women undergo several operations, often after giving birth to children, in the belief they will boost men’s pleasure despite the implied health and sexual impacts. Other women have subsequent operations to conceal their lost virginity as re-excision narrows the external opening of the vagina.

Sudanese men do not care much about their women’s circumcision. It is women who brag about this subject.”
El-Zein MahmoudIf campaigners upped their visibility and the law was clarified, Mahmoud said the practice could be wiped out in a generation. Such campaigns could be spearheaded by health professionals, who witness the dangerous outcomes from the practice. Teachers, religious figures, women and youth could also raise awareness of female circumcision.

But for now there is a long way to go before society changes. El-Zein Mahmoud, a nurse working with one of the organisations fighting the practice in Sudan says that many women put circumcised women above other women who have not undergone the operation. Sudanese men do not care much about their women’s circumcision. It is women who brag about this subject.”