SOCIAL SYSTEMS SIMULATION
GROUP
Jessica Spain
December 1, 2003
Sociology 250.03
Introduction to Social Research
Mr. Roland Werner
The Suppression
of Women Through the Traditional Practice
of Female Genital Mutilation
Jessica Spain
San Diego State University
Key words: female genital mutilation, female circumcision, African women, African tradition, female cutting, gender inequality
Abstract: The tradition of female genital mutilation in African and Middle Eastern countries is far beyond the scope of imagination for Western women. In the United States, parents may throw a sweet sixteen party or a Quincinera to mark the growth of their daughter into a woman. More diverse, however, is the way in which female genital mutilation practicing countries denote maturity. In such countries, female circumcision is done as a rite of passage. Without the circumcision, a girl cannot fully become a woman and therefore, a respected member of adult society. The procedure causes extreme health and medical complications and intense pain that will follow the female her entire life. This paper, done though secondary research, will take into account the reasons for the traditional practice of female genital mutilation and the factors under which women are influenced to be cut. Those factors include traditional pressures, ideologies of male dominance, taboos about female sexuality and the importance of motherhood, misconceptions about female health, and finally the tricking of naive young girls into undergoing systematic violence
Copyright © 2004 by Social Systems Simulation Group and Jessica Spain. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or author.
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