Ritual female genital surgery among bedouin in Israel

Abstract

Ritual female genital operations are common in many parts of the world, with varying degrees of mutilation from clitoridectomy and removal of the labia to removal of the clitoral prepuce. Interviews of 21 Bedouin women in southern Israel revealed the practice to be normative in several tribes. However, physical examination of 37 young women from those tribes at a gynecological clinic revealed only small scars on the labia in each woman. Bedouin in southern Israel may offer a model of evolution of female circumcision into a nonmutilative ritual incision.

Does Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) Affect Women’s Sexual Functioning? A Systematic Review of the Sexual Consequences of FGM/C

“…Nour et al (2006) write that since the infibulations must be opened up either surgically or through penetrative sex, sexual intercourse, especially in the first months of sexual intercourse, is frequently painful for the women. Such pain is reported in the literature (Asali et al 1995;Dopico 2007;Johansen 2007;Lightfoot-Klein 1989).…”

Female “circumcision” African women confront American medicine

“…7,8 The prevalence of mild forms, such as removal or cutting of the clitoral prepuce (analogous to male circumcision) is unknown, although it has been described in the literature. 9,10 The practice of female circumcision is not unknown in the West. Clitoridectomy was performed into the 1940s to treat masturbation, insanity, epilepsy, and hysteria.…”

Prevalence of female genital mutilation among African women resident in the Swedish county of Östergötland

“…In African societies issues related to sexuality and genitals in general and female genitals in particular are generally not admitted as matters for public discussion. This phenomenon is also observed in other cultures where the practice of FGM is known (9).…”