Comments on: Braces, female circumcision, what’s the difference?

By: vicki 19 UK (same as above)

vicki 19 UK (same as above) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:41:30 +0000

by the way i am not in fact truley religious im just a 19 year old girl doing sociology right now on religion and it came up .. i do think each to their own , but seriously does my paragraph not have any sense in it at all ? i want to understand people and religion alot and i hope you can help. i am openminded .

By: vicki

vicki — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:36:13 +0000

dont you think at the end of the dy god made us this way for a reason .. he puts trust in us that we do not have sex until we are married therefore we should let nature take its corse and if peopl do wrong it is only them that should learn from their mistakes and ask for forgiveness. everyone makes mistakes and god may not forgive straight away but he might and that should be enough if you have made the mistake. But all in all we should be able to be trusted not to .. this is an apsolutly insane idea and should not be allowed i think people have exagorated religion over the millions of years as it ahs been passed through generations and people need to think really . What is a happy and nice way to live? that is what god wants

By: pamela

pamela — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:56:33 +0000

Female circumcision cannot be compared to male circumcision. Women dont only lose sexual pleasure they also can have problems urinating and the can get infections because stuff gelts clogged during menstruation etc. Baby’s die because the birth canal is obstructed by scartissue. Women/girls die because they get infections or bleed to death or both.
No one should have to suffer this way.

By: mel

mel — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:24:41 +0000

I am currently writing my final year dissertation on the subject of FGM/FC and I am finding it extremely difficult to remain emotionally detached, however, I am also aware that in the WEstern world, it is all too easy to turn people from non western cultures into ‘the barbaric other’ and this in turn can cause the very practice we ‘good and noble’ westerners are trying to eliminate to continue. This can be seen in post colonial African countries.

, “If Somali women change, it will be a change done by us, among us. When they order us to stop, tell us what we must do, it is offensive to the black person or the Muslim person who believes in circumcision. To advise is good, but not to order.”

(A. Warsame, “Social and Cultural Implications of Infibulation in Somalia,” in Female Circumcision: Strategies to Bring About Change)

I think a few people are reacting passionately to Antnio’s comment, without stopping to think about the point he is trying to make.

By: nwaojoo

nwaojoo — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 04:48:41 +0000

still waiting guys

By: nwaojoo

nwaojoo — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 03:43:03 +0000

hey guys, i have not read through all the comments. but lets bring this to my home. i just had very beautiful baby girl whom i love very dearly. i want the best for her. she leaves right now in a culture where its the norm to circumcize baby girls and i leave where its against the law to do so. my question is, is there any woman out there who was circumcized or have done some ‘realistic’ reseach on the sufferings that this brings on girls when there become adult. my dating life crossed all the cultural walls to a very large extent and high in number…. i have had women who were circumcized and it did not take much for me to ‘bring them home/sexual pleasure’ with true confesion. and i will say the same thing for uncircumcized women and did also failed to bring some of them ‘home’ regardless of being circumcized or not. so please, lets shear some on the job experiences to help me make a decision on…please be opended minded and no insult. thank you

By: Miro

Miro — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:41:59 +0000

I read this quite so late to be able to read most of the replies, from the first 1/4 of the replies I read. No wonder America is bombing other countries to “leberate” them. They are bringing McDonnald ,the Colonel KFC, and Coca Cola to places that were healthy and none obece.. Where poeple casually say if someone is fat to their face and no offence is taken. Becasue there people think and appriciate and are not afraid of anything but GOD. now thanks to the Chimpanzee and his gang and the rest of the 50% + Americans that voted him a second term we hear about this crap here. You guys for most part have no clue what Thomas is talking about and will never be able to. you are impared with the false media .. hear the voice of every noise from NPR to Fox news and never hear the sound of a rain drop.

Thank you Thomas it is enlighting what you wrote.. Late better than none.

By: Tyrex

Tyrex — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 14:21:07 +0000

I find it hard to believe the heated argument on this topic. Its abborrent that mutilation of the human body of any kind can be justified. Hygiene does not even come into the issue, for either male or female. The only reason for such a procedure should be for medical or genetical problems, as in other health defects such as coronary problems etc.

By: nancy

nancy — Mon, 28 May 2007 11:33:12 +0000

Female circumcision is NOT the same as male circumcision. It is actually a way to permanently deform a woman and cause her to never have an orgasm.

In women, it is at the very least the total removal of the entire clitorus (which would be the same as removing a man’s penis).

In many cases much more is removed from the woman, making intercourse painful and distasteful.

By: Open Minded

Open Minded — Thu, 17 May 2007 22:58:08 +0000

Wow. im finishing up a term paper on the subject and i was searching the web for some more information this evening when i came upon this blog. i had my own opinions to start, but all of you have given me something i would never have thought i would have gotten through the research ive been doing for this paper. youve all given me a much more open mind.

i feel that FGM is wrong, cruel, and unjust as humans do have rights and fgm takes those rights away.

i just feel like all of you who seem to want to make a difference are wasting your time arguing about the subject and not doing anything about it. No im not jumping on the banwagon and becoming an activist at this very moment, but no need to argue…theyre just opinions.

yes, in my opinion, the man who was sentenced to 10 years definately deserved it. i say this with the most open mind that i can have. he lives in the united states thus he should follow the laws of that country, wether or not they follow his cultural upbringing, or he should be convicted, just as any other “american” for his “criminal” action as it was against the law to do what he had done in the country he was living in at the time.

i know most of you are going to try and eat me alive for this, but thomas has written his blog…maybe to be flippant and get a reaction, but he backed up the things he wrote about. it was opinionated and it was kind of dumb( just my opinion), but it was his opinion and his article and if you dont like what he is writing then you can choose to ignore it. furthermore, id like to point out that im not defending the comparison thomas made, but the fact that he made his point with something to back it up.

i do not agree with fgm and i stand by that. i also agree with the fact that if women were informed of the procedure and made the decision when they were old enough to understand the consequences, that they would decide to keep what they were given at birth. though the Rendille women in kenya do it the day they get married but they are full aware of what is happening and they feel it means becoming a woman. they feel that by enduring the pain, they will be able to withstand anything from simple hardships to childbirth.

also just to throw this in there for people reading this who do not know what happens, especially after the procedure is done,(not that i am an expert) i want you to read this article from a woman who did have it done. it will probably only take you about 10 minutes and its extremely informative. i figured id throw that in there since no one who has had it done has commented yet.

lastly guys, we all have our opinions so let each other have them. im sure all of us have done our research…. no need to have a scream fest to get points across.

http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/~pine/Phil110/waris-dirie.html

thanks for hearing me out