A Cutting Tradition- FGM in Indonesia

A Cutting Tradition
By SARA CORBETT
Published: January 20, 2008

When a girl is taken — usually by her mother — to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals. The procedure takes several minutes. There is little blood involved. Afterward, the girl’s genital area is swabbed with the antiseptic Betadine. She is then helped back into her underwear and returned to a waiting area, where she’s given a small, celebratory gift — some fruit or a donated piece of clothing — and offered a cup of milk for refreshment. She has now joined a quiet majority in Indonesia, where, according to a 2003 study by the Population Council, an international research group, 96 percent of families surveyed reported that their daughters had undergone some form of circumcision by the time they reached 14.


According to Lukman Hakim, the foundation’s chairman of social services, there are three “benefits” to circumcising girls.
“One, it will stabilize her libido,” he said through an interpreter. “Two, it will make a woman look more beautiful in the eyes of her husband. And three, it will balance her psychology.”

Hmmm, stabilize my libido. Now that is something to really explore here. When was the last time that a roving pack of angry women descended upon a small village and raped all the men and boys that came into their path? Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it men who think of sex up to and exceeding 60 times a day? What would possibly prompt anyone to believe that a woman’s libido needs to be stabilized?
You may want to call me a feminist, but I’m going to say this anyway. In my opinion this just another case of the fear of a black woman’s clit (ha!). This is just another systematic method of oppressing a woman’s whole self, and has as much to do with religion suicide bombing elementary schools has to do with God’s will.

This has everything to do with the historical context in which the practice emerges. Like most things, including the concept of marriage (not that I’m not happily married), it is born out of economic necessity. Before the days of $99 paternity tests the only way to ensure your children were yours was to ensure your wife was not sleeping around. So, how do you accomplish that?

You can make her unattractive to other men by covering her from head to toe.

You can keep her out of contact with men that aren’t her family by enacting a law.

You can sequester her inside your home by forbidding her to keep a job.

And, if you really want to go the distance you can make sex completely unenjoyable so that she never gets the urge to merge with anyone but you, hence the ‘stabalizing’ of the libido. Some even go the extra mile by completely removing the external genitalia (removing any resemblance at all to the male genitalia and reinforcing the belief that men and women are inherently different and separate and unequal) so she cannot physically stray from the marital bed without a knife leading the way.

Female genital cutting — commonly identified among international human rights groups as female genital mutilation — has been outlawed in 15 African countries. Many industrialized countries also have similar laws. Both France and the U.S. have prosecuted immigrant residents for performing female circumcisions.

If a woman can own herself including her sexuality she can choose whom she would like to marry or if she would like not to marry at all. She can choose whether or not to have children, or how many children she would like or whose children she would like to have. The future of the family would in essence be controlled by the woman and not the man, and if she has that much power what other powers would she demand? The right to own her own property and drive a car. The right to divorce her husband and marry someone else.

Any distinction between injuring the clitoris or the clitoral hood is irrelevant, says Laura Guarenti, an obstetrician and WHO’s medical officer for child and maternal health in Jakarta. “The fact is there is absolutely no medical value in circumcising girls,” she says. “It is 100 percent the wrong thing to be doing.” The circumcision of boys, she adds, has demonstrated health benefits, namely reduced risk of infection and some protection against H.I.V.

These stories always make me want to make love to my husband in the spirit of protest. Orgasms for all those who can’t. Freedom for all those who have been robbed of something that was God given. If it is truly something that is symbolic and not political, economical, and oppressive then give the girls a choice. Let them make that decision for themselves at a later age. I am skeptical of all permanent procedures performed on children. A woman should have a choice of whether or not she wants to sacrifice her sexuality to accommodate her community.