SENEGAL: How to end female cutting

In Senegal, a Movement to Reject Female Circumcision

The practice of "female circumcision" is widespread, affecting an estimated 140 million women worldwide. ...

La pratica della "circoncisione femminile" è molto diffusa, colpisce circa 140 milioni di donne in tutto il mondo.



Attempts have been made from time to time to stamp out the practice: by missionaries in colonial times, U.N. proclamations, even laws to ban it, all to little effect. From all this history, Molly Melching, founder of an organization in Senegal called Tostan, derived a lesson.

"Tostan found that using approaches that shame or blame people really was just the opposite of what would work in changing social norms," Melching said.

In the two decades since Tostan -- which means "breakthrough" in the local Wolof language -- began using a human rights education approach, almost 5,000 villages in Senegal have abandoned the practice of female genital cutting, she said.

...

Tostan's staff and volunteers ... rely on an expansive education program of seminars conducted in the villages on human rights, including the right to good health. In time, people learn about germ transmission and how complications suffered by so many women during childbirth can be traced back to the cutting that occurred during their childhood, Melching explains. All this leads to community discussions that examine the origins of the practice,

...

Melching says religious leaders,... are especially appreciative of being consulted first.

Tostan's message to the communities is respectful, non-judgmental and simple: we know you want to do what's best for your daughters' future. It is sensitive to the fact that from the community's perspective, girls who are not cut are likely to be ostracized and unable to find marriage partners. That makes it critical that large numbers of communities - the marriage pool - abandon the practice collectively. Tostan helps coordinate, organize and raise the funds for such declarations -- gala events attended by thousands of people from hundreds of villages:

"One part of bringing about a change like this is to get everyone to change at once, what we call coordinated abandonment. Everyone has to see that everyone else sees that everyone is changing," says University of California, San Diego, professor Gerry Mackie, who has closely studied Tostan.

There are instances in history for this kind of massive shift in social norms. Women's feet were once bound in China, but the practice was abandoned in barely a generation. And there's a more recent example Melching notices when she returns to America: cigarette smoking was common and widespread when she left in the 1970s, but with increasing awareness of the health consequences, it has become widely unacceptable today.
(http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/0...rcumcision.html)

Kenya: continuano le FGM rituali

Villagers ignore the law and go on a girl circumcision frenzy

Nonostante il divieto di legge, nei villaggi si continua imperterriti a praticare le FGM su giovani donne e bambine.

Centinaia di studentesse hanno subito il tradizionale rito di passaggio, che ora permette loro di sposarsi.

All'inizio della settimana, due "circumcisers ritual woman" sono state arrestate dalla polizia mentre praticavano una FGM a cinque giovani ragazze.

The sound of gun shots pierced the air as seemingly intoxicated youth joined girls and women in wild celebration.

Tradition had triumphed over law as hundreds of girls, some as young as eight years old faced the knife in a procedure that is internationally loathed and outlawed — female genital mutilation.

The setting is Kuria East and West districts. It’s is the third year since the last rite, and so a fresh set of girls are supposed to undergo the FGM among the Bugambe and the Buiregi clans.

Tuesday was the culmination of three days of activities that saw the villagers throng footpaths in wild celebration, armed with home made guns, machetes, spears, knives, clubs and other weapons that would ordinarily have their wielders jailed.

Hundreds of schoolgirls underwent the traditional rite of passage that now allows them to get married, raising doubts as to whether they will continue with their studies in the New Year.

Among the health concerns associated with the practice are complications during childbirth, heavy bleeding after birth and prolonged hospitalisation, with the degree of complications increasing depending on the extent and severity of the mutilation that can also cause infections and death.

Teachers in the area said that while the practice had been part of culture, it lead to significant deterioration in the standard of education as girls dropped out of school soon afterwards.

Mr Mosese Chahacha, a teacher in a local primary school said: “The rituals the initiates go through before the material day is like parallel education.

“They learn that they are adults and that they can stand up to anybody besides starting a home. It is very difficult for the teachers to discipline such children.”

Defended practice
But Guitembe ward councillor from Kuria constituency Protrus Kohe defended the practice, arguing that the constitution protected cultural practices of communities.

“The government allowed us to circumcise the men, which we did, but then we later wondered: now that we have taken men through the initiation, must we not create a pool of women from where they can marry? That is why we have decided to undertake the practice,” argued Mr Kohe.

Early in the week, two women circumcisers were arrested by police while “cutting” five young girls. The law enforcers laid a trap near the circumcisers’ homes and nabbed them soon after they began the “surgery”.

But the locals, who are predominantly members of the Kuria community, blocked the police vehicle, demanding immediate and unconditional release of the women.

December 7, 2011

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da http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Villagers+go+...78/-/676fmuz/-/

DOMANDE, DUBBI SU FIMOSI O CIRCONCISIONE?

DIFFIDATE DI SITI O BLOG INAFFIDABILI, CON CONTROVERSIA DI INTERESSI, PAGATI DA PSEUDO MEDICI PRIVATI. DOVE REGNA SOLO IL CAOS, LA DISINFORMAZIONE, I MITI, LE LEGGENDE METROPOLITANE. RIVOLGETEVI A NOI.. VERI ESPERTI NEL SETTORE, CON "INTACT ITALIA" E AL FIANCO DI ENTI, MEDICI E ASSOCIAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI O AL VOSTRO MEDICO DI FIDUCIA. A CHI NON HA CUORE CHE LA VOSTRA SALUTE E LA PIENA INFORMAZIONE/COSCIENZA SU TALI TEMATICHE.

 - QUESTO SPAZIO E' STATO CREATO IL 10 DICEMBRE 2011-

DI VOLTA IN VOLTA RISPONDEREMO A TUTTE LE DOMANDE CHE VERRANO POSTE IN QUESTO SPAZIO.. FARLO E' SEMPLICE: POTETE USARE FACEBOOK, UN ID, VIRGILIO, TWITTER, BLOGGER O PIU' SEMPLICEMENTE LA VOCE "NOME/URL" SENZA NECESSITA' DI EMAIL O ALTRO ^^ GRAZIE!

-- Attenzione: il Forum e il seguente spazio propone contenuti a solo scopo informativo e che in nessun caso possono costituire la prescrizione di un trattamento o sostituire la visita specialistica di un urologo o il rapporto diretto con il proprio medico curante. Se ne declina ogni responsabilità in ogni sede. Le risposte a cura di "Intac Italia" e non di Elefantino82--

Jewish Voices: The Current Judaic Movement to End Circumcision

Jewish Voices: The Current Judaic Movement to End Circumcision
The current San Francisco circumcision referendum has made the public aware of the severe physical consequences of the controversial surgery. The idea that an individual has the right to their own body is recent by historical standards. For many years, a number of courageous Jewish and Israeli scholars, historians, activists, and parents have raised serious objections to circumcision surgery. More and more Jews are choosing not to circumcise their sons. These Jewish voices against circumcision are just starting to enter the mainstream conversation.

Here are some of these pioneers in their own words.

“Mutilation of the divinely made human body is as far from Judaism as anything could be. Even criminals are not mutilated, and the law limits the number of lashes to avoid permanent damage. Judaism objects to cuts made in grievance, and loathe spilling human blood.”
- Israeli Linguist Vadim Cherny,
How Judaic is the circumcision?

"The code of the Jewish law is called "halacha" (the way). Within the Code, there is a provision that if a mother loses a son because of circumcision, she is NOT obligated to circumcise her next son. I extrapolate from this, the inter-connection of my human family, that enough deaths and maiming have occurred because of circumcision. Therefore - circumcision is no longer a requisite! Just as we no longer practice the animal sacrifices in the traditional temple, so let us not sacrifice an important piece of our mammal in the temple of tradition."
- Rabbi Nathan Segal, Rabbi of Shabbos Shul
One Rabbis' Thoughts on Circumcision

“There are many abandoned practices that are widely considered unethical nowadays, even though they are ordained in the Torah. These include slavery, polygamy, and corporal punishment for working on the Sabbath. Just like slavery, polygamy, and corporal punishment, the practice of circumcision is a cultural practice that predates Judaism. If Judaism is to survive, then we must accept circumcision for what it is, a form of torture and sexual mutilation, and stop it. There are other ways we can teach our children to respect women and sustain a happy marriage and family life.”
- Jonathan Friedman, founder of IntactNews.org

“AS AN INCREASING NUMBER OF AMERICANS – including a sizable number of American Jews – question the act of male circumcision, a group of San Francisco activists are advocating to ban circumcision… Many of the leading activists against circumcision around the country are Jewish.”
- JERUSALEM POST, Challenging the Circumcision Myth [PDF], (Israel) 04/10/2011

“All attempts to justify a custom such as this by means of one or another symbolic explanation collapse in the presence of the baby, in agony under the mohel’s knife.… there is enough of worth in Judaism to guarantee its survival, even after it rids itself of this disturbing custom. It may even be strengthened this way.”
- Professor Hanoch Ben-Yami, Central European University
Letters, Azure, Summer 5767 / 2007, no. 29

"Without compromising either our children’s identity or the survival of our people, we can invite all of our Jewish children, our baby girls and our baby boys, into a brit b’lee milah, a covenant without circumcision, and school them in the wisdom, love, and beauty of the Jewish tradition. Unlike Christianity, which teaches that a child is born into original sin and must be redeemed, Judaism teaches that the soul is pure — only the penis needs “redemption.” The truth is that the whole baby is pure, body and soul, including his tender genitals, and it is both a mitzvah and our most sacred duty to protect him."
- Miriam Pollack, Circumcision: Identity, Gender, and Power
Tikkun 26(3), 2011.

“In Israel, opposition to circumcision has happened in just two decades, and now these “rebels” number in the tens of thousands, according to Ronit Tamir, founder of Kahal, a support group for parents who choose not to circumcise their children.”
- JEWISH WORLD, 3/11/10.

“It seems to me that for liberal Jews the choice comes down to this. Do we want to in some way circumscribe the sexual possibilities of our sons by performing a body modification when they are infants so as to bear witness to the covenant? Are there not other ways to bear witness? Are there not other ways to maintain our distinctiveness from the society around us? Despite having circumcised my two sons, the more I think about the issue, the more likely – were I a resident of San Francisco – I would support the referendum.”
- Sandford Borins, Ph.D., The Circumcision Referendum: A Liberal Jewish Perspective Sandford Borins, Ph.D., is a professor of Management at the University of Toronto.

“…as recently as the mid-nineteenth century, in Eastern Europe and Russia there was a widespread move to stop [circumcision]… Led by women–what a surprise!–who thought the practice barbaric and patriarchal, the movement eventually even convinced Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, who refused to allow his own son to be circumcised.”
- Michael S. Kimmel, Professor, SUNY Stony Brook
TIKKUN, Volume 16, May/June, 2001.

“So it’s quite obvious that to question any aspect of Judaism, including circumcision is not anti-Semitic. It is very much in keeping with Judaism’s rich tradition of discussion and debate…So what if parents don’t want the milah, but still want the brit? Several different alternative rituals have been created by parents and rabbis of all branches of Judaism. They’re typically called a Brit Shalom, so rather than covenant of cutting, it’s a covenant of peace. They tend to involve all the traditional aspects of a traditional bris, including all the same participants and blessings, just without the actual circumcision. Some will simply use the same naming ceremony used for girls. It’s not particularly common, but it is being used more often now than in the past. Support groups exist for parents of intact Jewish boys. Cars now bear bumper stickers which read, “Jews embracing wholeness. Saying no to circumcision”. Even in Israel, there are Jewish organizations that oppose brit milah. One non-profit organization in Israel working to stop circumcision took its case to the High Court of Justice in 1998 and maintained in its petition that “in a modern democratic society there is no place for the ‘barbaric’ ceremony which mauls a child who does not have any say in the matter." The movement is largely made up of Reform parents, but it is visible in other areas as well. Moshe Rothenberg is a Conservative Jew living in an observant Jewish community in Brooklyn, yet he did not circumcise his son. (Rothenberg). The Af-milah newsletter is an Israeli newsletter dedicated to ending brit milah. Those who question and refuse to have a brit milah aren’t necessarily doing it because they have assimilated or because they’re anti-Semitic. Some feel this way after careful study of Jewish texts and observances.”
- D.A. Huffman-Parent, Brit Milah : Inconsistent with Jewish Ethics?

“Good afternoon. My name is Brian Levitt… I am Jewish, the eldest of 3 children and the son of a doctor… I feel deeply harmed by circumcision, and this view has only been confirmed over time. I do not feel closer to Judaism because of my circumcision. On the contrary, I deeply wish one thing had nothing to do with the other. The genital cutting of infants has driven me away from my religion, and I'm far from alone in this view. Eventually my father understood these issues, and even apologized for having allowed my brother and I to be circumcised at birth… There are hundreds of thousands of men who resent their infant circumcision. There are tens of thousands of intact Jewish boys and men around the world who thank their lucky stars they were not circumcised.”
- Brian Levitt, Jewish Intactivist, co-founder of Jews for the Rights of the Child
Testimony at the California Senate Judiciary Committee Public Hearing on Circumcision.

I was raised as a Jew and yet I never even considered circumcising my sons. Reason told me that God or nature doesn't make mistakes. Obviously there is a vast intelligence behind all of life, and just as our eyes have eyelids to protect them, foreskins must serve a similar purpose.”
- Laura Shanley, A Jewish Woman Denounces Circumcision

“We each hold our own ideas about life and our Jewish heritage. We won't always agree. But we're united by this principle: the genital cutting of infants and children is wrong and must stop, no matter their religion or gender.”
- Rebecca Wald, host of BeyondtheBris.com, a blog for Jewish parents.

"I am confident that my people have such an abundance of life-enhancing, life-affirming and mind-opening traditions, that our identity and sense of cultural self-heed will happily survive our outgrowing of circumcision, a cruel relic which has always felt to me like an aberration at the heart of my religion."
- Dr. Jenny Goodman, Challenging Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective

“Another American Jew who works against circumcision is Laurie Evans, the director of the New York Hudson Valley chapter of NOCIRC. “I went to a brit and couldn’t believe I was standing in a room of people who usually question so much, but didn’t think of the baby. It was one of the worst days of my life. I feel our religion is in our heart and soul, not in our genitals.”
When Evans’s children were born, she wanted to be more involved Jewishly, despite not being brought up to be practicing. She still maintains some of the Jewish customs, but her difficulty with circumcision has created a fissure between her and Judaism. “It’s hard for me to accept that we don’t accept tattooing and we like questioning, but this can’t be talked about. I see it like foot-binding in China.”

- THE JERUSALEM REPORT 2011 -

Related Multimedia:
The Jewish Circumcision Debate
http://intactnews.org/node/99/1311353828/j...umcision-debate


STATEMENT TASK FORCE

Ronald Goldman, Ph.D.
Executive Director of the Jewish Circumcision Resource Center
Author of Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective and
Circumcision: The Hidden Trauma

Leonard B. Glick, M.D., Ph.D.
Cultural anthropologist
Author of Marked in Your Flesh: Circumcision from Ancient Judea to Modern America

Lisa Braver Moss
Author of The Measure of His Grief
Writer specializing in health, family, and parenting issues

Miriam Pollack
Author of Circumcision: A Jewish Feminist Perspective
and "Circumcision: Identity, Gender, and Power"
Writer and speaker

Mark Reiss, M.D.
Executive Vice President of Doctors Opposing Circumcision
Creator and administrator of Celebrants of Brit Shalom

Rebecca Wald, J.D.
Founder of the Beyond the Bris project

Tina Kimmel, PhD, MSW, MPH
Maternal Child Health Epidemiologist

Moshe Rothenberg, MSW
Certified teacher and social worker, Brit Shalom ceremony leader

Veglia di San Francisco per vite perdute a causa della circoncisione

Veglia di San Francisco per le vite perdute in seguito alla circoncisione

Join Bay Area Intactivists for a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the male, female and intersex children who have lost their lives due to complications of circumcision or other non-therapeutic forms of genital cutting. The vigil will take place outside Or Shalom in response to a circumcision panel discussion which will extol the genital cutting of children.

Please bring a candle that can be shielded from the wind.

Accendete una candela contro le Mutilazioni genitali al Maschile


Date evento: 4 dicembre 2011 - 5:00 p.m.

Date evento: 5 dicembre 2011 - 6:00 p.m.

Stop circoncisione

EASTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA: Chiefs reject infant circumcision

The national circumcision plan to circumcise all male babies immediately after birth and in hospitals has been rejected by Eastern Cape traditional leaders.

I leaders di Eastern Cape respingono il piano nazionale di circoncidere tutti i bambini maschi subito dopo la nascita.

Chiefs oppose infant 'snip'

The outright rejection of the hospital circumcision plan as introduced by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi came while the AmaXhosa, AmaMpondo and other ethnic groups in the province were bracing themselves to send thousands of boys to the mountain to be initiated to manhood during the coming festive season. This includes the December holidays and provides an opportunity for school boys who have reached the age of manhood to undergo the circumcision ritual before they graduate to manhood.

During the official opening of the ulwaluko (initiation) season, Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders chairman chief Ngangomhlaba Matanzima criticised Motsoaledi for introducing the hospital plan and especially for infants. “It is wrong to ask boys to go to a hospital and to perform a medical circumcision,” he said. Matanzima, who also boasted of having undergone initiation, said people who went to hospital were those who were sick. “These boys are not sick. Why must they go there?”

About 50000 young boys across the Eastern Cape are expected to go to the bush to undergo the Xhosa rite of passage where circumcision is used to teach the boys morals and values of manhood based on centuries-old traditions and custom. The custom is also believe to instil respect in the young men.

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https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!...cision/PyRBSY44

Circoncisione: un altro Bimbo morto

CIRCUMCISION: Another Baby Dies

It's been a while... There's so much I want to write about... There is so much I want to say... I've just been busy with life... work... family... I've been just so overwhelmed...

But I thought this warranted a post.

Often, when circumcision is promoted in this country, the so-called "benefits" of his non-therapeutic surgery are terribly exaggerated, while the risks are completely downplayed, if mentioned at all.

The only ones most parents in this country will hear about, if physicians even bother mentioning them are "pain and discomfort." Few will mention that circumcision could result in MRSA infection, a botched circumcision requiring future correction, partial or full ablation, and even death.

Yes, death is a risk or "complication" of circumcision, but it is rarely mentioned, if at all.

This is what is known and recognized by medical organizations in this country as "informed consent."

An estimated 117 deaths occur every year in the United States due to circumcision. This is a rough estimate, and more conservative than its predecessors (in the past, estimates have been as high as 200 or more deaths per year).

It is hard to get an accurate estimate on the number of deaths in the United States, because deaths due to circumcision are rarely reported as such, if reported at all. At 1.3 million circumcisions a year, circumcision is a money-maker for American medicine, and doctors have an investment to protect. Reporting adverse circumcision effects puts the yearly stipend in jeopardy, not to mention the disrepute it would bring to American medicine. 

Doctors have reputations to uphold, and pocketbooks to line and protect from lawsuits. With so much to lose, there is incentive to hide the evidence. And, parents who would like to maintain their illusion of circumcision being "harmless," and perish the thought that they were actively involved in any way in the death of their son, often agree to keep the death "secret," or report it as the doctor says.

Deaths due to circumcision are often reported as caused by something else, such as "cardiac arrest," or "septic shock." Reporting secondary causes of death hides the fact that they were caused by the circumcision that preceded them. Additionally, hospitals are not required to report deaths caused by circumcision.

Reporting deaths from circumcision would open the floodgates to lawsuits by angry parents and angry men. Reporting deaths from circumcision means loss of revenue. Reporting deaths from circumcision means the "benefits" have to be reconsidered. Reporting deaths from circumcision means that American medical organizations are being irresponsible. Reporting deaths from circumcision means "culture and tradition" is put in danger.

For these reasons, we will never know for sure how many children die as a result of their circumcisions. Reputations to protect, culture and tradition to safeguard, and floodgates to keep sealed.

Meanwhile, boys continue to die.


Connor James was born on Thanksgiving Weekend, Friday, November 25th in Pittsburgh, PA. On Saturday, November 26th, Baby Connor bled to death following his circumcision. Circumcision claims yet another life.

Last year, Joshua Haskins suffered a similar death. After struggling to survive in a NICU with a congenital heart problem, doctors thought it gracious to pressure his mother to have him circumcised "now that he's strong and healthy." Doctors, and even Josh's mother herself insist that Joshua died because of his heart problem (which wasn't aggravated by his circumcision?), although her blog records, which were saved before they were taken down, relate clearly that Joshua had been bleeding uncontrollably, and that it wasn't until 7 hours that doctors caught the nicked vein and decided to stitch it up. By then it was too late.

Would Joshua Haskins still be alive today, had they found the vein in the nick of time?

Who knows.

One thing is for sure though; Joshua was healthy and strong before his circumcision, which unquestionably did cause the complication. Joshua Haskins didn't have to die.

Neither did Connor James.

Neither did countless others before him that we will most likely never know about. 

Circumcision KILLS, people.

Death is one of the "risks" of this procedure.

Considering that there is no medical or clinical necessity to circumcise a perfectly healthy child, is it really worth it?

Without medical or clinical indication, can doctors even be performing risky surgery on a healthy, non-consenting individual, let alone elicit any kind of a "decision" from parents? 

A week from today, Bay Area Intactivists, an intactivist group in San Francisco, will hold a candlelight vigil in remembrance of all male, female and intersex children who have lost their lives due to unnecessary genital surgery.

Rest in peace, Joshua Haskins.

Rest in peace, Connor James.

Rest in peace, Amitai Moshe.

Rest in peace, all of you who died before your time due to this human tragedy.

May one day infant genital mutilation be a thing of the past.