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Sunday, December 28, 1997 Published at 12:25 GMT

Background: Briefings

Female circumcision: facts and myths
image: [ The tradition of female circumcision goes back 14 centuries. ]

The tradition of female circumcision goes back 14 centuries.

The practice of female circumcision is designed to deny women sexual pleasure and prevent them being promiscuous and committing adultery in later life.

The tradition is not restricted to Egypt and neither is it limited to Muslim countries.

Female circumcision is a custom followed from Mozambique and the Ivory Coast to Syria and Saudi Arabia.

It is followed by hundreds of thousands of Coptic Christians, Catholics and animists as well as Muslims.

It is even practiced by some emigrant communities in Europe and the United States.

Critics say the term female circumcision is misleading. They point out male circumcision is a fairly straightforward and safe operation and say the female equivalent should be described as genital mutilation.

The operation comes in three forms:

Sunna, meaning tradition in Arabic, involves the removal of the prepuce or the tip of the clitoris.

Clitoridectomy consists of the removal of the entire clitoris and the labia.

The most extreme form, infibulation, leaves the woman with only a tiny passage to pass water through.

So drastic is the mutilation that young brides have to be cut open to allow penetration on their wedding night and are customarily sewn up afterwards.

Human rights activists also criticise the allegedly unhygienic conditions in which the operation is often conducted.

Razor blades, scissors, kitchen knives and even pieces of glass are used, often on more than one girl, which increases the infection.

Anaesthesia is rarely used and, depending on local tradition, the operation is conducted on girls as young as three.

Girls who have not been circumcised are considered "unclean" by in Egyptian villages and many towns and can find it extremely difficult to find a husband.

They are often treated as harlots by other women and many men believe folklore which says they will die if their penis touches a clitoris.

Female circumcision is outlawed in Britain, France, Sweden and Switzerland as well as some African countries, including Kenya, Senegal and now Egypt.

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	Relevant Stories 28 Dec 97 \| World Egyptian ban on female circumcision upheld



	Internet Links Circumcision Information and Resource Pages Rainbo - Anti-circumcision group Female circumcision in the Middle East Female genital mutilation research home page The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.