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MPs attack Greer on female circumcision
Germaine Greer backs the right of women to undergo circumcision |
MPs have launched an attack on the feminist writer Germaine Greer for what they say is her defence of female circumcision.
The Commons International Development Select Committee said her comments on female genital mutilation - a practice which occurs in some parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East - were both "simplistic and offensive".
A resolution against female genital mutilation was passed by the World Health Organisation in 1994, and charities including Womankind Worldwide say that the practice contravenes UNICEF's convention on the rights of the child.
In her recent book, The Whole Woman, Ms Greer argued that attempts to outlaw the practice amounted to "an attack on cultural identity", adding: "One man's beautification is another man's mutilation."
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Estimated percentage of girls and women circumcised by country |
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Djibouti and Somalia 98 |
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Eritrea, Eithiopia and Sierra Leone 90 |
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Sudan 89 |
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Mali 75 |
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Burkina Faso 70 |
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Source: UNICEF |
However, in a report published on Thursday - coincidentally the International Day Against Violence Towards Women - the select committee accused Ms Greer of a "misplaced sense of the sanctity of culture".
The MPs cited figures from the World Health Organisation which estimated that between 85 and 115 million women worldwide had undergone some form of genital mutilation which doubles their risk of dying in childbirth and can increase by three to four times the chances their children will be stillborn.
Girls learning about circumcision in Keyna |
"Equating the forcible clitoridectomy of an eight-year-old girl with the voluntary body-piercing of an American teenager is absurd.
"Culture can no longer be used as an excuse for inaction on securing women's rights," the MPs concluded.
Because the operation is often carried out in non-sterile conditions, sometimes using kitchen knives or pieces of glass, there is a risk that the child or woman could die of infections such a septicaemia.
Organisations like Womankind Worldwide works towards abolishing the practice with measures such as providing grants for traditional circumcisors - who make their living from performing the operations - to set up other businesses.
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See also: |
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10 Nov 99 | Africa |
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Handover of circumcision tools praised |
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06 Sep 99 | Africa |
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Kenya: Changing attitudes to female circumcision |
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11 Nov 98 | Health |
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3,000 UK girls risk female circumcision every year |
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28 Dec 97 | Briefings |
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Female circumcision: facts and myths |
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Internet links: |
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The Department for International Development |
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Female Circumcision Resources |
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The Commons International Development Committee |
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