Women are circumcised

Scan page 6

got her job back. Contact the Defend Judith Williams Campaign at 123 Judith Williams, who was sacked because she's a lesbian, still hasn't Greencroft Gardens, London NW6 3PE, for more information, petition IN sume parts of the Arak: world, Egypt, Sudan and Syria, for example, girls are circumcised. In an operation conducted in the girl's home before she reaches puberty, her clitoris is amputated with a deep razor cut.

Apart from the occasional loss of life and the psychological terror of the mutilation itself, sexual frigidity is an after effect which is reinforced by the dominant attitudes to women's sexuality of the women themselves.

Women are to retain their virginity until marriage, the sexually sensitive organ, the clitoris is removed in the hope of discouraging sexual desire. After circumcision, the girl is considered 'pure and clean' The 'honour' of the family is lost by a woman 'losing' her virginity before marriage.

As you would expect the family's honour isn't jeopardised by men working out their sexual desires before marriage.

And it's not just speculation about whether the girl has or hasn't 'done it' -ritualistic blood letting on the wedding night is necegsary. In some parts of rural Egypt the breaking of forms, etc. BY JANE ASHWORTH.

the hymen is performed by the daya ('midwife") while the family wait outside for the blood stained sheet which 'proves' the girl was a virgin. The 30% of women who have no bleeding at all during their first sexual act, the girls who have broken their hymen accidentally, stand in great danger. A sympathetic daya may choose to rip the vaginal wall and produce blood, resulting in infection and haemorage but a husband may divorce the woman.

'Proof' of the woman not being a virgin can be enough to send her to her death. Death is the only way for the family to regain their lost honour.

Women take this sort of treatment becuase they have been taught to expect it. From the moment a girl child is born, she is taught to defer. 'He is a boy, you are a girl, and it is so, is the reply given to the girl who asks why she must drop her eyes when confronted with someone, laugh only quietly (or better still smile timidly) and spend her time learning to cook. Her games must never be rough, her skirt must never rise a centimetre above the proscribed length. The girl who asks why she cannot join in with boys and why she must put up with her brothers dominance over her is silenced; 'I wish you had been born a boy like them.' • Teaching girls to be ashamed of themselves, convincing them they have no place but behind a man, is commonplace throughout the world. • MIn some Islamic societies the story goes further. Women can redeem themselves and save the family by denying themselves their sexuality. Women put up with curcumcision because it cleanses them. The self-hatred they are taught and the fear they learn of their own body, desires and assertion, is eased by the removal of the clitoris; once gone the burden of disgrace is lifted.

Adult women talk of their circumcision with horror, but remain thankful they are now 'pure'.

Denying women's sexual freedom is not restricted to so-called 'backward' countries. The struggles of western women may not be against circumcision or the veil, but the theme is the same. Women the world over are fighting for control of our own bodies; women are not putting up with being kept out any more.