Prisoners of Ritual

Prisoners of Ritual: An Odyssey into Female Genital Circumcision in Africa by Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, Harrington Park Press, 1989. 

This book describes a cultural practice of the cutting of the female genitalia that is widespread in Africa. The practice predates Islam, but it is more common among Muslims than among Christians. About a hundred million African women have undergone genital cutting. There are several forms of cutting: cutting off the clitoral hood (prepuce), cutting off the clitoris (clitoridectomy), cutting off the labia minora. The Prophet Mohammed advocated female prepuce circumcision only. This is called Sunna circumcision. The more extreme female genital mutilations are called pharaonic circumcisions, or scraping the girl clean. Infibulation is the sewing together of the labia majora. Only a small hole is left at the bottom, not large enough for a penis, but large enough for urine and menstrual flow. After a woman has given birth, she is often infibulated again, to make her tight again, to increase the sexual pleasure of her husband. 

Female genital mutilation is performed mainly by midwives, but also by barbers, religious figures, and old women of the blacksmith class. Razor blades, scissors, and kitchen knives are used for the operation. Some of the consequences for women of these mutilations: difficulty urinating, painful menstruation, wound healing adhesions, scarring and keloid formation, pain during intercourse, lack of orgasm, kidney and urinary tract infections, difficulty in receiving gynecological examinations, repressed rage, depression, bleeding, and death. 

Tribes that cut their women: Beni Amir of eastern Sudan, Beja Hadandawa of the eastern Sudan, Beja Amar’ar of the eastern Sudan, Beja Bisharyyin of the eastern Sudan, Kikuyu of Kenya. Tribes That Do Not Cut: Rashaida Arabs in the Sudan, Kinin Tuareg of Darfur, Luo of South Sudan and Kenya, Christians in South Sudan. Countries practicing female genital mutilation: Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania ,Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya.