Female genital mutilation has been a trivial matter that many governments across the world and non-governmental organizations have sought to fight and eradicate. It is considered an evil that can be done away with through persistent education of the communities that still practice it. However, for the practice to be fought, it has to be that there are some negative issues surrounding it. This paper evaluates a primary and a secondary source concerning female genital mutilations and looks at how they have gone about covering the issue.
The primary resource is by Laura (1997). In this research, the thesis statement is that female genital mutilation (FGM) is a brutal custom. To show this, the author goes ahead to give three experiences from women who have gone through the rite. Laura (1997) notes that by the time, there were 130 million females and over who had gone through the rite. In particular, a number just above 150 thousand was in the United States (U. S.). The author notes of the laws that existed at that time in regard to FGM, such as being jailed for not more than 5 years. The information garnered by the author is through the victim statements of their experience. One notes that her clitoris was sliced off, the other says she was shocked by the rite, and the last one says she was infibulated. They talk of the pain it caused them, sexual impact, risk of infertility, inhibition to menstrual flow, posttraumatic stress disorder, and infections. The article concludes by noting that FGM is wrong.
The secondary source is a research done by Kaplan, Hechavarria, Martin, and Bonhoure (2011). The key research question was to assess the health impacts of FGM. The research was conducted in Gambia where by it notes that its prevalence is at just over 78% in women between the ages of 15 to 49. Using 871 female clients, data on the FGM types along with their health impact was obtained. The clients were all patients in need of medical assistance who had gone through the rite. The major conclusion of the research is that the practice still takes place in Gambia with the most common being the removal of a part of the clitoris and the whole prepuce. The data collection for this research involved one on one interactions with the patients by the doctors. If there were to be improvements on the data collection, then the researchers should go into the villages and get those clients who cannot easily access health centers yet they have undergone the rite. They should also make use of a questionnaire to determine the consequences from individuals.
References
Kaplan, A., Hechavarria, S., Martin, M., & Bonhoure, I. (2011). Health consequences of female genital mutilation/cutting in the Gambia, evidence into action. Reproductive Health, 8(26), 1-6.
Laura, Z. (1997, May). The Horror of Female Gential Mutilation. Cosmopolitan, 222(5), p. 242.
