Elaineearl comments : How can you compare something as brutal as FGM to something as innocent as shaving legs? It's not the same at all! And the people who are fighting against this thing are not exxagerating or blowing anything out of proportion. They are angry about it because it is wrong, plain and simple. There is no "joyful rite of passage" in having your private parts ripped up with no anestesia by someone who is not a doctor! To even think that is just ignorance and foolishness on the part of the women who say it. This is the cruelest form of child abuse in the world and should be outlawed and the perpetrators punished. Women, you need to get a grip. You need to get smart! A cultural difference is when you like spaghetti because you're Italian, or tacos because you're Mexican. FGM is not a cultural difference, it is pure evil and cruel ignorance. Any woman who is for female circumcision is just a traitor to all women everywhere.
Vandana Singh comments : If I am correct in assuming that the "you" in your comment, Elaineearl, is myself, the reviewer, then I must protest that you are erroneously ascribing to me the views of the author of the article. My reason for writing this review is that I find the subject of the journal --- the crossroads of culture and human rights --- particularly intriguing, difficult and thought-provoking, particularly from my experience as a member of an Asian women's rights organization in the US. However this does not mean that I agree with all the positions taken in the various articles. And just to clarify, the comparison between shaving legs and FGM is not mine but the author's. Please direct your ire at the author (after you have yourself read the article of course).
If you are in a special position to educate us about FGM --- for instance if you are a grassroots activist, have had personal experience or know people who have, or if you are a researcher with access to facts, or have interviewed women who have undergone FGM --- please share your knowledge with us. I suggest that you read the original Daedalus article and write an article for SAWF (where you will find an audience eager to learn) based on facts rather than polemic. I would love to be intelligently enlightened on this important issue.
