Date: Sat, 11 May 1996 04:42:40 -0500
From: atefeh oliai <atefeho-AT-vms2.macc.wisc.edu>
Subject: Re: Article by Dr. Nawal Saadawi



Dear Ramesh
Thanks for the article and message.  I'll send it to all friends.
I was wondering if I could have a copy of the platforme of you organisation.
Can I contact you directly?  I have few questions. 

Atefeh









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>Subject: Article by Dr. Nawal Saadawi
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>Dear Freinds,
>Dr. Saadawi has asked me to circulate her article to as many 
>women's mailing lists and organizations as I can. Therefore I ask you
>to do the same.
>Dr. Saadawi's article will soon to be publised in the USA, but please
>circulate among other news groups and bulletin boards.
>Please forward any questions or suggestions to this e-mail address.
>Best Wishes,
>Ramesh Sepehrrad
>President of National Committee of Women for Democratic Iran
>
>Enc.
>**************************************************
>THE RITE AND THE RIGHT
>
>by: Dr. Nawal El Saadawi
>
>"To scrape my women parts off" is how Mrs. Kasinga of Togo describes the rite
>of female circumcision.
>She fled her country because of this threat and in seeking asylum in the U.S.
>has had spend the last two years in prison. The U.S. authorities do not
>consider genital mutilation to be violation of human rights or a reason for
>granting asylum. What are the options available to Ms. Kasinga and thousands
>of young women like her who are exposed to this same fate?
>
>As a medical doctor I have been fighting and writing, for more than thirty
>years, against this cruel rite which deprive millions of women all over the
>world of one of their basic human rights: the right to have a complete body.
>
>It has very often been proclaimed that female circumcision is related to the
>black African or Moslem societies. But, in fact, it is performed on women
>regardless of their religious beliefs. When I was in primary school in Egypt,
>all my school mates were circumcised: Christians, Jews as well as Moslems. In
>African and Asian countries it is performed on women who believe in one god
>as well as those who belong to polytheistic pt atheistic communities.
>
>Women in Europe and America are not exempt from this practice. It is
>estimated that in the U.S. approximately 40,000 women are circumcised every
>year. Most of them are immigrants from different parts of the world. Many of
>those women who are not necessarily subjected to surgical removal of the
>clitoris are victims of psychological and educational clitoridectomy.
>
>Sigmund Freud promoted psychological circumcision of women when he formulated
>his theory and maintained that maturity and mental health in a women required
>that orgasm related to the clitoris cease and be transferred to the vagina.
>The abolition of the functions of the clitoris is equal to its abscence. It
>might even be considered more malicious because it produces the illusion of
>being complete, whereas the body has lost the organ.
>
>The class patriarchal system which imposes monogamy on women could never have
>been possible or have been maintained to this day without a whole range of
>cruel devices that are used to keep women's sexuality in check and limit her
>sexual relations to only one men, her husband. In this patriarchal system
>history shows us that the father was keen on knowing who his legitimate
>children were so as to had down his property to them. It was necessary to
>build up a system of legal, moral, cultural and religious values capable of
>protecting these economic and political interests. Confusion between children
>of the husband and other lovers would mean the unavoidable collapse of the
>patriarchal class system built around knowing the name of the father.
>
>There are currently attempts being made in the U.S. on both the state and
>national level to abolish the practice of female genital mutilation. Several
>states have addressed this issue and currently five states have bills
> pending on the subject, one state is planning on introducing a bill and two
>states, Minnesota and North Dakota, have actually passed legislation
>prohibiting the procedure.
>
>Representative Patricia Schroeder, D-Colorado, has sponsored a bill in
>Congress that would make it illegal to perform female genital mutilation, of
>any degree, on women under age of 18, unless it is for health purposes and is
>rendered by a licensed medical practitioner. The religious beliefs of a women
>requesting this procedure who claims that this is a required matter of custom
>or ritual are not be taken into account. The provision of other medical
>services are not to be denied to anyone having had female circumcision or
>having requested it.
>
>This bill also requests that the Secretary of Health and Human Services
>compile data on the number of females living in the U.S. who have experienced
>female genital mutilation while identifying the communities practicing this
>ritual. The design of outreach programs educating the community on the
>physical and psychological health effects of this procedure is also proposed.
>It will seek to ensure that medical schools provide education pertaining to
>female gentile mutilation and it complications.
>
>According to Surita Sadosham, Executive Director of Equality Now, her
>organization has been campaigning to rise awareness about and mobilize
>pressure to prohibit the practice of female genital mutilation. They have
>been instrumental in placing a great amount of international pressure,
>through the media, to aid in the granting of asylum to Fauziga Kasinga.
>
>I am against all types of circumcision including male circumcision, which us
>not as detrimental as female circumcision , but is still harmful and may
>cause complications. To cut out any part of the human body for non-medical
>reasons should be considred a crime. It is a crime graver than any political
>crime could ever be considred.
>
>I oppose all attempts to consider female circumcision a cultural issue, such
>as choosing to wear a veil in Moslem countries. It is not be considred a
>choice in authenticating the identity of women, or as right to be differnt in
>a multicultural world.
>
>I also oppose all attempts to deal with female circumcision in isolation,
>serving it from its links with historical, political and economic factors.
>
>Ms. Kasings was exposed to double crime: the old tribal rite and the
>post-modern U.S.A. Immigration right. She is a female facing gentile
>mutilation and she is an alien and therefore not credible. In her prison cell
>she dreams of her home Togo. Sometimes the family rite is less cruel than
>alien right.
>
>
>
>
>