<^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 129 ... October 18, 1996......... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber......... <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> Congress has outlawed the rite of female genital mutilation. It finally enacted the law that had been proposed for more than 20 years by retiring U.S. Congressional Representative Patricia Schroeder. The action was so quiet that most newspapers have never carried the story and only a couple of the major newspapers ran stories TWO WEEKS after it was enacted. American residents who have their girls mutilated here will face up to five years in prison. And already a group of so-called AMERICAN doctors are trying to find a way around the law so that they can cut the girls in a large Seattle hospital. Of course, these "Doctors" are betraying everything their Hypocritic oath stands for - hypocrites is right. It only affects girls so their precious little penises are safe. Well, let a medical doctor tell you about the outrageous behavior of the male pediatrician in Seattle - Dr. Nancy Phillips wrote Catt's Claws: "Here's a summary of a radio news article from Thurs. 10/17 of the NPR _All Things Considered_ news show. Please consider this for the CC newsletter. A male doctor (Dr. Abraham Bergman chief of pediatrics) at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center (the big public hospital in Seattle) is discussing with hospital authorities and lawyers the possibility of doing a female genital mutilation substitute procedure on Somali girls residing in the U.S. Apparently Somali women at this hospital, when asked about circumcising their newborn boys, have asked "can you do my girls too?" According to Dr. Bergman, the procedure would be done on Somali girls of 12 years who consent to the procedure without undue pressure from their parents, would not use restraint (although would presumably use spinal or general anesthesia, which is pharmacologic restraint),would involve cutting the prepuce (hood) of the clitoris without removal of tissue "resulting in a small scar," and would be termed a ritual bloodletting. Only Somali and other "Horn of Africa" girls would be done.The procedure is thought to avoid the recent law outlawing FGM in the US, since no tissue is actually removed, but hospital lawyers are still deciding about this. The stated justification for the procedure is that it would satisfy the Somali families that the tradition has been served, and have the procedure done under sterile controlled conditions, while minimizing the amount of genital damage. Traditional FGM in Somalia and nearby areas ranges from clitoral amputation to total removal of the clitoris, the labia minora and a substantial portion of the labia majora, and the skin left is sewn together to leave only a 1/4 inch hole through which urine and menses may pass. (By the way, the latter procedure is one that is done for advanced vulvar cancer in this country, though the reconstruction is more sophisticated). The proposed procedure is unknown to traditional practice and may not be recognized by other Somalis as sufficient, since the labia will look basically normal. This raises the possibility that the Somali mothers and grannies will just repeat the FGM at home or back in Africa to "get it right," thereby abolishing the stated justification for doing the proposed procedure in a U.S. hospital. "The sequelae of the proposed procedure are not clear or known either, but I would expect more than a scar. Obviously, the nerve density is very high in the clitoris and surrounding region, and there is no way to cut this tissue without cutting nerves. I would expect some sensory loss in every patient, and would expect that a fairly high percentage (10-20%?) would develop traumatic neuromas at the site. The neuromas are a result of abnormal healing of cut nerves, can occur in skin due to cuts (persistent pain at an old incision, stump pain in an amputee, etc.), can occur in visceral nerves such as gallbladder nerves, and can range from moderately painful when pressed to extremely painful all the time. "The neuroma possibility was not discussed on radio, the only sequela mentioned was a small scar. "A woman pediatric surgeon (African whose name I can't remember) from Washington, D.C. who has written about sequelae of FGM in the medical literature (to introduce U.S. doctors to the problems) and who provided consultation for the Schroeder bill also talked on the radio. She stated that the proposed procedure at Harborview went against basic medical ethics of `first, do no harm,' since the girls had no disease to be treated, and that the threat of mothers doing the FGM themselves in the kitchen does not obligate doctors to abandon their own code of ethics (she was more eloquent). She also brought up the probability of the procedure not being considered sufficient by the families and of a bigger FGM being done by them at home. This woman surgeon practices in a city with a fairly large Somali/ Ethiopian/ Eritrean population, and has FGM patients in her practice. A Somali father of four daughters was interviewed, and he said that he was very worried about the sexual looseness in the U.S. and thought that FGM and other traditions would keep his daughters "good" and protect them from predatory men. "As of this date, no procedures have been performed at Harborview Hospital, as the lawyers and the medical staff are considering the legal and ethical issues. "So much for my polite, unemotional summary of this radio news item. "Now, let me rant ... This goes against my oath, and I am outraged that any doctor out there would consider this procedure which is of no therapeutic benefit and perform it on minor children. Even male circumcision has some benefit in reduced rates of sexually transmitted diseases for the man himself and for partners, in reduced rates of penile cancer (related to the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus), and in removing the possibility of phimosis (painful constriction of the foreskin). Furthermore, male circumcision is not reported to decrease sexual enjoyment or function. "I am personally offended that a colleague would consider this FGM procedure legitimate, instead of trying to educate the family that FGM is unnecessary and illegal. I am under no obligation to provide desired narcotics to people who do not have an immediate injury or known somatic chronic pain such as cancer metastatic to bone. In fact, I would be jailed and my license revoked if I abused my profession in that manner. I see no excuse for performing an unnecessary and harmful procedure of no therapeutic benefit on a child below the age of consent at the implied or actual behest of the parents. "There are stronger safeguards on the relatively innocuous procedure of bone marrow donation to an identical (or HLA-similar) sibling with leukemia, a situation where the donor gives up, in a temporarily painful procedure without other risk, a small portion of a tissue which will regenerate quickly and will save the life of the recipient. Apparently the rules don't apply to little brown girls of foreign extraction, and in fact one can be seen as broad-minded and not "Western-centric" for going along with FGM.Please use this, Irene, I am as angry as I ever get." (signed) Nancy Phillips, M.D. BTW, the address for the Seattle Times story: http://www.seattletimes.com - then use the search engine to look for "female and mutilation". Five stories will appear, choose the story "local news Sept. 13th - Harborview debates issue of circumcision of Muslim girls". At the end of the story, there is a link to an FGM research homepage (http://www.hollyfeld.org:80/~xastur). The contents may or may not be available. There has been a lot of problems with the site. Several weeks ago Catt's Claws asked the Seattle Times' permission to use the story as a source. We were refused. And perhaps we know why. The article quoted Dr. Abraham Bergman, chief of pediatrics, as saying that he had found a procedure called the "sunna" that doesn't do all the bad stuff. Hope it was the reporter's mistake and not Dr. Bergman's because the sunna clitorectomy is the one banned in Egypt and removes the tip of the clitoris which is like cutting off half of the penis. There is much more of the clitoris than the small `nob' which is why the cutting away of more flesh in the Somali ritual. Even so, several Egyptian girls have died in recent weeks from the operation. Dr. Bergman has been quoted as saying, "Privacy should prevail and the brouhaha (against his mutilations) is inappropriate." He is quoted as saying it is a matter for the family, the girl and the doctor and no one else. Really, Dr. Bergman, how much choice do you think an 12-year-girl can express? You would not perform an abortion on a 12-year-old's word, nor even pierce her ears, yet you would mutilate her sex. What a hypocrite. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . OK, there have been black American feminists and traditional African patriarchs who are telling Americans to butt out of the genital mutilation of their girls claiming that it is a religious matter. Well, kiddies, how about the blessed castroti of the Roman Catholic Church? When young boys with beautiful voices were castrated so they could continue to be high soprano singers into their old age. All those wonderful Gregorian chant singers when eunuchs were common. Very common and very much revered by the priesthood. The last castrato died around the second decade of the 20th Century, sometime around World War I, because of the SCREAMS of men about this horrible thing that was being done to boys... We won't go into a lot of other religious mutilations that were practiced in religious communities in the olden times. Castration appears to be the least and it was stopped because it messed with god's creations - although it is considered OK to castrate and mutilate women's genitals since it is the girl's body ... Female genital mutilation is WORSE. The penis is analogous to the clitoris. Amputating the clitoris is like cutting off the ENTIRE penis, sunna is like cutting off half of the penis. Scraping and amputating the vulva area is analogous to amputating the testicles (castration) except in women it is much, much worse because so much flesh (all the DARK flesh) is taken away so that when the wound is sewn up, the women cannot walk in a normal way since there's not enough skin or flesh left. It's all scar tissue ... The women must be cut open with a (husband's) knife to have sex and for the birth of a child .... Oh yes, religion. Isn't it strange that all the unchangeable religious rights seem to affect women adversly? . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . By the way, the new outlawing of female genital cutting REQUIRES the U.S. representative to the World Bank and other international banking groups to oppose making loans to African nations that don't try to stop the mutilations. (You wanna believe this is gonna be enforced???) "You keep trying to explain that this is not circumcision," said Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., who along with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has repeatedly introduced bills in past sessions to outlaw the practice. "This is more like Lorena Bobbit. Once they really find out it goes on and is not some victim fantasy we're having, they're horrified." The Centers for Disease Control are estimating that more than 150,000 African women and girls in the U.S. are at risk for genital mutilation. California, Minnesota, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and North Dakota are among the states that have outlawed the practice in the past two years, congressional researchers said. The Federal law provides for the prosecution of anyone who "circumcises, excises, or infibulates the whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris of another person who has not attained the age of 18." Infibulation involves stitching together the labia skin from which all flesh has been removed to largely cover the vagina. According to news reports, the French has criminally prosecuted families for the excision of daughters. "At first the doctors hesitated, saying, 'We cannot betray families,"' said Linda Weil-Curiel, a lawyer who is France's leading crusader against the practice. "I said, 'Your first obligation is to the child. If you do not report a family when you notice they practice excision, then the next child born will be excised, too. You bear the responsibility."' Yes, Dr. Bergman, you will bear the responsibility. One of the problems of getting it passed before is that the male members of Congress refused to believe such horror was being committed against girl children. (And of course they could ignore it because it just involved girls/females). And it probably wouldn't have passed this time if the Republicans weren't searching for something to present to women voters as "woman friendly." . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Let's see, Americans ban polygamy even though the Mormons claimed it was their religious right. All nations got onto the headhunters although it was part of the religion of those in New Guinea. OK - Catt's Clawers, send in your other examples. The mutilation of the genitals of any girl/woman in the United States must not be allowed to occur. And we must do everything we can to preserve the physical dignity of women throughout the world, including Africa. I'm sorry, Dr. Bergman, but your operation fits in with the Auschwitz medical experiments, not an American medical facility. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Hopefully the New York Times will get their search program together and readers can begin to access the horrifying but magnificently researched and presented articles on Genital Mutilation written by Celia W. Dugger. Tradition? In Togo and most African Horn nations women have no rights, will starve without the approval of the patriarchs. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . If you guys and guyz out there begin to ache when anyone talks about doing things to your testicles and penis ... think about someone coming along and slicing everything off and then taking away all the flesh down to the public bone ... Are those frissons of horror you're feeling? . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Cynthia Cooper wrote the _New York Times_ (with a copy to Catt's Claws) in utter outrage over the obituary of Alveleta Guess who tragically died recently at only 41. Ms. Guess was described by the NY Times obituary writer as "a buxom woman." Guess had performed during the 1996 Tony awards show on TV as part of the _Swinging On a Star_ presentation. Ms. Cooper wrote: "Dear Editor of the _New York Times_, I find it absolutely reprehensible that a New York Times obituary found it necessary to refer to the deceased as a "buxom woman..." Whatever relevance does a woman's bust size or physical bearing have to her death of cancer at age 41? The sole connection is unmitigated misogyny. "I propose, therefore, equal time. Let us know the penis size of deceased men. Let us now hear of (a man whose obituary appeared next to Ms. Guess') whose skinny testicles were oddly match to his fat stout penis. Let us now know that (another man who just died) had saggy protruding nipples that caused guffaws at public appearances. "Or, maybe, it's time to look into the hearse's rearview mirror and recognize the humanity of people has nothing to do with boobs, body shape or bux." Indeed. And things will only change when WE WOMEN DEMAND IT! Those who want something to do for feminism and don't have an lot of resources can start reading the obituaries and letting the editor know when you are displeased. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . We have to thank Tom Tomorrow, the excellent cartoonist, for reminding us of this little speech given by Bob Dole not too very long ago. Tom says, "we're pleased to present Bob Dole in his OWN WORDS!" "My wife...does an excellent job. And when I'm elected, she will not be in charge of health care. Don't worry about it. Or in charge of anything else. I didn't say that. It did sort of go through my mind, but she may have a little blood bank in the White House. But that's all right. We need it. It doesn't cost you anything. "These days it's not all you give at the White House...your blood. You have to hide your file. I keep wondering if mine's down there. Or my dog's. I got a dog named Leader. I'm not certain they've got a file on Leader. He's a schnauzer. I think he's been cleaned. We've had him checked by the vet but not the FBI or the White House. "He may be suspect but in any event, we'll get into that later. Animal rights or something of that kind. But this is a very serious election." Tom Tomorrow adds at the end of the four panels, "What can we possibly add to that?" Amen, sister, awomen. Last week Dole forgot he was in San Diego for the presidential debate and said how glad he was to be in San Francisco, the gaff was understandable since the old man has been traveling a lot, but - BUT - when he said he was looking FORWARD to the San Diego convention, even his staunchest Clinton- haters who masquerade as Dole supporters got a bit worried. Ain't it strange that the so-called free press (the so-called liberal press) hardly mentioned it but keep harping on Clinton's "character." . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . For some reason (sic!) the ancient methods of human fertility control has been suppressed, in fact so suppressed that women don't even use logic to combat the absence of such knowledge. We know, for example, that the basic break in woman-to-woman information (oral tradition) occurred during the burning of the witches, i.e., the murdering of women who held knowledge and power, the herbalists, and the midwives during the 14th into the 16th centuries. But the information was recorded in manuscripts and books that were not destroyed - that have always been there and have only been unearthed recently by MEN scholars. What we don't understand is why feminist scholars of today don't attempt to further unearth the old knowledge and disseminate it to modern women. We'll let their past inability to find such knowledge pass by. As John Riddle wrote in an article in Archaeology magazine in 1994, "In ancient times, contrary to what historians have been telling us for the past several centuries, many women practiced birth-control with little interference from religious or political authorities. The knowledge of the plants that allowed them to do so and the lapse of that knowledge by the time of the Renaissance is a story that is only now emerging with clarity." For example, Soranus in the 2nd century A.D. suggested avoiding intercourse during a woman's fertile period, inducing sneezing to expel sperm, wiping out the vagina and drinking something cold. He also suggested smearing the cervix with a mixture of olive oil, astringents, and gums of certain trees such as juniper, cedar or balsam, to close the cervix before intercourse. Many of the things suggested by Soranus for use as vaginal suppositories have been found to have spermicidal by modern chemists. To read more about ancient anti-fertility methods, read John M. Riddle's _Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to Renaissance_, and _The Control of Late Ancient and Medieval Population_ by Josiah C. Russell. We recommend women buying copies of the books to be put away for the just-in-case future. The religious right is aiming at the presidency in the year 2000. ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to istuber@cswnet.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed up to three times a week. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information. Catt's Claws is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Copyright 1996, Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<< To receive Catt's Claws by email, write and in the body of the note We thank Jennifer Gagliardi for handling the madding subscription list through her listserv.