Earlier this year, Icelandic parliamentarians submitted a bill to ban male circumcision. Members of the clergy from the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths together lodged protest against this violation of the right to religious freedom and claimed that legitimate concern for the welfare of infants could not justify the stigmatisation of certain religious communities. The […]
Category Archives: Features
04
Jun
Jun
The predominant discourse on female circumcision claims that any alteration of or ritual involving the female genitals, regardless of severity, results in sexual dysfunction. Despite the lack of credible scientific evidence, this myth remains stubbornly prevalent. The rite of Islamic female circumcision is limited to the nicking or slight cutting of the foreskin covering the […]
23
Feb
Feb
Female genital alterations, performed for cosmetic reasons, receive no censure from the WHO and are legal. These procedures are performed mainly for aesthetic, non-medically indicated reasons, to affirm culturally specific feelings of self-worth and definitions of beauty. These procedures, legally performed on minor children, can include piercing, clitoral unhooding or hoodectomy, the removal of parts […]
02
Feb
Feb
The misguided inclusion of female circumcision in the global campaign against FGM has prevented a balanced discussion of a legitimate practice and jeopardises the very rights and freedoms the campaign seeks to protect.
02
Feb
Feb
Parents’ rights to consent for their children are not limited by notions of bodily integrity and medical benefit alone and includes the right of parents to elect circumcision for their children.