CONTENTS
Bibliographic citations are listed in Population Reports, Meeting the Needs of Young Adults, Series J, No. 41.

Supplement to Population Reports, Meeting the Needs of Young Adults, Series J, No. 41, Vol. XXIII, No. 3 October 1995. Published with support from the United States Agency for International Development. For additional copies contact Population INformation Program, Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, 111 Market Place, Suite 310, Baltimore, MD 21202-4012, USA; fax (410) 569-6266; e-mail PopRepts@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu.

Why Is FGM Still Practiced?

The purpose and importance of FGM varies from community to community and, very often, from family to family. Proponents contend that FGM is justified as part of socialization into womanhood or because it has religious significance (especially among Muslims), curbs female sexual desires, or has aesthetic, purifying, or hygienic benefits (205, 213, 452, 477). There is no doctrinal basis for FGM in either Islam or Christianity, however (29, 139, 477). FGM does reward its practitioners if they charge for services or receive social recognition and status (29, 148, 492).

One of the main factors behind the persistence of FGM is its social significance for females. In most regions where it is practiced, a woman achieves recognition only through marriage and childbearing, and many men refuse to marry a woman who has not undergone FGM. Therefore to be uncircumcised is to have no access to status or a voice in these communities. Thus, as a joint report of WHO and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) observes, the victims of the practice are often its strongest proponents (550).


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