On NPR [Feb 2007], Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali talked about her
new book, Infidel, and discussed her life as a fugitive, how to fight radical
Islam, and the need for intolerance against female circumcision. Without a
doubt, female circumcision is barbaric and horrific, but what about male circumcision,
perhaps not in magnitude, but in concept? This series explores the question of
male circumcision given that female circumcision is a slam-dunk-no-tolerance
issue. The history of male circumcision is bizarre, entangled in
religion, and like female circumcision, is just a bad idea that should be
nipped. Ouch.
Circumcision by David Gollaher, 2000, Excerpts
A History of the World’s Most Controversial Surgery
Stripped of medical or scientific
support, female circumcision is now viewed as the province of the
unenlightened, an outrageous throwback to primitive ideas about women,
disregarding women’s suffering and their right to control their bodies. Our
revulsion toward cutting the genitals of girls should give us pause, however,
for the themes the Western world abhors – removing part of the genitals to
reduce sexual pleasure, carving children’s bodies to conform to certain social
ideals, visiting pain on helpless children – are all fully present in the
history of male circumcision.
This excellent personal documentary
both in English and Dutch with English subtitles follows Dutch
journalist/filmmaker Michael Schaap as he learns from interviewing his own
mother, circumcisers, politicians, Jews, Muslims, a restored British man, and
some American activists.
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