Female Circumcision

Film Critique#1

Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, different cultures, practice of rite passages and different ideological ideas from non Western countries became an issuefor anthropologists. One of the issues with The Declaration of Human Rights according to Mark Goodale on his book Surrendering to Utopia is defining what culture is and what is standard and what is notin a society (p.67). In the film “Fire Eyes: Female Circumcision” by Somalian filmmaker Soraya Mire looks thru the lenses of women female circumcision. Female circumcision is a ritual passagepracticed in more than 40 countries worldwide in girls aged from infancy to 18 years old. The practice dates back to ancient Egypt, but it is still prevalent due to a variety a reasons. One of the reasonsthat has been cited as a reason for this procedure is to avoid rape as is the case of some African countries and to control women sexuality as well.
Female circumcision is considered by some assome type of female mutilation and a rite of passage to womanhood. In Africa, a women’s honor depends on her chastity. Therefore, the use of female circumcision controls women’s desires about sex. Thesurgery is usually performed by a midwife without the use of anesthesia most of the time. There are four different types of female circumcision. The first one involves only the incision of the areaaround the clitoris; the second involves the incision of the clitoris and the hood, the third involves the incision of clitoris, hood and vulva. Finally, the most conservative, which is when the vulvaof the woman is excised and the sewing of the women’s genitals completely closed with a small opening to urinate. There are complications following the surgery such as infections, difficultiesurinating, and menstrual pain and in the worse cases crucial lifetime physical pain. The healing process starts right after the surgery for fourteen days when the girls is to be bounded by her feet with a...