Cultural Superiority

I can't believe they are debating this issue. "Cultural Imperialism". Let's face it folks, some cultures are just better than others any way you look at it. You can debate whether English culture is superior to French culture or whether those folks in Japan have it right while the rest of us struggle. But there is no discussing whether Japan or the United States or any western culture is better than Pakistan or Sudan or Somolia or Saudi Arabia.

Should African women be allowed to engage in the practice sometimes called female circumcision? Are critics of this practice, who call it female genital mutilation, justified in trying to outlaw it, or are they guilty of ignorance and cultural imperialism?

Dr. Ahmadu, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, was raised in America and then went back to Sierra Leone as an adult to undergo the procedure along with fellow members of the Kono ethnic group. She has argued that the critics of the procedure exaggerate the medical dangers, misunderstand the effect on sexual pleasure, and mistakenly view the removal of parts of the clitoris as a practice that oppresses women. She has lamented that her Westernized “feminist sisters insist on denying us this critical aspect of becoming a woman in accordance with our unique and powerful cultural heritage.” In another essay, she writes:

It is difficult for me — considering the number of ceremonies I have observed, including my own — to accept that what appears to be expressions of joy and ecstatic celebrations of womanhood in actuality disguise hidden experiences of coercion and subjugation. Indeed, I offer that the bulk of Kono women who uphold these rituals do so because they want to — they relish the supernatural powers of their ritual leaders over against men in society, and they embrace the legitimacy of female authority and particularly the authority of their mothers and grandmothers.

Key point here: Dr. Ahmadu is over 18. She has weighed the costs and benefits and determined she is better off without her female parts. She was not snatched out of her house by her grandmother and drug off to some witch doctor when she was 12 only to have the woman use a kitchen knife and no pain killers to whack off her genitalia.

What you do to your body after a certain age is your business. Ask Michael Jackson. But it should not be mandatory and it should not be done to children.