Male privilege sucks: Maasai women who refuse FGM are refused marriage

In a disgusting display of arrogance, males in the Maasai tribe in Tanzania are refusing to marry women who have refused to subject themselves to the horrors of Female Genital Mutilation.

No, FGM is not "clean".  The mutilation is actually less hygenic than women's natural genitalia.

No, it is not a "minor issue".  The violent cutting of highly sensitive skin leaves women with a lifetime of pain and discomfort, and most of the time it is done to girls too young to consent.

No, it is not "cultural" or "religious", it is an act of violence.  The fiction of religion does not trump the reality of nature.

No, male genital mutilation is not comparable.  The only way it could be compared is if the head of the penis were cut off with an axe, leaving only the shaft.  And even then, it's still not an apt comparison.


http://www.trust.org/item/20131216094140-k5c2x/

In Tanzania, Maasai women who reject FGM are refused as brides

Lozwi Longinai was preparing for her wedding day last month in northern Lingate village, but at the last minute her groom changed his mind after realising that his 18-year-old fiancée had not been circumcised.

“This is very bad. We are being rejected by our own society because we have refused to be circumcised,” Longinai complained.

[...]

“This practice must be eliminated as it denies women the right to enjoy life and make appropriate decisions on their lives,” said Jamboi Barmayegu, an official from the NGO, the Ujamaa Community Resource Team.

FGM - the cutting or total removal of the clitoris and other vaginal tissue - is often done in Tanzania using unclean knives or blades. Side effects of FGM include excruciating pain, urinary tract infections and even death.

UNICEF estimates more than 125 million girls and women have undergone genital mutilation in 29 countries across Africa and the Middle East.