Last year, I wrote an article about female circumcision and it draws different reactions from people. I know that some of my Muslim friends do adopt female circumcision due to religious requirement. However, the female babies are circumcised by medical doctor in a hygienic environment. It is not a total mutilation like the female circumcision carried out in Africa. Those are grossly torturous.

I personally will not question why some religious faith require their female babies to have female circumcision. Therefore, I think when some parties take the issue and tear it apart by using examples of female genital mutilation, it is rather low. They are different but I shall not explain it. I just want to point out the difference between female circumcision and female genital mutilation.

There are various sites which I will not link because they contain gross videos and I will certainly not subject myself to view it. I hope everyone will read and understand before using the few cases against a whole faith. I believe the procedure that my Muslim friends adopt are either the Type 1 or Type II described in Wikipedia :

Type I

The WHO defines Type I female genital mutilation as the removal or splitting of the clitoral hood, termed “hoodectomy” (or “clitorodotomy”), with or without excision of the clitoris, see Diagram 1B. The clitoral hood is homologous to the foreskin of the penis which is removed during circumcision.

[edit] Type II

The WHO’s definition of Type II FGC is the “excision of the clitoris with partial or total excision of the labia minora.”[1] This type of FGC is also called khafd, meaning reduction in Arabic.

Come to think of it, if we look at the amount of interest on vaginoplasty and plastic surgery to reduce the size of the labia, the modern, Western culture aren’t too far different, isn’t it? They too have this fascination to cut and stitch their own vaginas.

So? What can we say?