Type III (infibulation or pharaonic circumcision), the “sewn closed” category, is the removal of the external genitalia and fusion of the wound. The inner and/or outer labia are cut away, with or without removal of the clitoral glans.[h] Type III is found largely in northeast Africa, particularly Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan (although not in South Sudan). According to one 2008 estimate, over eight million women in Africa are living with Type III FGM. According to UNFPA in 2010, 20 percent of women with FGM have been infibulated. In Somalia, according to Edna Adan Ismail, the child squats on a stool or mat while adults pull her legs open; a local anaesthetic is applied if available:
The element of speed and surprise is vital and the circumciser immediately grabs the clitoris by pinching it between her nails aiming to amputate it with a slash. The organ is then shown to the senior female relatives of the child who will decide whether the amount that has been removed is satisfactory or whether more is to be cut off.
”After the clitoris has been satisfactorily amputated … the circumciser can proceed with the total removal of the labia minora and the paring of the inner walls of the labia majora. Since the entire skin on the inner walls of the labia majora has to be removed all the way down to the perineum, this becomes a messy business. By now, the child is screaming, struggling, and bleeding profusely, which makes it difficult for the circumciser to hold with bare fingers and nails the slippery skin and parts that are to be cut or sutured together. …”
Having ensured that sufficient tissue has been removed to allow the desired fusion of the skin, the circumciser pulls together the opposite sides of the labia majora, ensuring that the raw edges where the skin has been removed are well approximated. The wound is now ready to be stitched or for thorns to be applied. If a needle and thread are being used, close tight sutures will be placed to ensure that a flap of skin covers the vulva and extends from the mons veneris to the perineum, and which, after the wound heals, will form a bridge of scar tissue that will totally occlude the vaginal introitus.
The amputated parts might be placed in a pouch for the girl to wear. A single hole of 2–3 mm is left for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid. The vulva is closed with surgical thread, or agave or acacia thorns, and might be covered with a poultice of raw egg, herbs, and sugar. To help the tissue bond, the girl’s legs are tied together, often from hip to ankle; the bindings are usually loosened after a week and removed after two to six weeks. If the remaining hole is too large in the view of the girl’s family, the procedure is repeated.
The vagina is opened for sexual intercourse, for the first time either by a midwife with a knife or by the woman’s husband with his penis. In some areas, including Somaliland, female relatives of the bride and groom might watch the opening of the vagina to check that the girl is a virgin.The woman is opened further for childbirth (defibulation or deinfibulation), and closed again afterwards (reinfibulation). Reinfibulation can involve cutting the vagina again to restore the pinhole size of the first infibulation. This might be performed before marriage, and after childbirth, divorce and widowhood. Hanny Lightfoot-Klein interviewed hundreds of women and men in Sudan in the 1980s about sexual intercourse with Type III:
”The penetration of the bride’s infibulation takes anywhere from 3 or 4 days to several months. Some men are unable to penetrate their wives at all (in my study over 15%), and the task is often accomplished by a midwife under conditions of great secrecy, since this reflects negatively on the man’s potency. Some who are unable to penetrate their wives manage to get them pregnant in spite of the infibulation, and the woman’s vaginal passage is then cut open to allow birth to take place. … Those men who do manage to penetrate their wives do so often, or perhaps always, with the help of the “little knife”. This creates a tear which they gradually rip more and more until the opening is sufficient to admit the penis.”
Thanks for the information, this is obviously very personal for you. Try to understand that I never compared them, and I wanting an end to all genital mutilation in no way diminishes what you’re fighting for.
Why do people feel a need to do “but what about the men?” every time this topic comes up? No one is smearing shit into the bloody penis of a baby. They are not comparable.
Well, intersex kids often have “correcting” surgeries done on them at birth, but that’s never what they mean, is it?
I decided, thanks to them, to go read a bit more on the subject, as the fact that it happens was all I knew, and it’s good to see some countries banning this practice as of 2024, so, at least, that’s getting some traction.
I don’t personally agree with any surgery to a baby, just to make them “normal” or to “fit in”. I just think they should have the decision, if it’s something that comes up for them. It is not one to one with the main post, female genital mutilation is worse in what is done and for the reasoning behind it, but I was more continuing the conversation about gender reassignment, and how it is happening, just not in the way the person you were responding to was probably thinking.
Yes, and while I find it bad that it happens with down syndrome, as well, I understand there are considerations one might think about with difficulties for every genetic difference. A big thing there though is the difference in expectations for their lives, the broad range of types of intersex mutation, and their amount of presentation. Some don’t even know they are intersex until getting genetic testing later in life. In the end, I don’t have a say in what people want in their child, or how they feel in their abilities to raise them, so what I’d like to see is a reasonable explanation of expectations with proper research backing it up, then it’s all down to the parents.
That’s great and let’s keep going by ending male genital mutilation at birth as well.
These are not comparable issues. I am against male circumcision, but people need to stop acting like the two things are anywhere near each other.
Heres “type 3” circumcision. Feel free to check out Wikipedia to see what “type 4 entails.”
Thanks for the information, this is obviously very personal for you. Try to understand that I never compared them, and I wanting an end to all genital mutilation in no way diminishes what you’re fighting for.
Uh, no this is not “personal” for me.
Why do people feel a need to do “but what about the men?” every time this topic comes up? No one is smearing shit into the bloody penis of a baby. They are not comparable.
Talking about related atrocities is a way to relate to a wider audience to raise awareness. Again, I never compared anything.
Mine are mutilated and I will never not be pissed off about it.
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That is not a thing in the west.
Well, intersex kids often have “correcting” surgeries done on them at birth, but that’s never what they mean, is it?
I decided, thanks to them, to go read a bit more on the subject, as the fact that it happens was all I knew, and it’s good to see some countries banning this practice as of 2024, so, at least, that’s getting some traction.
As far as that first paragraph of the article, that still happens with down syndrome and any other genetic abnomality in europe.
Genital mutilation perhaps if you think any genital plastic surgery is mutilation but the post does specify female genital mutilation.
I don’t personally agree with any surgery to a baby, just to make them “normal” or to “fit in”. I just think they should have the decision, if it’s something that comes up for them. It is not one to one with the main post, female genital mutilation is worse in what is done and for the reasoning behind it, but I was more continuing the conversation about gender reassignment, and how it is happening, just not in the way the person you were responding to was probably thinking.
Yes, and while I find it bad that it happens with down syndrome, as well, I understand there are considerations one might think about with difficulties for every genetic difference. A big thing there though is the difference in expectations for their lives, the broad range of types of intersex mutation, and their amount of presentation. Some don’t even know they are intersex until getting genetic testing later in life. In the end, I don’t have a say in what people want in their child, or how they feel in their abilities to raise them, so what I’d like to see is a reasonable explanation of expectations with proper research backing it up, then it’s all down to the parents.