We are our sisters' keepers.
We brainstorm with networks of circumcised women worldwide to learn more about our varied cultures, religious beliefs, our shared history and a way forward for our communities.
We brainstorm with individuals, groups, organizations and outside experts to create interesting programs and promote respectful policies that will uplift and empower women and girls in our communities to make their own choices and lead fulfilling lives.
We brainstorm with networks of circumcised women worldwide to learn more about our varied cultures, religious beliefs, our shared history and a way forward for our communities.
We brainstorm with individuals, groups, organizations and outside experts to create interesting programs and promote respectful policies that will uplift and empower women and girls in our communities to make their own choices and lead fulfilling lives.
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Working List of References for Scholars, Researchers, Students, Journalists and others
It's so difficult to find any information on female circumcision that is not one-sided or produced by anti-FGM campaigns, including UN organizations, WHO, international NGOs and global media outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, The Guardian-UK, The BBC and AYV that is owned and managed by African. But clearly there must be different views among scholars, researchers and especially among practicing communities. Below is the beginning of AWAFC's attempt to put together a list of critical journal articles, academic books, ethnographies, films and even theater productions that challenge the FGM meta-narrative and require us to think in more nuanced ways about why human beings choose to mark their bodies in different fashions, all around the world, and what, if anything, those who disagree can or should do about it. - Dr. Fuambai Sia Nyoko Ahmadu
Suggested Readings
Ahmadu F. (2017). Equality not special protection: multiculturalism, feminism and female circumcision in
western liberal democracies. In J. Cassaniti and U. Menon (eds) Universalism Without Uniformity:
Explorations in Mind and Culture. University of Chicago Press.
Ahmadu, F. (2016). Male and Female Circumcision among the Mandinka of The Gambia: Understanding the
Dynamics of Traditional Dual Sex Systems in a Contemporary African Society. LAP Lambert Academic
Publishing. Dusseldorf: Germany.
Ahmadu, F. (2009a) Empowering girls in Sierra Leone: Initiation into Bondo Society. In R. Shweder (ed) The
Child: An Encyclopaedic Companion. University of Chicago Press, 168-169.
Ahmadu, F. (2009b) Disputing the myth of sexual dysfunction of circumcised women. Anthropology Today
4,6,14– 17.
Ahmadu, F. (2000). Rites and wrongs: excision and power among Kono women of Sierra Leone. In B. Shell-Duncan and Y. Hernlund (eds) Female “Circumcision”: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
Ahmadu, F. & Kamau, T. (2022) Dr Tatu Kamau vs the Attorney General and others: problems and prospects in Kenya’s 2021 High Court ruling to uphold the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act 2011 - a reply to ‘The prosecution of Dawoodi Bohra women’ by Richard Shweder. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs 12,1, 29-46. doi.org/10.1332/204378921X16388161357195
Amadiume, I. (1997). Reinventing Africa: matriarchy, religion and culture. London: Zed Books.
Boddy, J. (2016). The normal and the aberrant in female genital cutting: shifting paradigms. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 6,2, 41-49.
________ (1982). Womb as oasis: The symbolic context of Pharaonic circumcision in rural Northern Sudan. American Ethnologist 9,682-698.
Bosire, O. T. (2012). The Bondo secret society: Female circumcision and the Sierra Leonean
state. PhD thesis. University of Glasgow. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3506/
Broch-Due, V. I. (1993). Making meaning out of matter: perceptions of sex, gender and bodies
among the Turkana. In V. I. Broch-Due et al (eds) Carved flesh/cast selves: gendered symbols
and social practices. Providence: Berg.
Earp, B. & Johnsdotter, S. (2021). Current critiques of the WHO policy on female genital
mutilation. Int J Impot Res 33,196–209. doi.org/10.1038/s41443-020-0302-0
Esho, T., Van Wolputte, S., & Enzlin, P. (2011). The socio-cultural-symbolic nexus in the
perpetuation of female genital cutting: a critical review of existing discourses. Afrika
Focus, 24,2, 53-69.
Fusaschi, M. (2023). Gendered Genital Modifications (GGMo): a universalistic anthropological
approach. Response to Catalan and Emilova. International Journal of Impotence Research 35,
18–20. doi.org/10.1038/s41443-022-00643-8
Gruenbaum, E., Earp, B., & Shweder, R. (2023). Reconsidering the role of patriarchy in upholding female genital modifications: analysis of contemporary and pre-industrial societies. International Journal of Impotence Research, 35,3, 202-211.
Kimani, S., Kabiru, C.W., Muteshi, J. et al. (2020). Exploring barriers to seeking health care among Kenyan Somali women with female genital mutilation: a qualitative study. BMC Int Health Hum Rights 20, 3. doi.org/10.1186/s12914-020-0222-6
Kratz, C. (1994). Epilogue. Affecting performance: meaning, movement and experience in Okiek
women’s initiation. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
La Fontaine, J. S. (1985). Initiation: ritual drama and secret knowledge across the world.
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
_____________ (1972). Ritualisation of women’s life-crises in Bugisu. In J. S. La Fontaine (ed)
The interpretation of ritual. London: Tavistock.
Njambi, W. N. (2004). Dualisms and female bodies in representations of African female
circumcision: a feminist critique. Feminist Theory, 5,3, 281-303. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700104040811
Nnaemeka, O. (Ed.). (2005). Female circumcision and the politics of knowledge: African women
in imperialist discourses. Greenwood Publishing Group.
___________ (2001). If female circumcision did not exist, Western feminism would invent
it. Eye to Eye. Women Practicing Development across Cultures, 171-189.
O’Neill, S., Bader, D., Kraus, C., Godin, I., Abdulcadir, J., & Alexander, S. (2020). Rethinking the
anti-FGM zero-tolerance policy: from intellectual concerns to empirical challenges. Current
Sexual Health Reports, 12, 266-275.
Public Policy Advisory Network on Female Genital Surgeries in Africa (PPAN). (2012) Seven
things to know about female genital surgeries in Africa. The Hastings Center Report,
November/December 2012.
Rogers, J. (2013). Laws cut on the body of human rights: Female Circumcision, torture, and sacred flesh. London: Routledge. doi.org/10.4324/9780203517048
Shell-Duncan, B. and Hernlund, Y. (Eds.) 2000. Female “Circumcision” in Africa: culture,
controversy and change. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
Shweder, R. (2013). The goose and the gander: the genital wars. Global Discourse 3,2, 348-66.
doi: http:// dx .doi .org/ 10 .1080/ 23269995 .2013 .811923.
Recent and Upcoming Academic Workshops
“The Harms of the Current Global Anti-FGM Discourse” 9-11 June 2023, Hoor, Sweden. Organizers, Sara Johnsdötter (Malmö University), Ellen Gruenbaum (Purdue University) and Juliet Rogers (U of Melbourne)
“Changing cultural norms and socio-legal frameworks surrounding the sexed body: a collaborative workshop on perceived bodily imperfection and obligatory binarism in global perspective.” 20-21 November, 2023 Toronto, Canada. Organizers: Janice Boddy (University of Toronto) and Sarah O’Neill (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
“Interrogating the criminalisation of FC/GM” 27 November, 2023 Academic Panel at Inaugural
African Humanities Association Conference, Cape Town, South Africa. Organizers: Dorothy
Tikyiakwaa (University of Cape Coast, Ghana), Natasha Carver (University of Bristol), and
Hannelore Van Bravel (Universiteit Brussels)
“Changing cultural norms and socio-legal frameworks surrounding the sexed body: a collaborative workshop on perceived bodily imperfection and obligatory binarism in global perspective.” 20-21 November, 2023 Toronto, Canada. Organizers: Janice Boddy (University of Toronto) and Sarah O’Neill (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
“Interrogating the criminalisation of FC/GM” 27 November, 2023 Academic Panel at Inaugural
African Humanities Association Conference, Cape Town, South Africa. Organizers: Dorothy
Tikyiakwaa (University of Cape Coast, Ghana), Natasha Carver (University of Bristol), and
Hannelore Van Bravel (Universiteit Brussels)