Revisiting the Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Discourse
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MARIA CATERINA LA BARBERA
Revisiting the anti-Female Genital Mutilation Discourse
1. Introduction - 2. What is in a Name? - 3. Why are Ritual Female Genital
Cuttings Performed? - 4. Anti-FGA Laws in Colonial Africa - 5. Notes on
Victorian Clitoridectomy, Designer Vaginoplasty, and Silicone Breast Implant - 6.
Controlling Processes: the Concept ofHealth -7. Conclusions
1. Introduction
All forms of ritual female genital cuttings have increasingly been object of
legislation, not only in African countries where they have mostly been per-
formed, but also in Western countries where African migrants have been set-
tled'. Western legislators have adopted two main different approaches: either
prosecuting ritual female genital cuttings under the existing penal law or making
ad hoc laws. Their symbolic function is evidently different as well as the results.
Albeit making a specific law condemns openly the practices, it is remarkable
that the only Western country were ritual female genital cuttings are systemati-
2
cally prosecuted is France, where it is done under the existing criminal law.
Prosecuting these practices under the pre-existent criminal law guarantees the
formal respect of the equal protection principle because the law is applicable to
everyone regardless of the ethnicity. Yet, as a matter of fact, these practices are
perfonned only by one part of the population, specifically by migrants from
former colonies. Vice versa, ad hoc laws recognize the specificity and
See, for example, in the UK, the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985
(replaced by the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003); in the USA, the Federal
Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act (1995), integrated in specific legislations
at the state level; in Italy, the recent law n. 7/2006, Provisions Concerning the
Prevention and Ban of the Practice of Female Genital Mutilation.
2 The article 222-9 of the French Penal Code states: ((The violence that leads to
mutilation or permanent infirmity is punishable by ten years imprisonment and a fine of
150.000 euros>> [the translation is mine]. Also in The Netherlands ritual female genital
cuttings have been considered a criminal offence under the preexistent criminal law
since 1992, but not a single court case has taken place.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/dirquesp9&div=27&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Revisiting the Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Discourse
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