'The Cutting Tradition'

I watched the very hard to digest The Cutting Tradition last night in the company of both my Mom and Brother.

Again, let me stress - very hard to digest.

In my last year of University, we touched a bit on the female circumcision in my Women in Africa history course. The film The Cutting Tradition very bluntly addresses this issue. In this film they make the argument that the act of female genital mutilation (the female circumcision) is not OK. As the title suggests, it is very difficult to address this issue of genital mutilation because it is a part of their tradition. Apparently, over 90% of women in Egypt have been circumcised.

My girlfriend asked me how I felt about all this and I had no idea where to go. I have a huge problem trying to tackle these cultural differences. I mean it's easy to acknowledge that the procedure is wrong because it is terribly unsafe and not necessary, but where do we go from there?

Safe Hands for Mothers is the organisaiton that produced the film. Their purpose as an organisation is to educate and promote safe practice for pregnant mothers. Their main force of action is through education.

I suppose that's a good start.

Some further reading - Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali