Disputing the Myth of the Sexual Dysfunction of Circumcised Women: An Interview with

Fuambai S. Ahmadu by Richard A. Shweder

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 Disputing the myth of the sexual dysfunction of circumcised women
An interview with Fuambai S. Ahmadu by Richard A. Shweder

This interview on the subject of female genital cut ofAhmadu 's talk was 'Disputing the myth of the sexual
ting serves to contextualize a submission by Carlos D. dysfunction of circumcised women'. In order to make
Londono Sulkin, who describes the changes of percep sense of Londoho Sulkins reactions to her account,
tion he and other members of the audience experienced Fuambai Ahmadu was invited to set out her case, which
after a lecture by Fuambai Ahmadu on this subject at she does in the form of a question-and-answer session
the University of Regina on 19 March 2009. The title with Richard Shweder. Ed.

Fuambai S. Ahmadu Richard Shweder: The voices of the many East and penis symbolizes femininity and is associated with female
and Richard A. West African women who value the practice of genital sexual organs, thus removal of the foreskin represents the
Shweder modification for both girls and boys have not been au masculinization of the boy. In parallel and complementary
Fuambai Ahmadu went
dible in North American and European media accounts form the exposed clitoris represents the male sexual organ
back to her parents 'native
Sierra Leone with her sister, of the practice. How do you address the subject when or penis and thus its removal symbolizes the feminiza
Sunju Ahmadu, and other you lecture on this topic? tion of the girl child and marks her adult sexual status. In
family members to undergo Fuambai Ahmadu: I opened my talk at Regina with a men's ceremonies, men identify and celebrate their differ
female initiation from
December 1991 to January
short documentary film produced by my younger sister, ences from women; similarly women's ceremonies elabo
1992. Ahmadu works for Sunju Ahmadu, which depicted parts of the public celebra rate, exaggerate and celebrate their differences from men,
the National Institutes of tions of our own initiation/excision ceremony nearly two often ridiculing and belittling male sexuality and supposed
Health (NIH) in Maryland.
decades ago. The audience thoroughly engaged with the social and sexual superiority.
After receiving her doctorate
film and in the discussion that followed. I first talked about In Sierra Leone, women's initiation is highly organized
from the Department of
Anthropology at the London the film, addressing what I felt was the most obvious ques and hierarchical: the institution itself is synonymous with
School of Economics in tion in their minds: how could it be that the African women women's power, their political, economic, reproductive
2005, she completed a
two-year post-doctoral
in the documentary spoke so positively about female ini and ritual spheres of influence. Excision, or removal of
fellowship at the Department tiation and excision (both referred to as bondo among the the external clitoral glans and labia minora, in initiation is
of Comparative Human Kono and other ethnic groups in Sierra Leone)? a symbolic representation of matriarchal power. How can
Development, University
The Kono are a minority population who reside in the this be so? Removal of the external glans and hood is said
of Chicago. Her email is
ahmadufu@mail. [Link].
eastern part of Sierra Leone. This area became known to activate women's 'penis' within the vagina (the clitoral
throughout the world as a result of the publicity sur 'shaft' and 'g-spot' that are subcutaneous). During vaginal
Richard A. Shweder is a
rounding the CNN documentary Cry Freetown and the intercourse, women say they dominate the male procrea
cultural anthropologist
and the William Claude Hollywood feature film Blood diamond that followed, tive tool (penis) and substance (semen) for sexual pleasure
Reavis Distinguished which depicted the gruesome, protracted war in the country and reproductive purpose, but in ritual they claim to pos
Service Professor of and its effect on Kono in particular because of the region's sess the phallus autonomously. Excision also symbolizes
Human Development at the
high concentration of diamond deposits. The Kono, who the 'separation' of mother and son or of matriarchy and
University of Chicago. His
recent research examines the are descendents of the Mande from what is now the area patriarchy (in Mande mythology matriarchy is portrayed
scope and limits of pluralism of Mali, practise female and male initiation and excision/ as prior to and giving birth to patriarchy). Female elders
and the multicultural
circumcision as complementary and parallel cultural and say that initiation and the act of excision is a potent emo
challenge in Western liberal
democracies. He is editor-in symbolic processes celebrating the transition from boy tional and psychological reminder to men that it is women
chief of the recently published hood to manhood and girlhood to womanhood respectively. who give birth to them and mothers who, after God, are
single-volume reference Among many Kono, like perhaps most other Mande the natural origins or raw elements from which all human
The child: An encyclopedic
groups, there is a view of children as being part of nature, creation, culture and society are derived. This concept of a
companion (University of
Chicago Press). His email is undefined and possessing both male and female elements. primordial, supreme and all-powerful Mother is at the core
rshd@uchicago. edu. In male initiation rituals, the prepuce or foreskin of the of Mande creation mythology and ritual practices that are
prevalent even today.
Male circumcision reflects the other side of this duality,
the separation of son from mother, phallus from owner,
male from female. In men's initiation it is not the phallus
that is the dominant symbol of power, as in women's rit
uals. It is the vagina itself and the obscurity of the womb
that we see reflected in the secret ritual masks of the
Mande male initiatory societies, as anthropologist Sara
Brett-Smith (1997) aptly pointed out. It is through these
symbolic means that Mande male ancestors learned the
secrets and obtained ritual medicines that prepared them
for warfare and hunting in the deep forests of the past.
The dominant female substance that associates men with
death is blood, and both menstrual and parturition blood in
particular are imbued with awesome destructive powers.
So, contrary to much of the rhetoric of the anti-FGM
campaigns, the female sex and female sexuality are not
oppressed in, through or by these ritual practices. On the
contrary, female sexuality and reproductive powers are
celebrated and reified in the masquerades, as the origins
of creation, of nature and of culture, and feared as potent
weapons of death and destruction. This cultural and sym
z SL bolic context of female initiation and excision explains
Fig. 1. Fuambai S. Ahmadu. o W how it could be that Kono girls and women in the film

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 were speaking in positive, almost reverential terms, about I would note that in the extended New York Times
the practice, their bodies and the experience of woman Tierneylab blog1 discussion of this topic you [Shweder]
hood. There are different types of female genital cutting also questioned the findings of the WHO Lancet study and
practices that are performed for many different reasons, its purported evidence of increased 'harm' for circumcised
and these practices prevail in diverse sociocultural con women. You noted that the study collected data on women
texts, so not all women who are affected necessarily sup across six nations but never displayed the results for indi
port these practices or view them as empowering to girls vidual nations to see if they could be replicated; there was
and women. no direct control for the quality of health care available for
RS: What is your general view of the relationships 'circumcised' versus 'uncircumcised' women; the sample
between informed anthropological and medical re was unrepresentative of the whole population; and even
search on this topic and representations in the advocacy given the evidence presented, any risk of genital surgery
literature which describe the practice as female genital was astonishingly small and hardly a mandate for an eradi
mutilation9? cation rather than a public health programme.
FA: The anthropological literature on this topic (prior Sweden-based studies conducted by Birgitta Essen, an
to the nearly universal acceptance of the term FGM in obstetrician, and by Sara Johnsdotter, a medical anthropol
the mid-1990s) was more nuanced and contextualized ogist, are worthy of mention (Johnsdotter and Essen 2004,
within the dominant socio-cultural frameworks of affected Birgitta Essen et al. 2002, 2005). In Essen et al. 2002 no
women. But what about the health risks? How could even evidence was found of causal connection between genital
well-meaning anthropologists justify the medical hazards surgeries and obstructed or prolonged labour. Essen et al.
of this practice and the sexual oppression of women as (2005) concluded, surprisingly, that circumcised women
represented by advocacy groups who see culture in this were at a lower risk of prolonged labour as compared with
instance as an excuse for male barbarism and domination? uncircumcised Swedish women.
The problem with the representation of various forms of Another obstetrician/gynaecologist, Crista Johnson
female circumcision as 'mutilation' is that the term, among (2008), who attends to a large number of Somali immi
other things, presupposes some irreversible and serious grant patients, has pointed out that the risk of still births
harm. This is not supported by current medical research may be particularly increased for circumcised women who
on female circumcision. delay prenatal care and getting to hospitals when they are
Carla Obermeyer (1999,2003), who was a consultant for experiencing complications because they fear being stig
WHO, published two comprehensive and critical reviews. matized by healthcare workers, and because these workers
The first looked at the available literature on female cir lack specialized knowledge of these women's bodies. In
cumcision up to 1996, the second from 1997 to 2002. Her other words, could it be the low standard of care circum
conclusion is as follows: 'On the basis of the vast literature cised women are receiving, and fears on the part of both
on the harmful effects of genital surgeries, one might have affected women and healthcare providers in zero-tolerance
anticipated finding a wealth of studies that documents con and anti-FGM environments, that contribute to small dif
siderable increases in mortality and morbidity. This review ferences in infant mortality rates in the Lancet study?
could find no incontrovertible evidence on mortality, and So, even if the purported negative health outcomes have
the rate of medical complications suggests that they are been exaggerated and circumcised women rightly have
the exception rather than the rule' (Obermeyer 1999: 92) their own fears about the risks of being uncircumcised,
Another major source, which contradicts received how can they justify excision of the very sensitive tissue
notions about the health hazards of excision in particular, that makes up the clitoris? As some concerned students
is a study by Linda Morison et al. (2001) at the UK's have asked me, isn't this tantamount to castration?
Medical Research Council Laboratories located in Fajara, It has somehow become ubiquitous and obvious knowl
The Gambia. Widely cited as authoritative in the litera edge that female circumcision is intended to and actually
ture, this research is the most systematic, comprehensive does inhibit female sexual desire and feeling and that it is
and controlled investigation of the health consequences of like cutting off the male penis, an analogy I never quite
female circumcision yet to be conducted. In summary, the understood. But what is the research evidence on female
study found that the supposed morbidities often cited as circumcision and sexual pleasure? Obermeyer (1999:55)
common problems associated with excision (such as infer stated in her review that: 'studies that systematically
tility, painful sex, vulval tumours, menstrual problems, investigate the sexual feelings of women and men in
incontinence and most endogenous infections) did not dis societies where genital surgeries are found are rare, and
tinguish women who had the surgery from those who did the scant information available calls into question the
not. The rate of infertility was exactly the same for both assertion that female genital surgeries are fundamentally
groups - 10%. The authors noted additionally that women antithetical to women's sexuality and incompatible with
expressed high levels of support for the practice. sexual enjoyment.'
However, neither Obermeyer's reviews nor the Morison In addition to my own research in the Gambia (Ahmadu
et al. study have been mentioned in any major Western 2007), there are several important texts on this issue. The
press, despite their startling and counter-intuitive findings
first paper was published by an ardent and vocal anti-FGM
on female circumcision and health. This is in contrast toactivist, Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, the author of Prisoners
the highly publicized Lancet report by the WHO Study of ritual, a seminal work for anti-FGM advocates. In her
Group on FGM, released in June 2006, which received article, Lightfoot-Klein (1989) challenges whether infibu
widespread, immediate and sensationalized press coverage lation, the most extreme form of female circumcision, is
highlighting claims about infant and maternal mortality inimical to women's enjoyment of sex and experience of
during hospital birth. As Bettina Shell-Duncan (2008) orgasm. According to her five-year research, 94% of cir
pointed out, the New York Times unquestioningly sensa cumcised women reported sexual satisfaction and orgasm
tionalized this group's findings under the heading: 'Genital and many said they had sex three or four times a week.
cutting raises by 50% likelihood that mothers or their new So what was the problem for Lightfoot-Klein? Sudanese
borns will die, study finds' (Rosenthal 2006). Shell-Duncan women, in her view, are completely subjugated by their
notes that what this shocking headline failed to mention is husbands and have no authority whatsoever or agency over
the modest magnitude of risk. Another observer noted that, their own bodies. But I see a disturbing problem with the
in comparing risk factors in pregnancy, this places female implications of this picture: how is that so-called mutilated
circumcision somewhere behind maternal smoking. African women are at one and the same time subjugated by

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 Fig. 2. A still from Bondo:
A journey into Kono
womanhood, a documentary
by Sunju Ahmadu. Following
an assertion by a Freetown
based Nigerian doctor
and anti-FGM activist,
that African women do not
understand 'wellness 'and
think that sexual intercourse
is only for reproduction, two
young Kono girlfriends, one
excised and one not, discuss
their personal experiences
and beliefs about whether
excision affects sexual
pleasure. The excised woman
expresses confidence in her
ability to experience complete
and even greater sexual
fulfilment than her unexcised
friend, and reaffirms her
pride in being a bondo
initiate.

their husbands and also enjoying sex with these patriarchal vaginally induced orgasms. Same-sex sexual interactions
oppressors and reaching orgasm several times per week? and relationships and 'auto-sexuality' exist and were
Is it that African women are masochistic and disturb largely ignored in the past as part of the realm of nature
ingly enjoy their own sexual subjugation? Or might this or childhood. Bondo women elders believe and teach that
suggest that some Westerners and feminists have it wrong excision improves sexual pleasure by emphasizing orgasms
about the nature of African marriages, social systems and reached through stimulation of the g-spot, which is said to
male-female interactions and intimacies? If the experi be more intense and satisfying for an experienced woman.
ences of these Sudanese women are anything like my own Excision of the protruding clitoris is said to aesthetically
and those of the community of women I was raised among, and physiologically enhance the appearance of the vulva
then I doubt very much that they are somehow sexually and facilitate male/female coitus by removing any barrier
deviant masochists who are ignorant of and enjoy their to complete, full and deep penetration.
own oppression. According to the women I interviewed, sexual foreplay
Of particular interest is a recent publication by Lucrezia is complex and requires more than immediate physical
Catania (Catania et al. 2007), an Italian obstetrician and touch: emphasis is on learning erotic songs and sexu
gynaecologist who runs a clinic with her Somali husband ally suggestive dance movements; cooking, feeding and
in Italy that is frequented by mainly Somali immigrants. feigned submission, as powerful aphrodisiacs, and
According to the study, the findings 'suggest, without the skills of aural sex (more than oral sex), are said to
doubt, that healthy "mutilated/circumcised" women who heighten sexual desire and anticipation. Orgasms expe
did not suffer grave long-term complications and who rienced during vaginal intercourse, these female elders
have a good and fulfilling relationship may enjoy sex say, must be taught and trained, requiring both skill and
and have no negative impact on psychosexual life (fanta experience on the part of both partners (male initiation
sies, desire and pleasure, ability to experience orgasm)'. ceremonies used to teach men sexual skills on how to 'hit
Catania's findings were also interesting in that, in com the spot' in women - emphasizing body movement and
parison with her Italian control group, infibulated Somali rhythm in intercourse, and importantly, verbal innuendoes
women reported greater frequency of orgasms. These find that titillate a woman's senses). Thus, from the viewpoint
ings are very much in line with those of Lightfoot-Klein in of these women elders vaginal intercourse is associated
her fieldwork with Sudanese women. with womanhood and adult female sexuality. In Mande
Kirsten Bell (2005) provides an interesting context for cultures the emphasis is on the vagina as the source and
this debate by looking at changes in Western discourses symbol of womanhood or - to refer to Alice Walker's
on genital cutting and sexuality. In particular, she ques popular anti-FGM novel - the hidden g-spot, rather than
tions the current unspoken assumption that the male body the visible protruding clitoris, is the 'secret' 'joy' adult
provides the basis of understanding the female body. This women 'possess'.
is the assumption, Bell argues, that makes sense of how And it is the vagina that is the object of awe and def
people readily, but in my view mistakenly, equate female erence in male initiation ceremonies. Male initiates (at
circumcision with male castration. least in the past) learn not to fear this powerful female
In my own research in the Gambia and Sierra Leone sexual organ but rather how to manipulate it for their own
(Ahmadu 2000,2007), I have tried to point out the cultural and their partners' pleasure and reproduction, as well as
and symbolic importance of gender complementarity and to obtain other secret powers of protection in hunting and
interdependence and the construction of heterosexual mar warfare. Likewise female initiates are taught not to fear
riage and intercourse in understanding female and male ini the male phallus but to dominate the penis for pleasure
tiation and excision/circumcision. For circumcised African and semen in reproduction as well as in certain medicinal
women brought up in dual-sex (as opposed to male-dom uses. Both male and female initiates, especially in the past,
inated) cultures that celebrate male and female powers, learn that sexual pleasure is not only an innate capacity in
heterosexual intercourse (rather than the presence of an women but a right of all women in marriage. That a woman
external clitoris) is seen as key to women's most intense, can be physiologically or psychologically incapable of

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 sexual enjoyment and desire seems foreign to the accounts escape. Of course, I find this view patronizing and infan
of most of my older female informants. tilizing of adult African women who, like Western women
RS: You recently engaged in a debate in New York who opt for cosmetic genital surgeries, should be free to
City about the practice at a meeting of a foundation decide for themselves what to do with their own bodies.
concerned with the welfare of African women, which Another point I made that Goldberg overlooked is that
was reviewed in The American Prospect (Goldberg supporters of female circumcision justify the practice on
2009a). Could you describe the context of the debate, much of the same grounds that they support male circum
and reflect on the way it was represented in that article cision. The uncircumcised clitoris and penis are consid
as 'rites v rights9? ered homologous aesthetically and hygienically. Just as
FA: Sauti Yetu, which is a grassroots African women's the male foreskin covers the head of the penis, the female
organization that is dedicated in part to addressing issues foreskin covers the clitoral glans. Both, they argue, lead
of violence as well as other injustices in our communities to build-up of smegma and bacteria in the layers of skin
and larger society, hosted an amicable debate in New York between the hood and glans. This accumulation is thought
between me and a Kenyan woman, also circumcised, to of as odorous, susceptible to infection and a nuisance to
discuss our experiences of initiation and views about the keep clean on a daily basis. Further, circumcised women
practice. This was organized as a reflection upon the fourth point to the risks of painful clitoral adhesions that occur
annual International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female in girls and women who do not cleanse properly, and
Genital Mutilation, an occasion for events across the globe to the requirement of excision as a treatment for these
dedicated to abolishing the practice. Michelle Goldberg was extreme cases. Supporters of female circumcision also
there to research the event for her new book on the politics point to the risk of clitoral hypertrophy or an enlarged
of women's reproduction worldwide (published as Goldberg clitoris that resembles a small penis. For these reasons
2009b). In her review of the event, Goldberg (2009a) made many circumcised women view the decision to circumcise
reference to this debate and acknowledged the need to con their daughters as something as obvious as the decision to
sider other voices such as my own on this topic. On the one circumcise sons: why, one woman asked, would any rea
hand I thought her review went a long way to dispel myths sonable mother want to burden her daughter with excess
about circumcised women (as being traditional, culture clitoral and labial tissue that is unhygienic, unsightly and
bound, uneducated and necessarily coerced into 'mutila interferes with sexual penetration, especially if the same
tion'); however, on the other hand, I thought the article mother would choose circumcision to ensure healthy and
continued to reproduce stereotypes of the practice as being aesthetically appealing genitalia for her son?
medically harmful and extremely traumatic for most women. I write and teach about different cultural perspectives on
Goldberg conveniently ignored the lack of medical female circumcision with regard to pleasure, hygiene and
evidence to support her assertion about the 'thousands' genital aesthetics, not to insist that uncircumcised Western
of women who suffer from female circumcision and con women opponents have it wrong and circumcised African
tinued to carry the message that eradication is the only women proponents are right (such stereotypical categori
moral and appropriately feminist response to this 'human zations are never quite so neat anyway) but to point out
rights abuse' against African women. Underlying her asser that there are different and contested views and experi
tion is the uncritical assumption of a universal category ences and that no one is more right than the other. So it is
of woman, whose 'intact' external clitoral glans and hood my opinion that we need to remove the stigma of mutila
is somehow essential to her identity, sexual pleasure and tion and let all girls know they are beautiful and accepted,
experience of wholeness. Circumcised African women, no matter what the appearance of their genitalia or their
according to this view, are in a permanent condition of cultural background, lest the myth of sexual dysfunction in
1. [Link]
[Link]/2008/03/19/a
'pain' and 'suffering' from which, Goldberg would argue, circumcised women become a true self-fulfilling prophecy,
compromise-on-female only other enlightened African women (with the indirect as Catania and others are increasingly witnessing in their
circumcision/ but certain guidance of Western women) can provide care of circumcised African girls and women.

Anthropology, liberalism and female genital cutting

Carlos D. Londono This essay is my reaction, as an outsider to ethnographic the labia majora together, leaving a small orifice for urina
Sulkin studies of genital modifications and of African peoples, to tion and menstruation. Genital modifications of these and
Carlos D. Londono Sulkin
Fuambai Ahmadu's discussion. Ahmadu commented that, similar kinds are widely practised in sub-Saharan Africa
is Associate Professor
of the Department of paradoxically, an open discussion on her lecture would and in a few other societies through history and around
Anthropology, University probably have been impossible at larger, more central insti the world. In the literature and the media, the practice
ofRegina, in Canada. His tutions like the London School of Economics or New York is often represented as a brutal violation of little girls'
research focuses on selfhood
University, where the issue would have generated too much rights to bodily and sexual integrity, often by domineering
and morality among People
of the Center (Colombian
disturbance. patriarchs and brainwashed matriarchs, all in the service
Amazon). His email is Female genital cutting consists in the more or less ritu of male domination over women's bodies and sexuality.
carlos. londono@uregina. ca.
alized incision or removal of part of the external genitalia A common term for the practice builds in this sense of
of girls or young women. The cuts vary in form: in some damage done to the women in question: it is called female
versions the prepuce (hood) of the clitoris is pricked, in genital mutilation (FGM). Presented thus, opposition to
others the prepuce or the entire external part of the clitoris FGM appears to be a safe, no-brainer ethical cause, and
is removed. So-called 'excisions' involve the removal of signing a zero-tolerance-to-FGM petition unproblematic.
What monster wouldn't support it, and protect women
the external part of the clitoris and the labia minora. The
most famous but least practised version is infibulation (or from mutilation and a life of poor health and joyless sex?l
Pharaonic circumcision), which involves removal of the Many - including some scholars with direct and nuanced
labia minora and external part of the clitoris and sewing expertise on the matter - find that FGM is where one draws

ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 25 NO 6, DECEMBER 2009 17

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