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Article: Female genital mutilation : Is it crime or culture?(debate about female circumcision in Senegal)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 13, 1999
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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DAKAR
Banning the practice may not be the best way of ending it
IF ARTICLE 299A of Senegal's penal code were fully applied, some 1m-2m Senegalese would now go to jail. The amendment, which parliament passed last month, makes it a crime to carry out female genital mutilation (circumcision) or to encourage anybody else to do so. The practice is defined by the World Health Organisation as "the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons". Excision of the clitoris and labia minora are the commonest forms; infibulation-the stitching of the vaginal ...