Reconsidering the role of patriarchy in upholding female genital modifications: analysis of contemporary and pre-industrial societies.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), customary female genital modification practices common in parts of Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East are inherently patriarchal: they reflect deep-rooted inequality between the sexes characterized by male dominance and constitute an extreme form of discrimination against women. However, scholars have noted that while many societies have genital modification rites only for boys, with no equivalent rite for girls, the inverse does not hold. Rather, almost all societies that practice ritual female genital modification also practice ritual male genital modification, often for comparable reasons on children of similar ages, with the female rites led by women and the male rites led by men.

Socio-cultural dynamics of female genital cutting: research findings, gaps, and directions.

The goal of abolishing female genital cutting (FGC, or also FGM or 'female circumcision') requires that the socio-cultural dynamics of the practice be well understood if behavioural change is to be accomplished. This paper, based on the literature and the author's ethnographic research in Sudan, reports on the research issues of studying the variation in and complexity of cutting practices and their cultural correlates, arguing for multiple approaches and methods. It highlights directions for future research.

Sexuality issues in the movement to abolish female genital cutting in Sudan.

Ethnographic research in seven rural Sudanese communities in 2004 demonstrates the deep association between infibulation and expectations for successful male sexual response, reinforced by aesthetic values about the preferred body form for females. In contrast, women conceive of the uninfibulated body as lacking in both propriety and beauty, as well as making a woman less able to please a husband sexually. Female sexual response has only recently begun to be discussed in the context of change efforts to end female genital cutting.