Female circumcision
Video on female circumcision
Nahe Reddy was biased towards her culture that the American culture was the only culture that prohibited female circumcision. She later learns that in Ethiopia, the act is forbidden although cultural beliefs paralyze the effectiveness of legislation of laws concerning female circumcision. She was also biased towards female circumcision in their country (United States) was an extreme violation of human rights. On the contrary, when she comes to Ethiopia, a young girl tells her of her story whereby she was circumcised at 11 years of age and married at 13. She got her first born at 15, but the baby died due to complications and miscarriage. She now suffers from obstetric fistula. This is because, in her home country, there are few or no cases of female circumcision. She was also biased on the legal status of female circumcision. She probably thought that it was a legal practice in Ethiopia only for a police officer to inform her that it was decriminalized in 2004 (Shell-Duncan & Hernlund, 2000).
Reddy encounters a police officer to whom circumcision cases are reported. She has an interview with him. They have a conversation, and the police officer begs to leave. The local communities would speak to the police officers on the possible incidences of female circumcision. The police officers would make arrests and other necessary intervention measures. Another police officer comes in and serves her tea. The police officer tells Reddy that his colleague had taken his ten-year daughter to a nearby village to have her circumcised. This made a significant step to Reddy’s entire research experience. She realized that she was going to speak to people who were multifaceted and complex. She realized that the fact that the police officers were in uniform did not mean that they were exempted from cultural values. Reddy realized that the police officer could not let go of the cultural values he was brought up with in favor of the legislation. This incident makes Reddy think that it is the culture that matters and not law enforcement. Also, I tend to believe that the event makes her think that female circumcision is not decriminalized. Also, she comes face to face with reality; possibly she thought of female circumcision as hypothetical, but here she comes face to face practically with it.
From the incident we can conclude that some cultural practices are which are thought to be unethical are actually “ethical” in some circumstances. In this case, Reddy thought that female circumcision was against human rights, but here in Ethiopia, it was an ethical act. This brings the concept of cultural relativism (Slack, 1987). Some cultural practices violate human rights, but cultural traditions are very subjective. Ethics is personal to various cultures. Some acts can be morally unethical in some cultures and be ethical in other cultures (Toubia, 1994). This means that whether actions are moral or wrong, it all depends on the cultural setting of the community or society. This is true because of cultural diversity.
References
Toubia, N. (1994). Female circumcision as a public health issue. New England Journal of Medicine, 331(11), 712-716.
Shell-Duncan, B., & Hernlund, Y. (Eds.). (2000). Female” circumcision” in Africa: culture, controversy, and change. Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Slack, A. T. (1987). Female circumcision: A critical appraisal. Hum. Rts. Q., 10, 437.