Conference paper

Female Genital Mutilation - ethical view

Krešimir Babel ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Zagreb
Elvina Šehić ; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Zagreb

Abstract

Female genital mutilation, i.e. the procedure of tissue removal from the female genitalia for cultural, religious and other non-health related purposes, is a practice that arouses controversy both in the local communities that practice it and the international community as a question of fundamental human rights. This practice is imposed on over 130 million women, mostly in the regions of central and eastern Africa, although it has spread over the rest of the world under the influence of globalisation, which only makes this problem more complex, particularly if viewed through the prism of cultural relativism. The paper aims to delineate the key aspects of phenomenon – from the medical, through the socio-cultural (with special emphasis on gender) to the ethical – offer arguments for a ban on this practice and shed light on some of the problems that the very possibility of banning the practice would necessarily imply.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

61673

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/61673

Publication date:

17.3.2009.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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