Genital Mutilation Books

It was the first half of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's memoir that gave me new insight. So many times I have seen the news about the terrible strife in Africa with one group slaughtering another - and it was inexplicable, completely beyond my understanding. How were these people different from each other? They spoke the same language, were of the same religion yet sometimes they would speak of the `others' as if they were hardly human. At least now I understand what a clan is and how strong the memory of their ancestors is to them. Rarely have I learned so much from one book. I want to thank this remarkable woman for sharing her life with me.
And, of course, her amazing courage is an example to us all.

This book is about the life of Ayaan. It begins in Somalia where Ayaan is born. She is brought up in a Muslim family. Her mother wants to lead a very strict Muslim life, her father is a bit more relaxed but still obeys the Muslim rule.

Her father is a member of a political movement that is working against the president of Somalia, Siad Barre. As a result, the family had to move around a lot to be safe. First Saudi Arabia, where they were exposed to the very strict rules of Islam. Woman were totally covered and could not leave the house without a male family member. After Saudi, they moved to Ethiopia and then on to Kenya. Ayaan tried to live as a devote Muslim but she was disillusioned with the violence, the intolerance and the treatment of women.

When she was in her early 20's, her father arranged a marriage for her with a Muslim who was living in Canada. Ayaan was sent to Germany to await her VISA. While she was there and was exposed to Western culture, she made the quick decision to go to Holland and apply for refugee status and hide from her family. Eventually the family found her but she refused to leave Holland and divorced her husband.

Ayaan went to school in Holland and earned her degree in political science. She becomes politically active in Holland and is elected as a member of Parliament. She becomes an atheist and is very open about Islam and begins to speak and write about it's deception. The overall theme of this book is, there is no line drawn between moderate and extreme Islam. It is all the same. As a result of her openness, she has received many death threats and must live her life hidden from those that have sentenced her to death.

Some interesting and very eye opening quotes in this book about Islam. "Every society that is still in the rigid grip of Islam oppresses women and also lags behind in development. Most of these societies are poor; many are full of conflict and war. Societies that respect the rights of women and their freedom are wealthy and peaceful." ....the Quran is an act of man, not of God. We should be free to interpret it; we should be permitted to apply it to the modern era in a different way, instead of performing painful contortions to try to recreate the circumstances of a horrible distant past." In Saudi Arabia, every breath, every step we took, was infused with concepts of purity or sinning, and with fear. Wishful thinking about the peaceful tolerance of Islam cannot interpret away this reality: hands are still cut off, women still toned and enslaved, just as the Prophet Muhammad decided centuries ago." " Life is better in Europe than it is in the Muslim world because human relations are better, and one reason human relations are better is that in the West, life on earth is valued in the here and now, and individuals enjoy rights and freedoms that are recognized and protected by the state. To accept subordination and abuse because Allah willed it----that, for me, would be self hatred." As a member of Parliament, Ayaan proposed dramatically reducing unemployment benefits and abolishing the minimum wage. "From my experience as a translator with welfare cases, I knew that easy access to generous unemployment benefits leads to a poverty trap: people in Holland often make more money from welfare than they would in actual jobs."

Ayaan is my new hero. Her bravery and openness in her speech about Islam is truly amazing and sets an example. Our society needs to listen carefully to Ayaan and stop being afraid of being viewed as racist as they dare to scrutinize this backward culture.

Some authors invite you to take a journey with them. But in "Infidel" Ayaan grabbed my hand firmly and pulled me down her path, sometimes with my heels dug in for fear of what the next turn would reveal. But I could not put the book down. This is a fearless revelation into the very heart of the Islamic world and an honest working through of her faith and feelings. It constantly amazed me that she could recall and relive this horrible existence without hate or resentment. The writing style is extraordinarily good and draws you in from the first paragraph.

Another incredible thing was how she takes the reader into her mind while she was watching CNN and American news coverage during and after the 9/11 crisis. Westerners were trying to convince themselves that these terrorists were isolated extremists. Ayaan tells the reader otherwise, that most Muslim mothers would have rejoiced to have had their son involved in this "holy" and justified act. It is a rare glimpse of politically incorrect honesty.

I felt as if I had fallen into the book. I became, along with her, a conformist and a rebel, an obedient woman and a disobedient daughter, a refugee and a rescuer. I would finally feel safe only to discover that all around me there were those seeking to kill me for revelations of life behind the veil of Islam.

In the end I ached for her. Her emptiness now that she has rejected Allah is palpable. But her strength and character and loving honesty is a testament to the amazing woman she has always been inside.

I literally could not put this book down and read for hours and hours last weekend. Upon reaching the final page I felt that it seemed more like a beginning than an end. A story of brutality and repression that is beautifully inspiring, this book deserves a read.

The last few weeks, I have been enjoying my commute in the company of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, as I've listened to her fascinating book Infidel. I love books that transport me to a foreign place or time, and immerse me in a culture that I didn't know about before. And I love books that provoke thought about important ideas. Infidel does both of things exceedingly well. It is the autobiographical account of an independent-minded woman who was raised in a traditional Somali Muslim family and grew up to be a Member of Dutch Parliament advocating for women's rights. The first half of the book is a vivid account of her childhood in Somalia, and later in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Kenya as her family escaped the turbulence of their war-torn homeland. Her description of life in places like Mogadishu, Mecca, and Nairobi is rich in detail about their houses and neighborhoods, their food, their culture and traditions. Her portraits of her parents, her siblings, her grandmother, and other family members are richly complex, infused with the emotional perspective of her childhood at the same time balanced by an unflinching retrospective assessment of their good qualities and their weaknesses. The genealogist in me was fascinated learning about the Somali tribal culture that puts such a premium on one's ancestry that children at an early age can recite their ancestry for nine generations, and when two Somalis meet, they can readily ascertain their kinship even to tenth cousins. And her description of the variations of Muslim practice between countries, and the rise of Muslim fundamentalism, was illuminating and especially relevant today. She does a remarkable job of making comprehensible such alien traditions as polygamy, arranged marriages, and female genital mutilation. What is especially remarkable is how, even though she would later come to condemn some parts of the traditions she was raised with as being completely barbaric, she describes them in the context of her early life subjectively and dispassionately, neither concealing the barbarity nor revealing anger, judgment, and condemnation. The account is all the more powerful for that, allowing the reader to understand how such barbarity could be accepted and tolerated because of how it is embedded in traditional ways of life and in how sons and daughters are raised. And it allows us to understand this amazing woman on all the parts of her journey, from childhood, to adolescence when she was drawn to fundamentalism, to adulthood when she escaped to discover liberal ideas. The latter half of the book describes her life in the Netherlands, where she becomes not only a parliamentarian but a political lightning rod after making a controversial film with Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh which lead to his murder and death threats for her. The book then becomes more about politics, ideology, and her intellectual autobiography, though embedded in personal experiences of immigration, learning Dutch culture, and ultimately life as a figure in hiding from death threats. She raises significant questions about whether a liberal society can survive being tolerant of a growing immigrant community within its midst that remains insular and perpetuates an illiberal way of life. (These questions have reverberations here in America, not only regarding Islamism, but in issues like the recent Texas FLDS raids, and in the fault lines of conflict between religious liberty and civil rights protections -- issues I hope to explore in future blog posts.) And she makes a compelling argument that Islam needs to undergo its own Reformation if it is to be reconciled to modernity. Her ideas and the amazing life experience that formed them make for vital and fascinating reading.

What a thoughtful and inspiring book this was! Ms. Ali writes in a very engaging and direct style that makes for a hard-to-put-down biography/self-discovery book. After finishing this great book, one can only admire this woman for her courage to think for herself, change her whole way of life, and watch as her family disowned and alienated her. She was able to see Islam for what it is--a disastrously out-of-touch system set in place to suppress women, full of ridiculous mythology. Ms. Ali rightfullly shows that Islam countries are far behind Western countries in economic well being, human rights, and learning.

One, I think, must also consider X-ianity during the reading of Infidel. Could there be verses telling women to be quiet in the X-tian Quran? Could there be verses in the X-tian "holy" book where god commands men to r@pe women? Could x-tianity be a silly bunch of myths, hundreds of years old (just like Islam!), that shackle its adherents from growing intellectually and morally?

Infidel is a fantastic book by a true, modern-day hero. I'm so glad I read Ms. Ali's memoir, and I can't wait to see what she'll say next. Highly recommended!

This is a wonderful book by a courageous woman about a terrible sex crime committed against her when she was a child, and against many millions of others. She has come through the shock of the discovery of this sex crime with greater understanding and compassion for all of us, for we live in a country - the only one in the whole world - where the medical profession still today mutilates the healthy sex organs of the majority of male babies. Many ignorant people in this clueless, brainwashed, genitally mutilating culture believe that female genital mutilation - what "they" do over there - is an horrific sex crime, but that male genital mutilation - what "we" do here - is the best thing since sliced sex organs. Ms. Robinette suffers from no such delusional sexist hypocrisy. She knows that what sex the child happens to have been born is 100% irrelevant. What counts is whether the adults caring for the child know enough to respect the child's healthy sex organs and keep them fully intact. Sometimes this feat requires a fight, but as this book makes abundantly clear, it's a fight worth winning. Congratulations and thanks to Ms. Robinette. Her capacity to deal truthfully, compassionately, and productively with the permanently mutilative sex crime committed against her and millions of others is an inspiration.

This important, well written book reads like a crime novel. It is highly entertaining and gets scary, especially where Ms. Robinett describes the crime scene- I skipped that part first time through. Shocking that FGM was taking place so recently in the civilized" world, even more shocking that Male Genital Mutilation continues today. I recommend this book, it is an eye-opener.

Patricia tells her story honestly and truthfully, and having read it, I feel like I know her.
Patricia, you should be commended for the work you have done to end MGM and FGM. I hope that your book brings us a step closer to accomplishing this goal.

The Rape of Innocence is a very personal and moving true story. Patricia shares her deepest feelings with the reader. In addition to personal experience there is a wealth of insights and information. For example, one US insurance company was paying for removal of clitorises until 1977.

Such an honest look at the almost taboo topic of circumcision is recommended for anyone who has experienced it or who knows anyone who has and doubly so for prospective parents.

Here in America, for the past 100 years, there's been an on-going mutalation practice which was not talked about and was accepted without question. At last author Patricia Robinett has exposed this cruel and barbaric practice.

Herself, a victum, she has researched circumcision relentlessly in an effort better understand her own feelings and condition.

Robinett asks, "Why do men want women who don't want them? Why do men not want women who do want them? Why do men like women who ignore them, who treat them badly? Why do they resent the ones they have, who treat them well? And further she wonders, "Why do many men seem to be uncomfortable with affection unless it involves sex? Why are they reluctant to be friends with women unless there's the promise of sex?

She has found the answers and thoroughly discusses her findings in this very revealing text. At last the truth behind both male and female crcumcision is brought out in the open. This is a book that every parent should and must read.

After reading several books on Female Genital Mutilation, I have discovered that most people I've talked with about FGM know little if anything about the practice. According to the statistics in Cutting the Rose, 6,000 young girls are mutilated each day! FGM has been reported in 28 countries in Africa, several countries in the Middle East and Europe, Latin American, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United States. Whether directly or indirectly, FGM affects all of us. Efau Dorkenoo has compiled a practical, compassionate, informative book that describes the practice of FGM and advocates realistic solutions for its prevention. She says, "Rather than righteous indignation, what is urgently needed is understanding of the problem and the practical support to change it." Everyone should read this book.

Who would have known this was even taking place, even right here in the USA? If you are a woman who enjoys her sexuality, please read this. Something needs to be done.

This is an excellent book. I needed this book for my sociology final exam book report and it helped me tremendously.

Upon first glance, an unsuspecting reader might think that he or she had stumbled upon a practical guide to performing female genital mutilation. Keep reading this unwieldy title and you will find (thankfully)that this is not the case. It is actually a practical guide to worldwide laws and policies regarding FGM. Oops--maybe this press should be more careful in editing its titles!

This book has been very helpful in my research on female genital mutilation and the laws and policies regarding this issue.

This book is edited by Nahia Toubia, who is a medical doctor born in Sudan who has written extensively on female circumcision or FGM.

This is an atlas of the laws and practices in the 28 countries of Africa that actively engage in FGM as a tradition, and worldwide, where the laws vary from permissive to banned. It also has a history and guide to the cultural development of the practice as well as medical information.

Nothing is quite so exciting as objectively watching human cultural prejudice. I believe the cutting of the genitals of both boys and girls is wrong, but look at the double standard women's groups have engendered. In the USA a family can be deported or denied admission if the circumcise a daughter. A medical doctor may be placed in prison if he performs a female circumcision, no matter how minor.
But the UGLY duplicity of Americans soon is seen.
After more than 30 years of no substantial medical benefit found for male circumcision, despite some shrill objections to ending it from a handful of agenda dedicated doctors, male circumcision remains alive and well. In fact, even funded by public money in many states.Yes many states actually pay tax dollars for this mutilation and insist a social disability if boys are not cut.
Why not say same for girls in FGM areas?

Although Moslems mutilate so do Jews, African tribes and at least half the... We indeed live as Einstein said, in a World of relativity!

I used Female Genital Mutilation... as a source in the composition of my graduate project. I found it to be a valuable resource in the search for domestic and international female circumcision eradication policy. It provides insight into the approaches being utilized by governments to cease this controversial practice.

I wholeheartedly concur with the previous reviewers, particularly the articulate E. St. Aubyn.

Having lived as an expat in Jordan for quite some time, I can only marvel at and applaud Ms. Sheeley's courage, forbearance, and generosity of heart and of pocketbook in undertaking the research and the work that led to the publication of this book. She would've faced almost unbearable scrutiny, countless obstacles that would've sent lesser mortals fleeing for the border, and likely even some active interference by the powers that be, who seem to lack any true interest in substantively addressing their honor killing problem. It would be difficult to overstate the challenges, and that is why I consider the release of this book heroic. May it become "the little book that could." Mabrouk, Ms. Sheeley! Well done!

Now that there are some facts at hand--rigorously and scientifically gathered by someone who is well qualified, highly accomplished, and wholly unaligned with any regime, any corporation, or any NGO--why has there been no movement on the ground? Ms. Sheeley has paved and led the way. In the year since this book was published, what possible excuse is there for doing nothing? I, for one, do not understand the apathy, the complacency, and the lack of regard for human life. The dishonor of these crimes extends not only to the killers, but to each and every person in Jordan who knows what is going on in their midst and shamefully, stubbornly refuses to act to ameliorate the suffering out of arrogance, false pride, "not invented here" syndrome, pretentiousness, selfishness, or any of the other misguided, hard-headed qualities prevalent in Jordan.

What kind of society sets the performance bar this low? Where is the outrage? More importantly, what will it take to motivate people to act in ways that meaningfully address this stain on the culture?

I do not think this book is as well researched as the author seems to think and as it was printed with her own funds it immediately sends a wrong signal. In the introduction she quotes the UN as saying the combined figure for honour killings in Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank is 2,550 per annum which is absolute rubbish. She quoted this number from a book by Norma Khouri which was totally discredited and withdrawn from sale because of the fiction of a book perporting to be fact. She then says that nearly 3 million Jordanian women live under the fear of sudden, violent death. Considering the population of Jordan is just over 6 million, this is also a nonsensical figure. And this was just in the first few pages. I am not a professional researcher so cannot really comment on her methods. But her various comments on how she felt she was treated in Jordan make me feel how bitter she is and how it could have clouded her judgement. There are approximately 20 to 30 'honour' killings in Jordan in a year and every one of them is a tragedy and there does need to be a lot of work done. I am afraid this book does not really add to the effort.

One can only hope that Ellen R. Sheeley's must-read will assist in raising the consciousness of humankind. Ms. Sheeley's marketing expertise clearly reveals the urgent need for change in an oppressed culture that shamelessly murders their innocent under the archaic guise of "honor." The reader cringes at the statistics of these incomprehensible acts committed by fathers, brothers and cousins seeking revenge.

I applaud her sincere devotion to bring these heinous crimes to the forefront. May the tragically forgotten victims cease being ignored by a societal indifference that so blatantly devalues females - inclusive of children, adolescents and women.

Jane Spellman
San Francisco, CA

Reclaiming Honor in Jordan: A National Public Opinion Survey on "Honor" Killings

I approached this book because a good friend was interested in the topic. I did not expect what I found. To begin with, I am glad I did not pay 20 bucks for this nonsense. I do research in public health to make ends meet, and based on my experience from the last years (and struggles to publish my work) I think that this book does not get even close to the quality required for a peer-review publication. No wonder that the author had to self-publish her job. [By the way, who is writing all those positive reviews? I wonder if the author just told her friends to leave some positive comments.]

OK, stop being acid and sarcastic. Let's be a little constructive. If you want to determine what people really think/do about a sensitive topic (e.g. are you faithful to your partner?) , you do not go to Main street and start asking the first person that passes by. Most likely people will tell you they are not (even if they are the biggest cheaters ever). What a good social researcher would do is to select a random sample from the population frame and create the conditions to get valid answers. The author of this book did nothing of that. Therefore, her results and conclusions are valueless. Really? Yes, valueless. Do you really want to know about the topic? Get some serious literature and do your homework. Only if you really have time and money to waste, buy this book.

Disclaimer: I am not Arab and abhor honor killings. This kind of "research", though, will not help to fix the problem.

This book provides the results of a marketing survey that was conducted by the author on the "media consumption habits and attitudes, opinions, and beliefs about "honor" killings in Jordan" (p.5). Overall, the book provides some interesting insights from 200 people surveyed in Jordan. However, the conclusions of the marketing study are extended well beyond what the methodology would allow. In fact, the study suffers from significant limitations that leave the reader lacking confidence that the findings are not attributable, at least in part, to poor study design. Importantly, a veneer of authority is given to the study's methodology through the use of technical language, which for the lay reader would suggest that it is more substantial that it is.

Starting with the background section of the book, two features stand out. First, almost no academic literature is cited. The author relies most heavily on newspaper articles and a range of online publications. For some audiences, this is sufficient. For those of us who thought they were purchasing a more substantiated body of work, this is insufficient. There are publications written explicitly on the topic which have been overlooked. Most alarmingly though, is the reliance on the discredited book by Norma Khoury, "Honor Lost: Love and Death in Modern-Day Jordan." This book was referenced, oddly enough, for figures credited to the United Nations and for evidence regarding a royal family member's opposition to honor crimes. This information is available from original sources and should not have been cited from a falsified document.

In terms of the study's methodology, several issues stand out. First, the use of the term national is misleading. In part, it is correct. The author collected data from different parts of the country. But, the study is far from nationally representative. Regardless of how much work was put into determining which areas of the Kingdom to stand in, "somewhat randomly" (p.9) approaching people in public places does not provide the statistical basis needed to extend the research findings beyond those who participated. Further, these findings are questionable in and of themselves due, in part, to the lack of any measure of social desirability. The author assures the reader that social desirability was not a problem; however, no measures were used to substantiate the author's assertion. The fact that the interviews were conducted by the author in English or through the differential use of an interpreter suggests that the interview technique might also have affected the responses despite the author's claims that it did not. Finally, the author's reliance on bivariate analysis leaves the reader with little indication of which socio-demographic factors are associated with people's opinions because for every bivariate analysis, there are likely several other possible explanations that have been left out of the examination.

The author's approach to the study is not only questionable but also possibly harmful. The fact that the author funded the study herself should sound alarm bells. This indicates that the study was either vetted by relevant funding institutions and found to be unworthy of funding or was never vetted. The lack of ethical review is also problematic given the fact that the author was conducting a study outside her own culture and essentially on her own. Most importantly, it seems as though the author's approach to this study alienated her from the numerous men and women who are working to improve the well-being of women in Jordan. Ms. Sheeley leads the reader to believe that, in the end, she is alone in her efforts to protect women in Jordan. This is inaccurate at best. A more balanced view of the subject would recognize at least some of the efforts that have taken place before Ms. Sheeley's study that essentially paved the way for the issue to even be discussed let alone to be researched. The true result of this study and its process may be that others coming after Ms. Sheeley will find it harder to develop the types of true partnerships needed to conduct research on highly sensitive subjects.

Overall, I do not recommend this book. The findings are potentially biased, unsubstantiated, and overextended. Furthermore, the format and content are more appropriate for an online report. Certainly the book is not worth the nearly $20 price tag. Readers interested in learning more about honor crimes in Jordan might find the following resources helpful.


Araji, S.K. and J. Carlson (2001). Family Violence Including Crimes of Honor in Jordan: Correlates and Perceptions of Seriousness. Violence Against Women, 7(5): p. 586-621.
Faqir, F., Intrafamily Femicide in Defence of Honour: the Case of Jordan (2001). Third World Quarterly, 22(1): p. 65-82.
Hadidi, M., A. Kulwicki, and H. Jashan (2001). A Review of 16 Cases of Honour Killings in Jordan in 1995. International Journal of Legal Medicine, 114(6): 357-359.
Kulwicki, A.D. (2002). The Practice of Honor Crimes: a Glimpse of Domestic Violence in
the Arab World. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 23(1):77-87.

I agree with previous reviews stating that there are much better resources out there. I was VERY disappointed in this book and think it is one of the most misleading titles/text I have ever read. This book barely touches on FGM with any detail or facts. It is 99% about her making the film and what they did on a daily basis. While that may be insightful to some, I wanted to know details about the issue. I have read Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker and this is a better book by far. I wouldn't waste the time to read or buy Warrior Marks and recommend you start with another book that actually deals with the topic. What a terrible follow up to Alice Walker's great start at educating us on FGM.

I had high hopes for this work, hopes that were dashed when reading how the authors wanted to travel and explore their topic first hand but were afraid that they'd be harmed in Africa. As if Jane Goodall worried about being eaten when she studied our primate cousins.
Then the authors chose to avoid personal contact and do their research in the library, reading the works of other people, thus presenting older second hand material as accurate without bothering to check the veracity or continuity of the material.
Finally, the authors personal bias came through often such as when they complained how combing the hair of a black girl was abusing and degrading and even torturing the girl.
At least Dr Godall had the guts to ask if the beliefs we had about gorillas were true and then seek the truth in their homes. Ms Walker and friend rarely left the library or their hotel and passed off the works of other researchers without question other than to blame men for all the ills that befall women.
FYI- It is women who choose to pierce their own ears, labia and clits, not men.

If you wish accurate information on the subject of genital mutilation, look elsewhere because all you will find here is second-hand data and personal bias and personal insults against anyone who disagrees with them.

This postcolonial piece of garbage masks some very real issues. I expected far more intelligence and sensitivity from Alice Walker.

Warrior marks was the account of all the time that Alice Walker and Pratibha Parmar spent in preparing for the documentary. They did not need to show how the mutilation is done because they painted a vivid enough picture. The book was about the emotional aspect of female genital mutilation. I must say that I commend them, especially Pratibha for the time that they spent preparing for the documentary. The book made me want to see the documentary. When Alice talks about herself in the book, she shows how her experiences were similar to that of the females in Africa. I recommend this book be read and the documentary seen.

I am Kola Boof, often and truthfully billed as the nation of Sudan's top woman writer. I am also a woman who is "vaginally circumcised"--mutilated, if you will. In fact, Sudan is Africa's leading nation for "FMG" as Americans call it.

"Warrior Marks" is a superior work by a superior woman.

While so many reviewers here have claimed that there are BETTER books on this subject than Walker's "Warrior Marks"....I would remind them that with so very little written about this subject in the first place--we need to read and value EVERYTHING that is offered on the subject, especially when offered by a Black Woman (Alice Walker) whose obvious love, care and respect for African women...seeps like a healing oil from every page.

It's no secret that Alice Walker is one of the great inspirations of my own literary career and much of my work as an African woman from the Nilotic peoples of Sudan is distilled through the prism of her own American voice---as I struggled to find a way to tell my own stories with as much truth and bareness as possible.

"Warrior Marks" is a tribute to the WORTHINESS of African women...a book that gives us permission to embrace our sexuality, to value our black bodies and to insist that those bodies be healed. It also gives us the chance for "forgiveness". And through Alice Walker's willingness to lay bare her own personal reactions and observations and "empathies"....a larger story of womanhood is revealed and committed to word.

GOD bless both Alice and Pratibah, for such COURAGE.