The female genital mutilations: defining problems, cultural and psycosocial factors, reference regulations

Abstract

In many countries there are a lot of communities that practise the female genital mutilations and a lot of people are migrating from these states to those industrialized which must face the problem of this practice. Female genital mutilations’s origin is not clear; it is effected by many centuries and it is rooted in communities that practise mostly religions diffused (Christians, Muslims, Ebrews, atheists). The FGM are sustained by a complex and powerful system of beliefs and they are performed with intention to guarantee a future of prosperity to the girl that suffers them, and with the conviction to improve the health, the chastity, the hygiene, the aesthetics, the social cohesion, the family honour and the opportunity to marry. WHO defined the FGM as those practices, founded on cultural or other not therapeutics motivations, that cause the partial or total removal of exterior female genitals or other damages of themselves. The term “mutilation” can result offensive towards the people that perform the FGM, since in the communities in which such practice exists, this is not seen how injurious of a fundamental human right. The Authors proposed a contextualized study on the socio-cultural and historical specificity of the FGM. At first, therefore, the meanings and values attributed to this custom examined according to the cultural contexts in which these practices are implemented. Particularly local systems of power and the complex relationships analyzed that model women life’s and to which the women themselves contribute in various way. Afterwards, the International and European legislation is examined. Finally the Italian regulations are taken into consideration.