Kvinnlig könsstympning uppmärksammades i västvärlden på 1970-talet då invandringen till väst från länder där könsstympning praktiseras ökade. När Waris Dirie gav ut sin självbiografiska bok En blomma i Afrikas öken 1999 kom könsstympning åter på tapeten. Eftersom könsstympning är en sedvänja som praktiserats i tusentals år världen över och fortfarande utövas i flera länder idag, väcktes ett intresse att ta reda på omständigheterna kring fenomenet. Vart, hur och varför uppstod denna till synes inhumana och irrationella sedvänja och hur kommer det sig att den lever kvar än idag? Vilka bakomliggande faktorer finns? Hur hänger könsstympning ihop med religion, kultur, genus, makt och så vidare? Eftersom det verkade handla om ett mycket komplext fenomen togs beslutet att syftet skulle vara ganska brett och omfattande. Hypotesen var att könsstympning kunde förklaras och förstås som ett socialt fenomen och detta är det som undersöks, analyseras och framhålls genom denna uppsats. De sociologiska teorier som använts faller inom ramarna för socialpsykologi och som komplement till dessa teorier har även interkulturella perspektiv och genus- och etnicitetsperspektiv använts. Metoden är kvalitativ datainsamling. Ett stort urval böcker, artiklar och internetkällor har använts. Dataanalysen har skett parallellt och integrerat med datainsamlingen. Centrala begrepp och teoretiska utgångspunkter har sedan kopplats samman med fenomenet könsstympning i analysen. Slutligen hålls en avslutande diskussion där personliga reflektioner och slutsatser diskuteras. Resultatet visar på många olika möjliga sociologiska, interkulturella och genus- och etnicitetsrelaterade förklaringsmodeller av hur könsstympning kan förklaras och förstås som ett socialt fenomen. Det har även visat sig vara intressant att dra paralleller mellan den könsstympade kvinnan och den ”jämställda” västerländska kvinnan. Det finns ingen enkel förklaring till varför sedvänjan existerar än idag, det är många olika aspekter och faktorer som spelar in. Vad som är viktigt är att man förhåller sig till fenomenet med viss kulturell relativism och att man beaktar sedvänjans komplexa och multidimensionella natur. / Female genital mutilation (FGM) attracted much attention in the west in the 1970’s, when the immigration to the west from countries where FGM was practiced increased. When Waris Dirie published her autobiography Desert flower: the extraordinary journey of a desert nomad in 1999, the phenomenon got on the carpet again. Since FGM is a custom that has been practiced for thousands of years all over the world and is still beeing practiced in a number of countries today, an interest was awakened for examining the circumstances surrounding the phenomenon. Where, how and why did this apparently inhumane and irrational custom arise and how come it still exists today? What is at the bottom of it? How is FGM related to religion, culture, gender, power and so on? Since it seemed to be about a very complex phenomenon a decision was made to keep the purpose of the essay quite broad and extensive. The hypothesis was that FGM could be explained and understood as a sociological phenomenon and this is what has been examined, analyzed and emphasizwd through out this essay. The sociological theories falls within the framework of social phsychology, and as a compliment to these theories there has also been a use of intercultural perspectives and gender- and ethnicity perspectives. The method is qualitative data gathering. A large selection of books, articles and websites have been used. Data analysis has been done throughout and integrated with the data gathering process. In the analysis, theory is related and connected to the pheonomenon FMG. Finally there is a closing discussion in which personal reflections and conclusions are discussed. The result shows many different sociological, intercultural and gender- and ethnicity related explanation models of how FGM can be explained and understood as a sociological phenomenon. It has also proved interesting to draw paralleles between the circumcised woman and the “equal” western woman. There is no simple explanation to why the custom is still beeing practiced today, there are many different aspects and factors involved. What is important though, is that you relate to the phenomenon with a certain degree of cultural relativism and that you pay regard to the customs complex and multi dimensional nature.

xiv, 246 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This project is a critical and comparative investigation of Western and non-Western practices of body modification. Situated in the realm of feminist political theory, the project engages the literature and debates concerning embodiment, or the symbolic and concrete meanings of women's bodies. I specifically explore two examples of the physical construction of women's bodies: breast implantation in the United States and female genital cutting (FGC) in Senegal. I demonstrate that each of the practices molds bodies into preexisting naturalized forms. For this project, I conducted eighty in-depth, open-ended, and semi-structured interviews with women and men in twelve different locations in Senegal. Then, I carried out sixty-five in-depth, open-ended, and semi-structured interviews with American men and women from twenty-one different cities. I argue that the information that emerges from looking at body normalization comparatively allows me to make two important claims. The first is that the material that originates from interviews in this comparative study disrupts existing hegemonic discourse on sex-based body modifications. In particular, the comparative findings challenge the viewpoint that espouses a "Western women are free, African women are oppressed" binary. Second, examining FGC in Senegal alongside breast implantation in the US can uncover normalization that is invisible within social fields, or in the lives of women and men. Normalization is hard to see when in it, but easier to see if an individual steps outside of herself, her context, and her patriarchy. Thus, though many women do not recognize the normalizing structures within their own lives, they often are able to see these hegemonic structures in the lives of others. Women stepping outside of their own contexts can provide fresh, critical eyes that recognize embedded normalizations and oppression in other contexts. Further, this realization also can push them to return that critical gaze onto their own environment, which is the beginning of locating mechanisms of control within their own field. The construction of sex and the imprinting of gender norms upon bodies are manifestations of regulation and normalization that occur within socio-cultural contexts, and which individuals can potentially locate through a comparative conversation of this type. / Committee in charge: Dennis Galvan, Chairperson, Political Science; Julie Novkov, Member, Political Science; Leonard Feldman, Member, Political Science; Stephen Wooten, Outside Member, Anthropology

NOTE FROM THE LIBRARY: PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR AT indisunflower@yahoo.com OR CONSULT THE LIBRARY FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THIS THESIS.... This thesis investigates the trajectory traced from Sarah Baartman, a Khoisan woman exploited in Europe during the nineteenth century, to a contemporary writing workshop with circumcised, immigrant West African women in Harlem New York by way of a selection of African women's memoirs. The selected African women's texts used in this work create a new testimony of speech, fragmenting a historically dominant Euro-American gaze on African women's bodies. The excerpts form a discursive space for reclaiming self and as well as a defiant challenge to Western porno-erotic voyeurism. The central premise of this thesis is that while investigating Eurocentric (a)historical narratives of Baartman, one finds an implicitly racist and sexist development of European language employed not solely with Baartman, but contemporaneously upon the bodies of Black women of Africa and its Diaspora, focusing predominantly on the "anomaly of their hypersexual" genitals. This particular language applied to the bodies of Black women extends into the discourse of Western feminist movements against African female circumcision in the 21st century. Nawal el Saadawi, Egyptian writer and activist and Aman, a Somali exile, write autobiographical texts which implode a western "silent/uninformed circumcised African woman" stereotype. It is through their documented life stories that these African women claim their bodies and articulate nationalist and cultural solidarity. This work shows that Western perceptions of Female Circumcision and African women will be juxtaposed with African women's perceptions of themselves. Ultimately, with the Nitiandika Writers Workshop in Harlem New York, the politicized outcome of the women who not only write their memoirs but claim a vibrant sexual (not mutilated or deficient) identity in partnership with their husbands, ask why Westerners are more interested in their genitals than how they are able to provide food, shelter and education for the their families, as immigrants to New York. The works of Saadawi, Aman and the Nitandika writers disrupt and ultimately destroy this trajectory of dehumanization through a direct movement from an assumed silence (about their bodies, their circumcisions and their status as women in Africa) to a directed, historically and culturally grounded "alter" speech of celebration and liberation. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.(English)

NOTE FROM THE LIBRARY: PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR AT indisunflower@yahoo.com OR CONSULT THE LIBRARY FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THIS THESIS.... This thesis investigates the trajectory traced from Sarah Baartman, a Khoisan woman exploited in Europe during the nineteenth century, to a contemporary writing workshop with circumcised, immigrant West African women in Harlem New York by way of a selection of African women's memoirs. The selected African women's texts used in this work create a new testimony of speech, fragmenting a historically dominant Euro-American gaze on African women's bodies. The excerpts form a discursive space for reclaiming self and as well as a defiant challenge to Western porno-erotic voyeurism. The central premise of this thesis is that while investigating Eurocentric (a)historical narratives of Baartman, one finds an implicitly racist and sexist development of European language employed not solely with Baartman, but contemporaneously upon the bodies of Black women of Africa and its Diaspora, focusing predominantly on the "anomaly of their hypersexual" genitals. This particular language applied to the bodies of Black women extends into the discourse of Western feminist movements against African female circumcision in the 21st century. Nawal el Saadawi, Egyptian writer and activist and Aman, a Somali exile, write autobiographical texts which implode a western "silent/uninformed circumcised African woman" stereotype. It is through their documented life stories that these African women claim their bodies and articulate nationalist and cultural solidarity. This work shows that Western perceptions of Female Circumcision and African women will be juxtaposed with African women's perceptions of themselves. Ultimately, with the Nitiandika Writers Workshop in Harlem New York, the politicized outcome of the women who not only write their memoirs but claim a vibrant sexual (not mutilated or deficient) identity in partnership with their husbands, ask why Westerners are more interested in their genitals than how they are able to provide food, shelter and education for the their families, as immigrants to New York. The works of Saadawi, Aman and the Nitandika writers disrupt and ultimately destroy this trajectory of dehumanization through a direct movement from an assumed silence (about their bodies, their circumcisions and their status as women in Africa) to a directed, historically and culturally grounded "alter" speech of celebration and liberation. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.(English)

Ľubica Guindon :Universalism of Human Rights in the Light of pluralism of African cultural values The purpose of this thesis is to analyze actual discourse in international law terms about universal or culturally determined characters of human rights. This theoretical problem is introduced with the focus on legal qualification of female circumcision (FC/ FGM ) in international human rights protection. The study goes beyond the scope of international law and reaches cross-disciplinary analysis related to the African context and its cultural, political and social factors. Chapter One addresses the theoretical issues of the notion of human rights, its sources and models in international law. This passage challenges an African approach to human rights bills including a catalogue of individual duties towards family, state and society as a whole. This concern about collective identity of a person within his or her community is a very important feature of African understanding of human rights and human dignity, and can enrich the universal consensus in this field. Within the theoretical issues of the international human rights protection it is necessary to look at the global, regional and local dimension of legal regulation. The most influential strategies on the global level are universal treaties with...

The study unpacked the meaning and the value of intonjane in traditional Xhosa communities. It also provides a critical analysis and interpretation of the intonjane custom and in particular its impact on the upbringing of a Xhosa traditional girl child. It investigates the value of this practice, especially in relation to where it is still being performed, even in our modern times. I researched closely into all aspects of how the girls were brought up, and with what social values. The data collection has been conducted through interviews with the Philakukuzenzela group when they were in Grahamstown Art Festival in July 2011 who come from a place called Centuli, and other people (abaThembu) who practice and have knowledge of the different aspects of the intonjane process and observation during the actual ceremonies in O. R. Thambo district, and in Gemvale near Port St Johns in the Province of the Eastern Cape. Interviews were conducted in Xhosa and translated into English. This Visual Narrative investigates and contributes to the debate regarding the value of traditional African thought and how it can enrich our contemporary belief system. The objective was to investigate the essence and merit of the knowledge imparted by elderly women to young girls during the initiation period of intonjane within Xhosa traditional communities. This study provides a foundation and springboard for my practical artworks which utilized symbols and metaphors to express my understanding of the important events and stages associated with this traditional ceremony. Clay medium was used as the medium of expression, applying different techniques such as throwing, press mold, slab building, coiling, engraving, sewing and inlaying, with press mold being the main technique utilized. My artworks are of three different types, which are symbolic of the three aspects or stages, of liminality, namely: pre-liminal, liminal and post-liminal. / Art history, Visual arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

Sammanfattning Bakgrund Fokus för studien är att uppmärksamma Socialstyrelsens vägledande information rörande könsstympning av flickor och kvinnor. Traditionen innebär total eller delvis borttagning av det kvinnliga yttre könsorganet, vilket innefattar avsiktliga skador som förändrar eller orsakar defekter på det kvinnliga könsorganet utan medicinska skäl eller grunder (WHO, 2008). Till följd av migration och befolkningsomflyttningar har traditionen kommit att uppmärksammas internationellt och även i Sverige. I Sverige har traditionen en tydlig relevans för socialt arbete eftersom könsstympning diskuteras och definieras som våld mot kvinnor/barn, förtryck, heder, brott mot mänskliga och barns rättigheter (Talle, 2008). Myndigheter i Sverige står inför en utmaning att informera, uppmärksamma, integrera och arbeta preventivt med denna målgrupp.   Syfte Syftet med studien är att beskriva och analysera hur socialstyrelsen via sin webbplattform förmedlar kunskap om könsstympning av flickor och kvinnor. Utifrån hemsidans tillgängliga texter granskas och analyseras vägledning och kunskapsstöd riktade till olika professioner, exempelvis socialtjänsten och hälso-och sjukvård. Vidare studeras hur kunskapsstöd vägleder professioner till att förstå och handla i frågor som rör könsstympning som ett arbete på samhälls-, grupp och individnivå. Utifrån det analyseras hur socialstyrelsen främja det sociala arbetet kring könsstympning.   Metod Studien bygger på en kvalitativ forskning baserad på systematisk litteraturstudie och induktiv ansats. Litteraturstudien grundades på analys och granskning av socialstyrelsen kunskapsstöd. Genom en webbaserad innehållsanalys granskades 53 publicerade dokument som direkt eller indirekt berör könsstympning av flickor och kvinnor.     Resultat I resultatdelen identifieras tilltänkta mottagare av det publicerade materialet som illustreras i form av ett diagram. Den allmängiltiga informationen representerar hälften av urvalet. De två mer framträdande grupper identifieras som Hälso-och sjukvård och den berörda målgruppen. I mindre omfattning riktas material till socialtjänst och samhälls-/hälsokommunikatörer. Resultat påvisar att Hälso-sjukvården i sitt arbete med könsstympning, har i större omfattning tillgång till praktiskt och teoretisk vägledning i jämförelse med de andra representerade mottagargrupperna.   Slutsatser Studien visar att socialstyrelsen förmedlar ett arbete mot traditionen på individ-, grupp- och samhällsnivå. Information kring könsstympning av flickor och kvinnor stämmer i stort sett överens med tidigare forskning gällande ursprung, förekomst, utformning och konsekvenser. Studien visar att Socialstyrelsen är en källa för kunskap och information kring ämnet. Det föreligger dock skillnader i den praktiska vägledningen som skapar grund för handling. Vid det konkreta arbetet på individnivå framträder skillnader beroende på om frågan aktualiseras inom hälso- och sjukvård eller socialtjänst. / Abstract Background The focus of the study is to draw attention to the National Board of Health and Welfare directory information concerning female genital mutilation (FMG). The tradition involving the total or partial removal of the female external genitalia, including intentional damage which alter or cause defects on the female genitalia without medical reasons or reasons (WHO, 2008). As a result of migration and population movements, the tradition came to be recognized internationally and in Sweden. In Sweden, the tradition has a clear relevance to social work because FGM is discussed and defined as violence against women/children, oppression, honour, violation of human and children's rights (Talle, 2008). Authorities in Sweden is facing a challenge to inform, alert, integrate and work preventively with this audience. Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse how the National Board of Health and Welfare by its web platform conveys knowledge of FGM. Based on the websites available texts examined and analysed guidance and knowledge subsidies to various professions, such as social and health care. Further studies show knowledge and support guides professionals to understand and act on issues related to FGM as a work of social, group and at a individual level. Based on the analysis of how the National Board of Health and Welfare promotes the social work of FGM. Method The study is based on a qualitative research based on a systematic literature review and inductive approach. The literature review was based on analysis and review by the National Board of Health and Welfare knowledge support. Through a web-based content analysis examined 53 published documents that directly or indirectly affects FGM. Results In the results section identified the receiver to think of the published material illustrated in the form of a diagram. The universal information represents half of the sample. The two prominent groups identified as Health and the touch target. In smaller scale material is directed to social and community -/health communicators. Results demonstrate that the health-care system in his work on FGM, has been more widely access to practical and theoretical guidance in comparison to the other receiver groups represented. Conclusions The study shows that the National Board of Health and Welfare conveys a work against the tradition of individual, group and societal level. Information about FGM are broadly in line with previous research on the origin, presence, design and impact. The study shows that the National Board of Health and Welfare is a source of knowledge and information on the subject. However, there are differences in the practical guide to creating a basis for action. In the concrete work at the individual level, disparities, depending on whether the issue arises in healthcare or social services.

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