Local Rites and Body Politics : Tensions between Cultural Diversity and Human Rights

This article reviews the literature on female genital surgeries and examines the extent to which available research supports commonly accepted "facts" about the prevalence and harmful effects of these practices, in particular their possible health complications, and their effect on sexuality. While information regarding the prevalence of female genital surgeries is becoming increasingly available, the powerful discourse that depicts these practices as inevitably causing death and serious ill health, and as unequivocally destroying sexual pleasure, is not sufficiently supported by the evidence. The article discusses some of the implications of research on female genital surgeries for the societies that are involved--not merely those where the practices are found, but also those whose gaze has been so intensely focused on the customs of others.

Stories of conflict with hospital services, medical mismanagement, and negative outcomes of procedures and treatment circulate within immigrant communities. While the interpretations of medical events are often based on misperceptions and misunderstandings, the stories have instructional value in that they explain an unfamiliar system to new immigrants and provide starting points for advocacy for improved services. Our analysis of gossip and storytelling among women from the Horn of Africa involves an examination of stories of "pork injections," rejection of "black babies," and clinical incompetence. The data are drawn from a study of reproductive health and reproductive rights that was conducted among refugee and immigrant women from Sahel African and Middle Eastern communities in Melbourne, Australia.