Psychiatric Bulletin (2006) 30: 78. doi: 10.1192/pb.30.2.78
© 2006 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Psychiatric Bulletin (2006) 30: 78
© 2006 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Female Genital Mutilation: Treating the Tears
Haseena Lockhat
Annie Bartlett, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychiatry
Department of Mental Health, St George’s, University of London,
Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE
London: Middlesex University Press, 2004, £15.99 pb, 198 pp. ISBN:
1-898253-90-0
Female genital mutilation is not a subject where neutrality is an option.
Twenty years ago Northern European feminists took up the abolitionist cause
with fervour. Abolitionists were attacked as culturally insensitive. They, in
turn, accused their attackers of inappropriate cultural relativism. Some years
later, Haseena Lockhat brings the topic properly to the UK. She is primarily
interested in circumcised women in the UK, and what is in store for their
daughters. She brings a measured tone to a controversial topic.
She clarifies the different forms of female genital mutilation; these vary
in the extent to which part or all of the female external genitalia are
removed. She places the practices in a cultural context, firmly refuting the
idea that these practices are synonymous with Islam. Female genital mutilation
is predominantly an African custom, but is far from ubiquitous in Africa. It
has many purposes but seems most strongly linked with upholding traditional
practices intended to guarantee chastity at marriage and to prevent a woman
sexually straying thereafter.
UK law currently outlaws any form of female genital mutilation. This
creates difficulties for migrant women in the UK who are circumcised and for
families who want what they consider to be best for their daughters.
Lockhat’s careful documentation of the physical and psychological
complications of female genital mutilation in UK residents leaves little room
for sympathy for families that would put their daughters through what would
normally be described as torture. One-third of her sample explained that they
were circumcised without anaesthetic, while being held down. Unsurprisingly
many of her sample had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. To compound
the problems of these women, their experiences of healthcare in the UK were
often poor. Neither their cultural mindset nor their bodily predicaments were
well understood. They were equally unable to give voice to their unhappiness
within their own community for fear of social disapproval.
This book will be valuable when clinical dilemmas arise either in relation
to children or adult women and their families. It is not an easy read, nor
should it be, given the difficulty and importance of the topic: 140 million
women worldwide have been subjected to female genital mutilation, often as
minors.
