Discussion: Is it Right to be a Relativist?.

Week 1 Discussion: Is it Right to be a Relativist?.

Required Resources Read/review the following resources for this activity:

· Textbook: Chapter 1, 2

· Lesson

· Minimum of 1 scholarly source (in addition to the textbook)

Initial Post Instructions The study of ethics and philosophy is one that brings many different kinds of "thinkers" together. One person's philosophy on ethics is another person's philosophy on evil. We will be working this term on constructing personal ethical bases and understanding how ethical codes (both personal and professional) are created and followed.

To start us thinking about the different areas of philosophy and ethics, and how we fit into the different molds or world views, let's imagine the following scenario:

It is 2019. The federal law banning female circumcision is still under appeal in the courts. You are a nurse assisting a plastic surgeon at a local hospital. The plastic surgeon comes from a country where they practice "female circumcision". This practice is also sometimes called "female genital mutilation".

CAROL CHRISTIANSEN And so having learned about genital mutilation female circumcision, what I understood was a whole other layer of this issue that says our bodies are not okay as they are, as they are formed in divine image or as we come out of our mother's body, there is something wrong with us. 

00:01:10SORAYA MIRE My name is Soraya. I knew what he was doing to me. He had given me a local anesthetic to numb the area, but it didn’t help. I will always hear the scissors cutting the flesh between my legs. The pain was horrendous. I struggled to get away, but I was held down by three people including my mother. I was 13 years old and was undergoing a rite of passage of my native Somalia called female circumcision. I never will forget how it felt. This is what I live with, and I wish to prevent this pain from happening. 

00:02:00CAROL CHRISTIANSEN Fire Eyes are the wounded souls communicating their pain and anguish to the world through their eyes. This is a call for healing and understanding that will make a way to end this harmful practice that has affected more than 80 million women in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Female circumcision is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt and was practiced in the pre-Islamic era. Many explanations have been offered as to why this practice continued through the ages. Infibulation, the most severe form of circumcision, was designed to protect women from rape, thereby ensuring the purity of family bloodlines. Little has changed through the centuries, however, a circumcision still functions primarily as a means of controlling women sexuality. The practice of female genital mutilation touches the lives of women around the world. Today in its various forms, it is estimated to be practiced in 40 countries spanning the globe from southeast Asia to Africa. 

00:03:15What are you thinking? 

00:03:15Mother, is it painful? 

00:03:15No, it's not painful. It's something that happens to all girls at your age. It's shameful if you're not circumcised. Do you really not want to be circumcised and have your clitoris dangle between your legs? 

00:03:35CAROL CHRISTIANSEN Female circumcision, which is known in the west as female genital mutilation comprises some of the most harmful ritual surgery practiced in Africa today. More than 80 million women and female children have been mutilated in the process of having parts of their genitals removed. In Africa, a woman's honor depends upon this artificial form of chastity. 

00:04:05I would try to focus at this time on female circumcision. Though in the African situation, both procedures are performed, um… from a dual standpoint and that circumcision or genital excision is basically part of the… or was part of the traditional initiation process and is part of the traditional initiation process, both males and females are involved in the traditional initiation process. Therefore, the procedure in males was what we know as a circumcision where the foreskin or that area that's skin that hides the head of the man's penis was excised. And in females, about four different main types of procedures were performed. The simplest procedure involved an incision of the area over the clitoris. The second type of procedure involves excision of the clitoris together with the hood. The third type of procedure may involve excision of the clitoris with the hood, plus the… what we call the large lips or the labia or the vulva, a portion of the vulva. And the fourth type of procedure, which has the term of pharaonic type of circumcision and in this procedure what's basically done is that the large lips or the vulva of the woman is excised and together with that, there is a procedure called infibulation, and infibulation involves sewing those borders that remain so that the area of the woman’s genital is completely closed and there is only a very small opening which remains from which urine passes and menstrual flow will pass. 

00:06:05CAROL CHRISTIANSEN The surgery is performed on girls ranging in ages from infancy to 18 years. It is often performed by a midwife who works for pay under poor hygienic condition. 

00:06:15[sil.] 

00:06:50CAROL CHRISTIANSEN Unsterilized instruments and a total lack of anesthetic add to the pain while increasing the prospect of complication. 

00:07:05[sil.] 

00:07:20I had my problems with circumcision. 

00:07:25SORAYA MIRE You remember anything about that day? 

00:07:30I don’t remember exactly. They didn’t give me any anesthetic. They grabbed me and sat me down in the middle of a circle. I was surrounded by women. Then a big woman came and sat on my chest. All of the women have to hold me down. 

00:07:45SORAYA MIRE Was your mother there? Did she help to hold you down? 

00:07:50No, she ran away when I screamed with pain. 

00:07:55SORAYA MIRE Who was the woman who sat on your chest? 

00:07:55She was my aunt. There were four women holding me down. One put me in between her legs, while two other women held my legs, then, as I said, my aunt sat on my chest. 

00:08:10SORAYA MIRE Were you afraid? 

00:08:15Of course, I was afraid. I saw blood and I heard the screams of the girl, who was circumcised before me. 

00:08:20SORAYA MIRE Do you remember the midwife's face? 

00:08:25She is dead now. All I remember is that she was old. 

00:08:30I was circumcised at 11 with my cousin. We were lucky to get anesthetics. 

00:08:35SORAYA MIRE Was it a man or woman who circumcised you? 

00:08:40It was a man who circumcised me. He stuck the needle to numb the area, then I was circumcised. Everybody in the family was very happy, my mom, my dad. 

00:08:50SORAYA MIRE What about you? 

00:08:55I was happy. Everyone would call your name saying that you are not a grown woman. The ones who are circumcised had more honor, so you feel alone and ashamed if you are not circumcised. Once they remove that piece of flesh from you, then you feel like a grown woman. Everyone loves you. So you feel accepted. 

00:09:15CAROL CHRISTIANSEN The healing process begins immediately following the incisions. To facilitate this, the patient's legs are bound together with rope for a period lasting as long as 14 days. Although the binding reduces stress upon the injured tissue and thus promotes scaring, the normal cycles of urination become complicated. The extreme fear of pain causes girls to refuse urination for several days. Secondary infections often result. Some rituals include a smoke ceremony. Here the patient is brought to a room where incenses burn. It is used to dry the wound and perfume it. The… the conclusion of the process marks the beginning of a girl's entrance into womanhood, her body now being purified and her chastity secure, she can look forward to marriage. Since marriage is the only means of support for many of these women and uncircumcised women are considered ineligible for marriage. Few of them have any enthusiasm or even motivation for resistance. It is only natural that a life of pain under these circumstances will be attended by strong feelings of hope and joy. Thus, in Africa with such ancient tradition still intact, a woman’s coming of age oftentimes encompasses a division between outward social grace and interpersonal anguish. 

00:10:40Asha, this is Soraya. Soraya, this is Asha. I really think it might be a benefit to you to speak with Soraya for a while particularly since she recently had the type of vaginal surgery, which you're contemplating having this morning. Okay? 

00:10:55ASHA Okay. 

00:10:55SORAYA MIRE Thank you. Are you in pain? 

00:11:05ASHA Yeah. I came to the hospital to be surgically opened, but I'm hesitating to proceed with a surgery. 

00:11:15SORAYA MIRE You're concerned about what your family and friends will say about you? 

00:11:20ASHA I do not tell my family or anyone else that I'm here. Luckily, no one I know will see me here. 

00:11:25SORAYA MIRE How long have you been living with this pain? 

00:11:30ASHA Since I was circumcised, age ten. I have a lot of pain. It is painful for me to urinate and my menstrual periods are painful as well. I've been living in the United States for four years. 

00:11:50SORAYA MIRE If you're really in pain, heal yourself. 

00:11:50ASHA I really want to do it, but I'm afraid. 

00:11:55SORAYA MIRE I was afraid like you, but it was the best thing that I ever did. I really healed myself. Do the surgery. You will feel much better like I did. When I went to the hospital for the reversal surgery, the doctor opened me up and I had no more problems. Could you explain to me, the doctor, the surgery that you performed for Asha, today? 

00:12:20The surgery that was performed on Asha essentially had to deal with making an incision in between the two lips of her… around her vagina which had been sewn together. The form of circumcision that she had when she was in her a country essentially entailed taking some suture materials, some stitches and sewing the lips of the vagina together in the midline so that her vagina was partially closed, it was closed an extent that she could barely get a Q-tip into her vaginal opening. So I took a scalpel and made an incision in the midline in between those lips that had been sewn together, and sewed them back on themselves and after the operation was completed her vagina was back to its normal size. Fortunately, fortunately for her, her clitoris had not been damaged at all. And prior to coming to me, she had had a quite a bit of difficulty urinating and had had severe pain during her regular monthly menses… menstrual periods and now with that lip being cut away from around her vagina, she should be able to urinate without any difficulty and she would be able to have menstrual periods and have her blood flow out of her vagina without causing any sever pain. So the operation, I think will lead to her being restored to a normal life in terms of sexual function, function of her genital tract organs. 

00:14:00SORAYA MIRE Why do you want women to be circumcised? 

00:14:05It is tradition. 

00:14:05SORAYA MIRE Personals. 

00:14:10Let me give you an example. In the morning when you leave your apartment, would you leave your unlocked? 

00:14:15SORAYA MIRE You just can't compare your body to a door. 

00:14:20What about this? You just move your apartment and you don't know, you never know. 

00:14:25SORAYA MIRE But you can't… you can't compare body, human beings to a door. 

00:14:25You trust your woman more when she is stitched. 

00:14:30SORAYA MIRE Is she is like a door? 

00:14:30It's not like the door, I know she is a property for somebody. 

00:14:35SORAYA MIRE She is a property for somebody. 

00:14:35Yeah. 

00:14:35SORAYA MIRE She is your property then. 

00:14:35Yes, it is. 

00:14:35SORAYA MIRE Oh God. 

00:14:35And one more it's a private. 

00:14:40SORAYA MIRE She is a private property. 

00:14:40Yeah. 

00:14:40SORAYA MIRE Because you're paying 

00:14:40I don’t wish to have a… 

00:14:45The circumcision has been with us such a long time. What amazes me most is that women like you have begun to complain and refuse the continuation of this practice. 

00:14:55SORAYA MIRE Why? 

00:14:55The reason is that our mothers and grandmothers had it too and never talked or complained about this practice. What makes you want to change this practice now? 

00:15:05Well, the answer that you would expect a man to answer. He is not a woman. If he had been castrated like us, he will not talk in the same way. Men do not have to deal with the pain of circumcision for most of their lives. They have no right to tell us that it is wrong to give up this part of our Somalia culture. They have never experienced the pain of excision of having a razor cut off healthy flesh. I will forget the pain of my wedding night. My screams at the time of birth, my two daughters will never suffer as I did. 

00:15:45What kind of a man is he comparing us to doors. Unfortunately, many men do think in the same way. They think that women are there to be locked and open at their command and for their pleasure. This shows the insecurity of men. 

00:16:05He is right in saying that our mother and grandmother never talked about their pain. They were told by their mothers that every women on this earth was infibulated. I thought that this was true before I traveled around, I was shocked to find that this was not so. 

00:16:25There is a type of circumcision that's called a Pharaonic circumcision, which essentially involves complete removal of all the tissue from around the opening of a vagina. That really, depending on how it's done, can lead to severe scaring around the vagina and vagina can become so small and so rigid that it the woman can have a very difficult time getting pregnant number one, because it's the vagina is so small, it's very difficult for her to have sexual intercourse. The other real problem that as a result of that type of circumcision is childbirth. When the woman goes into labor, the head of the baby actually becomes impacted in the vagina and the scar tissue around the vagina is so thick and the vaginal opening is so small that she in fact cannot push the baby out through the vagina, so what happens is that the babies will oftentimes die with their head stuck in the vagina and with the head being in the vagina, it… it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the bladder and on the rectum and oftentimes after these babies are delivered, as I said, sometimes dead, seven to eight days after delivery the complete tissue between the bladder and the vagina will completely slough off all the tissue between the rectum and vaginal sloughs off, that woman is then left with two problems, one or two problems. She then has urine constantly flowing out of her vagina or and feces constantly flowing from her rectum out through her vagina and you can imagine what time put lifestyle that results in. So those are that… those are the probably two of the most severe problems in women who have Pharaonic… Pharaonic circumcisions. 

00:18:25SORAYA MIRE Could you correct that? 

00:18:30Well, part of my training had to do with some time that I spent in Khartoum, Sudan at the University of Khartoum under the tutelage of Dr. Abu, who is one of the world's renowned gynecologic surgeons. He has a special clinic, actually a special hospital and that is a part of the University of Khartoum, where he does nothing but repair ah… damage that has been done to the pelvic organs of women as a result of female circumcision. Because in this country in those kinds of situations, what we often do is, is take muscle and skin-flaps from the thigh or from around the vagina and actually transpose them up into the vagina to close those openings. In this country, it's very difficult to perform that type of procedure because of the lack of funds or lack of high… high level technology, antibiotics, medicines et cetera and really the type of intensive care facilities that you need… that you need in order to perform those types of surgeries. So what happens is, he… he has a series of women who have these problems they can't be surgically repaired and he… he has a special house in which they live. What happens when these women have these problems is that they are ostracized from the society, they are ostracized, they are usually divorced by their husbands. And if, if those… if those problems can be repaired, then they really have nowhere to go. 

00:20:00Each time I hear about it or I think about it, I flinch. Ah… the women must experience such terrific pain, not only the physical pain, but the psychological pain of being mutilated is more than I can… than I can bear ah… just thinking about it. So I think it's a practice that must discontinue with all due respect to the various cultures and ah… you know the traditions, this is just absolutely so violative of… of human beings and of women that I think the whole pressure must be placed on this practice in order to save women and save their lives. 

00:20:45I am a midwife. So this is the dance that I choreograph to remind women that their bodies were sacred. As women, we nurture others, our children, our men, our communities. It's important to see the blessings and to take the men for ourselves to rejuvenate ourselves and to learn. This is the symbol of the temple of what is high, our wisdom, spirit, but also the dance says that that sacredness and wisdom comes all through our body, through what we see, through what we speak, through our will, and down to the areas of our womb where we birth. One of the sayings from China is that women hold our path to sky and that speaks about our strength as women. Once I had started working with women having babies, I understood that we were not the weaker sex. One of the other gestures I use in the dance is that besides having babies that our bodies also have a place that is there for our own pleasure. And so the dance speaks of that pleasure that conceal our whole body and enlighten us. This is the gesture of the Aztec birthing goddess. And she is depicted with this fierce grimace on her face. And if you've ever been around a woman giving birth, that’s the kind of strength that we need to pass a child out of us. This is our spirit, the flame of spirit and this… this is birth. What I learned from science is that the DNA comes together and makes the shape and that is women rebirth. 

00:22:35I love being a woman. I mean, I'm aware of a lot of the oppression that goes on about being a woman, being in a woman's body, but I love knowing that every human being that has ever been on the planet has passed through the body of a woman that this body is the gateway to existence on the planet and that as such, I really see my body as very sacred and very holy that you know the formative power that we transform blood into milk and that we fed 'vethe world, and I really identified a lot of the power in my body is in the reproductive organs and that among the higher mammals that we do not have a cycle of heat that we can choose to be sexual and I think I link my sexuality to the divine and I feel that it's a way of empowering myself and I love this body that changes, and bleeds, and aches, and talks, and eggs and stocks and reflects back to me, what it is to be in physical existence in the world. 

00:23:50It's interesting to hear, I think everybody's comments on how they perceive or how they reacted to hearing about female circumcision or genital mutilation and I think one of the things that's important for me to… to contribute maybe is to give people a sense of… for folks from a culture where that is done as extensively as it's done is Somalia that may not be looked at as, I think something that are victims of this. It's very important I think for the women of that culture as they deal with this themselves that anybody who is helping or who is concerned comes in as a partner, or comes in to learn and as a… as a helper in looking at women in Africa for whom this has been done if we consider into Africa and Somalia specifically, there is also that… that view of that the… the victim is completely controlled by this or well she poor… poor her and what they end up, I think, what we end up doing is running away from that kind of dialog and and… and we end up in the worse position of having to almost defend our culture and ourselves and sounding like we are defending ah… a tradition that we are… we really are not a part of. Ah… there is a wide spectrum of opinion among women, Somalia men and Somalia women on this, but I think I can safely say that for… for who perpetuates the… the… the actual tradition that’s firmly in the hands of women, it's in the hands of our grandmothers and our mothers who very much believe that in order to ensure their daughters um… livelihood, their marriage, their virtue, their honor, this has to be done through them. And in the… so what you need to, I guess, take yourselves to is this leap of faith that… incredible amount of love that's involved in this experience and that when you… when you do this to young girls at the age of seven who see this as an initiation rite, who see this as a rite of passage as a joining with other women, well that's where to be a part of this group, ultimately, the young girls look like they are colluding, the mothers look like they are… they are… they are persisting with this… this really pernicious tradition. And when I look at it and I look back on my life and I look at Somalia women, what I am afraid of always is victimizing the victims saying, it was up to us, and we continue to victimize each other, but when I listened to my grandmother and I listened to my mothers and I listened to my aunts, the reasons for which they do this is very much, not only to ensure your virtue, but because supposedly that X-man that you will marry would not consider you as an eligible bride. And what we're finding now in this transition in… from the 60s from that independence into the 90s, is that men’s opinion really have changed and the men that I speak to in my generation definitely don't want this to continue. And the crux that which we're at, I think, you know, culture that even though it's… it allows the women to be women-centered, it allows women to be powerful and strong and incredibly loving and bounding towards each other and nurturing. So that I find it difficult impossible for me to have rage against my aunts and my grandmothers or the older women. I… I… there is no rage, there is no anger for me and it's not about the loyal. But I think what I find interesting is that for all of the men in the culture who say we don't want this to continue, there is silence. And for me that silence has become power that there is… inaction is… is action. 

00:27:20Yeah. I wanna keep, because… 

00:27:20SORAYA MIRE You wanna keep your children suffering as your sisters said. 

00:27:25I think they… they wouldn't suffer anything. 

00:27:25We start in a different way that we used to do it in… in Somalia. 

00:27:30This is the proper procedure for my daughter to become a woman. 

00:27:30SORAYA MIRE The custom. 

00:27:30The custom. 

00:27:35SORAYA MIRE But remember that it's not hurting you, it's hurting me. It's not your body, you know, it's your child and it's your wife and it's not hurting you, so maybe for you, you don't feel what we feel. 

00:27:45I only want a woman who is stitched, not one whose vagina is open. 

00:27:45SORAYA MIRE Why? 

00:27:50I like her to be shut and keep the custom. 

00:27:50SORAYA MIRE You want her to be sealed where you're going around to have fun? 

00:27:55It's my custom, my tradition. I want this stitching to continue. 

00:28:00The Somalia people have a culture, we can't change. The reason is, let's say, a man wants to marry a woman, you give her family money, camels, goats, et cetera, so she is not stitched, it would be very shameful. I want this pain and suffering of women to continue. 

00:28:20The reason that we do this is because it is our ancient custom. It happened to our mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, and it must follow in the same way for this generation. 

00:28:35SORAYA MIRE So you want to keep this tradition alive? 

00:28:40Yes, no man would marry my daughter if she were not circumcised. 

00:28:50My friends will laugh at me if I am not circumcised. 

00:28:50It is my job to circumcise girls, so that they will make good wives for our men. I was circumcised at the age of 12. I was ready for it, when I found out that every girl in my neighborhood had been circumcised, I told my mother I wanted to have the surgery. 

00:29:15[sil.] 

00:29:20[non-English narration] 

00:29:25God says here, so here God said that men have more power and strength than women. When a man takes a wife, he is responsible for her life and must provide for her needs. 

00:29:40SORAYA MIRE Because of his power, then he is allowed for wives? 

00:29:40Well, that's true. But as you know, men have more physical needs than women. So when his wife gets her period, which sometimes lasts a month, 17 days. 

00:29:50SORAYA MIRE No seven days. 

00:29:55Okay, then for seven days, he can't have intercourse with her. So he must release his energy within the law and take another wife. Understand he can't touch this woman during the seven days of her period and after she gives birth for another 40 days and also if she doesn’t wash after urinating. 

00:30:10SORAYA MIRE If it is true that the women have less physical need, does the Quran say to circumcise her? 

00:30:20The Quran does not tell her to circumcise, but it is a tradition. 

00:30:25[sil.] 

00:30:30I will not stitch my daughter the way they did it to me. I will do the mild circumcision to her. 

00:30:35SORAYA MIRE You mean bleeding her clitoris? 

00:30:35Yes, just to bleed it. 

00:30:40SORAYA MIRE What about you? 

00:30:45I will do the mild one. 

00:30:45SORAYA MIRE Why? 

00:30:45It is not as brutal as infibulation. 

00:30:50SORAYA MIRE What about you? 

00:30:50I will do the mild one. 

00:30:55SORAYA MIRE Sisters, honestly, knowing the side-effects of this practice, how can we help our future generations avoid going through what we experience? 

00:31:10The change will come when the whole society understands the problems caused by this practice. 

00:31:15[sil.] 

00:31:45[non-English narration] 

00:32:05SORAYA MIRE Allow me to call your mom, you are a wise woman. You have lived through many experiences. My generation wants to stop female circumcision. Can you give us some advice? 

00:32:20Female circumcision has a good side and a bad side. 

00:32:20SORAYA MIRE Tell us more about that? 

00:32:25It is beautiful when a woman is stitched. 

00:32:25SORAYA MIRE How beautiful? 

00:32:30After infibulation, the area around the scar becomes smooth and clean. I know that a lot of women do have problems as a result of this. Every month during their period, at the time of marriage, and during childbirth, but because of these things, we should stop. 

00:32:50SORAYA MIRE This is not happening, so women are not continuing to circumcise their daughters. 

00:32:55It is a hard thing to change tradition, but it can be done. 

00:33:00SORAYA MIRE Some of us here tonight are saying that our men need to understand the values that we hold as women, the thing that we all have become feminist and have turned against them. All we need is for them to understand that we need to change this practice. 

00:33:20You need your men, they are your protection, obey them. 

00:33:25SORAYA MIRE So you are saying that we must do what pleases men. 

00:33:30Obey your husband's word, show him respect. Also respect his mother and he will respect you and be faithful to you. He will give you what you need and be faithful to you. You are there to fulfill his desire and he is there to fulfill yours. 

00:34:00Here the bride is preparing for her wedding ceremony as friends beautify her body by applying special herbs. 

00:34:10I have heard so often that the wedding night is like fire passing through the ears. I am afraid now. I'm really afraid. 

00:34:20SORAYA MIRE Tell me about your wedding night. 

00:34:25When I think about what I did, now it's kind of funny. I placed a nail(ph) between my legs as he came toward me, but actually he was really scary. 

00:34:35SORAYA MIRE You let him do it? 

00:34:40No, eventually he raped me. 

00:34:45SORAYA MIRE I'm frightened. I hope I won't have the same horrible experience. I am so sorry for you. 

00:34:55I am all right now. 

00:34:55I am so sorry. This is your wedding night. Let's make you beautiful. 

00:35:05CAROL CHRISTIANSEN On the wedding night, the husband attempts to forcefully penetrate the woman's external opening. Usually this takes about 15 days. If he is not successful, the midwife may be called to open the woman with a razor. 

00:35:25[non-English song] 

00:36:45Well, circumcision is not only ah… the first circumcision, but after giving birth, women are re-circumcised over and over again and this is an economic question also. I think that the women who are involved in this need to be trained for another way of making a living. 

00:37:00Circumcision is one of the more unfortunate ah… customs ah… one of the more unfortunate of Somali customs. And hopefully in the near future, we hope our people will… will give it up. I personally… it's one of the things that I disapprove of… of Somali culture. 

00:37:15SORAYA MIRE What's the reason? 

00:37:20The reason is because it's… it represents a mutilation of every human being, lifelong pain. It causes a lot of problems for women and we relate to them both our sisters and mothers and wives. So, as such, whatever causes pain to them also causes pain to us. So it's my hope that circumcision is one of those things. And I think it's… not only in Somalia, but in the whole of Northeast Africa, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and that whole area. Hopefully, it will stop in the near future. 

00:37:55SORAYA MIRE Would you do to your children…? 

00:37:55I am hoping that I… it will not happen to my children. 

00:38:00SORAYA MIRE Would you mind marrying an uncircumcised woman? 

00:38:00I don’t mind marrying, because that is the culture I have to live with now. I… I will probably marry a woman who is circumcised, but I am hoping that it will stop. 

00:38:10I think it's not just a marriage. It's a fear… fact is already indicated, it's clinically(ph) otherwise it's… it is not supposed to happen and it has been already recognized that, but to bring to change, you have to change the mindset of the society, how they look at for that particular case. 

00:38:30SORAYA MIRE How can we change it? 

00:38:30Well, it's… educate to show is that physically, first of all, some people, they… they cover and they never of a religion. It has nothing to do with the religion that we know for fact and culture that is already is… it is, you know, it's old, older things that is not appropriate today. 

00:38:50I… I… I… I have one, you know, very important thing that… that some people are saying making connection between marriage and circumcision. It… it's I don’t think there is a connection there. 

00:39:05SORAYA MIRE In Somalia? 

00:39:05In Somalia or… I mean the virginity is something that people value whether they are Africans, Europeans or any other group. But to say, I've heard people say the… because of the dowry system that exists in Somalia and other parts of… of Africa and Middle East that there is more… the more the… the… the more the women is disfigured the more the dowry is. That's totally upset. I don’t think any man would ask… or any man would want, you know, to figure… find out is this woman circumcised… circumcised or not. 

00:39:50Ah… when we look at in different aspect, you will see as it's a form of social control, not that just basically what happened to the woman and what she is missing and what… it's… it's a social control and aspect of the society where… yeah, well, a woman ah… basically can hold her properties. They cannot hold their properties when it comes to ah… how to organize society, the social relations, the power. So woman is a secondary to almost everything. She is my mother, she is my… my… my sister and hopefully she is my wife, but yet, ah… they are not part of the… of the control of the society what happens to them, even though they live and they are the most who get into worst aspect of what happens to society. 

00:40:45At present because of the loss of the technology around, when… when I say technology, I'm not speaking of western technology, I mean, the… the… the normal cultural technology around this whole pract… practice, which was indigenous to that culture that has been lost. Therefore, significant number of women who have… have these procedures performed are injured by the practice. As a result of that, and as a result of the psychological damage, which has been done to some of the women and also the loss of the cultural ritual process, which is involved in the total initiation process, as a result of those difficulties or problems in the current African situation, we feel that the practice in itself either must be modified or there should be some type of ritual substitution for the practice. The other important aspect is that at present because of westernization and because of the influx of other cultural patterns, the… the typical preparation of a child for initiation is no longer carried out and because the preparation for initiation is no longer carried out. There are some difficulties that these children encounter because they go into the process as unwilling participants. In some areas of Africa, especially in areas like Sierra Leone and Senegal, women go to this practice and they actually go to their parents and ask them to take them when they are ready. But in other areas, parents have to drag them into the whole process and we feel that the consent from the young adult or the young child is… is vital in this whole practice. 

00:42:40SORAYA MIRE One day I got sick and they took me to the hospital. I woke up where there were 20 doctors surrounded my bed looking at me, not just looking at me like the way I am looking at you, they were looking like horror movie. 

00:43:00Also because of the problems in the Sudan and… and Somalia in terms of refugees, large numbers of women from those countries are now finding themselves here in the United States and in other western industrialized countries, but particularly here in the United States, consequently physicians, particularly gynecologists, want to have to begin to equip themselves with knowledge of the female circumcision and the surgical and medical complications of these types of problems so that when they are approached by a woman from East Africa, we have these problems, they will be able to offer good medical evaluation and… and… and assistance. 

00:43:45In the US, when you tell your male friends that you have been circumcised, they seem to avoid you and they feel uneasy with you thinking that something is wrong with you. It is difficult to make them understand. 

00:44:00My involvement with female circumcision occurred when I was an intern in the urology service, where I was called to the emergency room, because a young Sudanese woman was presented to the emergency room at the general hospital and she couldn’t urinate and the nurse could not find the opening to put the catheter. We have to do a procedure where the labia was then separated and opened up so as to permit catheterization. Because of my action at that time in… in some ways my ignorance, I opened the whole up, because I thought that was what was necessary. She subsequently went back to the Sudan and wrote me and told me that she had to have what was called a re-infibulation and a re-closure, so just before she got married. So there is a personal sensitivity to the whole process of female circumcision. 

00:45:05SORAYA MIRE I know I am a woman, but I feel like something is wrong with… there is something wrong with me. I want you to help me out. I want you to listen my pain, because there is no… I can’t go to psychiatrist, because they won’t understand me. Ah… I am afraid to involve intimate relationship with a man, but people keep say, oh, my God, you are so beautiful, you’re so exotic, but deep down I know I’m not beautiful, because I am not whole, I am not complete. So I wanna tell those women, yes, you are beautiful. You need to take everything down out and… and deal with the problem and look the mirror and say, yes I could do something, I have to heal myself first, before I even go to someone else and say let me help, first let me help myself and then help you. 

00:45:55I think the best way to stop circumcision in Somalia is for Somalia community to start… every member of our generation to start… to start with themselves. We should start… we should stop circumcision by starting with ourselves. First of all, ah… everyone should be prepared to start with their own problem, with themselves and that’s the best way to stop circumcision. 

00:46:20Ah… I think we have to look at the larger picture in the social condition, social relations women had in the society at large, without just focusing on the circumcision itself, it’s as earlier it has been said its economic, it's a social control, it’s a position of woman plays in the society at large and therefore, until there has been a change in the mindset and the culture of thinking of that, it would be extremely difficult to… to treat this particular issue raising out. 

00:46:55Ah… this is how… this custom is a Pharaonic custom, that is it was started as far as we know in ancient Egypt. It’s practiced not only in the Horn of Africa and East Africa, but from Senegal, all the way across the Sahelian region, into Malaysia into some parts of India and this is a custom that we have to look at in its context. There are women in patrilineal and matrilineal societies that are circumcised, we here in New York have members of our communities that are circumcised. The American medical establishment is not aware of it, and it's mistreating them, stereotyping them. They are not anymore freaks than women in America, who have operations to increase this or decrease that or who wear corsets or something else to make themselves sexually more attractive, every culture, not only the Somali culture, has ways of both mutilating and distorting women’s natural bodies. 

00:47:50When I was born, I had a clitoris that was larger than… than typical. And ah… this was really distressing to my parents and also to the doctors who were there when I was born. And what happened is that my parents found some doctors who specialize in making unusual genitals typical. They fix them by surgery, and they brought me to these doctors when I was a year-and-a-half old and they had my clitoris and my inner-labia removed. 

00:48:30SORAYA MIRE Why? 

00:48:30They say that it would be too emotionally difficult for anybody to grow up with a clitoris that was prominent. 

00:48:40SORAYA MIRE Did they thought you’re a boy or did they confuse or what they were all of that… 

00:48:45They… they um… get confused when the clitoris is prominent. 

00:48:55SORAYA MIRE Okay. So you were a year and a half old? 

00:48:55Yeah. So they did this surgery on me and um… they didn’t bother to provide any kind of emotional support for my family or for me. They did some more surgery on me when I was eight years old and I remember that surgery. They put me in the hospital and they opened up my abdomen and they did kinds of examinations they usually don’t do to a prepubescent girl like um… vaginal exam and vaginal rectal exam and they were looking at my genitals and my genitals don’t look like other women’s genitals now, because there is a lot that’s missing. 

00:49:40Large number of cases that have surfaced of young women whose mothers felt that they were masturbating ah… to excess, whatever that means and who had their clitorises excised in order to prevent them from masturbating and then generally this was done by a woman to whom this had been done when they were children. 

00:50:10And when I think about the… the film that I saw what stood out of my mind more than anything with that little four-year-old girl, who was observing her future possibly. And um… I just felt so much compassion for what she must be feeling about what she has to look forward to. And at the same time, its… it’s part of her truth, it’s part of her reality ah… but I don’t know that it’s a choice that everybody has for themselves. And so, somehow that truth has to be honored. At least I would feel that it should be honored. I wouldn’t like to be circumcised myself. And being a woman it’s such a rich experience why should we have part of it taken away. 

00:51:10I am a midwife and part of my interest in this is that I worked with women giving birth who had been infibulated. One of the members of my staff went to Somalia and saw um… you know, in the refugee camps the young girls who were being prepared you know for… for the operation, and she came back with stories and the midwives do it there and… and they gave her… her tools, as they… they shared their tools with her that she brought back to show us. Also some other work I do with women here in the United States is to have them claim the power and the sacredness of their bodies, particularly their sexual organs, because even here in the west there is a great deal of shame that women carry. And what I witness time and again is that when women come and lie down on an exam table, they apologize for how they look, how they smell. They apologize for the fact of being a woman. 

00:52:15CAROL CHRISTIANSEN Female genital mutilation is with one example of the global epidemic violence against women. In India, the women continue to be victims of dowry death as they are beaten and burned by their husbands. In Thailand, young girls are forced into prostitution. In the United States, every 15 seconds a woman is battered, in every six minutes a woman is raped. This is all an expression of patriarchal society attempts to subjugate and control women. Justice in China, the tradition of foot binding belongs to the past, we must now put all of our efforts into eliminating female genital mutilation. 

00:52:55SORAYA MIRE I am not putting down my custom. I am not talking bad anybody, including my mom. But I… it’s so difficult for us, Somalia women, and Somalia men come together for one solution, one purpose and one solution and this is what we need. We need to look each other, men and men and say, and women and say like yes, both of us who are victims of society and we have to see and keep our custom what is good because we have love, we have a lot of good things, believe me, I love being a Somalian woman, okay? But there are things that it’s really hurting us that other people say, oh, we got to keep it, we got to keep this and this is one of… one of them, female circumcision is one of them. And to me, it is the ultimate child abuse you could really say. Imagine if you went through experience, how would you feel? Sometimes it's you really can’t even express your norm, you’re just crying and I am here to stick with it until this ends. This must stop. 

00:54:10CAROL CHRISTIANSEN Female genital mutilation will continue until women come together and refuse to accept the physical and psychological suffering, which accompanies this practice. Only when women refuse to subject their daughters to this mutilating practice undertaken in the name of culture is there hope that it will be abolished. Now is the time for women to claim their power for themselves as well as their future generations. Now is the time for them to claim their God-given wholeness as they begin to heal their wounded bodies, minds, and souls. 

00:54:45Always My Sister ALICE WALKER Voice Overs STEPHEN BRYAN SURER NOOR SARA RASHAD Dancer ARIZIKA RAZAK Trailer Narrator TELMA HOPKINS Executive Producer BETTYE BAILEY Associate Producer BARRY ELLSWORTH Assistant Directors MARGIT DRYSDALE JOSEPH MAY MARC WARREN Photography/Camera NANCY MORITA GARY DREW DAVID HAUSEN BARRY ELLSWORTH JEFF VINDETTI ROBAN BIEBER Assistant Camera DAVE DRYSDALE VAL KIM SABRINE KRAYEN Still Photographers GENE CROSS BARBARA MICHELLS Second Unit Photography REGGIE MATHIS Script WENDY MATOUBEK Graphics KWAKN ODWINFO TEKHNU Production Supervisors LAINI DAKAR Production Coordinator ELIZABETH WHITING Production Administrator VALERIE NORTHINGTON Gaffers JUSTIN NATHANSON JAMES PRESCOTT Boom Operators JEFF THERMOND ANNA CELADA Props KELLYE SHELTON ANGELL RICH Makeup VONDA MORRIS Hair ERMA KENT Wardrobe NORMA JOHNSON CLAYTON Editorial Supervisor JERRY WELDON Trailer Editor SALLY BANTA Assistant Editor GLEN CASHETTA Editor Sundance Entry Cut STACI LEVAN Assistant to Soraya ROXANNE RENEE Accountant TIM RICHARDSON Office Manager DOUG KLEKNER Receptionist LUCINDA BOSSIEUX Music Composer JULIAN BERNARD LEWIS Post Production Sounds TODD AO/GLEN GLENN STUDIOS Sound Mixers VEDA CAMPBELL EMMET NICHOLAS MICHAEL EMERY STERLING CROSS BILL GARY Mixing HORTA EDITORIAL SOUND Mixer TIM BORQUEZ Music Recording TRAX STUDIOS Trailer Music Composers VICKI RANDLE CINDY ALTER Video Transfer ACTION VIDEO Stroock, Stroock & Lavan SHERI JEFFREY Attorney at Law LISA UNDERKOFFLER Post Production Facilities JR POST JIM TARTAN Titles by TITLE HOUSE, INC. Film Processed by CFI CREST NATIONAL Negative Cutting ALTER IMAGE MICHAEL McCANN SPECIAL THANKS Eastman Kodak BRAD TIERNEY FRANK SMITH GARY BORTON Panavision BOB HARVEY CII JERRY VIRNING DIAN WATSON TOM HALLMAN FRED LOY Key Lite DAVE AZATO MII Special Services BILL BRAY AMY HARTMAN Trailer Editing Facility REEL THING COMPANY Sundance Institute ROBERT REDFORD GEOFFREY GILMORE TREVOR GORTH CATHERINE SCHULMAN JOHN COOPER Log Angeles Times ROBIN ABCARIAN Independent Feature Project RACHAEL SHAPIRO Black Entertainment Television MICHAEL JOYNER PAULA BOND RENEE HENSEN Black Filmmakers Foundation KAREN HORNE SANDRA STEVENSON THANKS ALSO TO ABDOSH ABDULHAFIZ CHANTAL BAGELESHIA LLOYD BRIDGES CHARLES BURNETT MARY CARNEY CHRISTY'S TESHOME GABRIEL DR. GUSS GILL DR. WENDY GREEN DR. PARHAM GROESBECK HANNY L. KLEIN GEORGE LAMB MAD RIVER POST LINDA McCABE YOLANDA McCREARY MARILYN MILOS JOAN MIURA FRAN MORROW JOAN MUSSA KATHERINE PARHAM KATHERINE QUITTNER LAURENCE ROCKEFELLER DR. MICHAEL SCOTT BETTY IEAN SLATER SOMALI COMMUNITY EAST/WEST BONNIE SULLIVAN UCLA FILM DEPARTMENT MANSOUR SORA WADE CONGRESSWOMAN MAXINE WATERS RUSSELL WILLIAM, II DANA WOODS WORLD VISION KWAB YEBOAH ABOVE ALL, ALMIGHTY GOD Mom and Dad, this is the end of my pain and the beginning of us coming together as one love. 

00:56:45[sil.] 

00:57:00END TRANSCRIPT 

Fire Eyes: Female Circumcision, Written by Soraya Mire, Directed by Soraya Mire, Ethnographer Soraya Mire, Narrated by Carol Christiansen (New York, NY: Filmakers Library, 1995), 57 minutes

You are not a member of the doctor's culture, but reside in a state where this practice is still legal. The plastic surgeon has agreed to perform this practice on a young girl, the daughter of a friend of the surgeon. The friend has authorized the procedure. The girl only knows this is a custom. You did not know that today you would be asked to assist in this procedure. You can refuse to participate (your job may be on the line in the future due to that decision). Or, you can assist the surgeon. What ought you to do? We now want to examine the ethical issues involved. To do this, let's look at the role of relativism, moral truths, and other issues.

Initial Post Instructions For the initial post, address the following questions:

· What would a subjective moral relativist say about what this doctor is doing? Do you agree with the subjective moral relativist? Why or why not?

· Examine what a cultural moral relativist would say here. Do you agree with the cultural relativist? Why or why not?

· Name and evaluate general criticisms of cultural relativism as being the wrong moral approach.

· Is there an objective moral truth about any of the possible actions by the nurse and/or doctor in this case? Why or why not?