All types of genital mutilation are human rights violations

Abstract

Born in 1924 and now living in America, the author of The Circumcision Scandal, Hanny Lightfood-Klein, deals in her book with the global practices of mutilation of intersexual, female and male genitals. She documents and critiques the harmfulness of these human rights violations, which stem from different socio-cultural contexts. The author critically addresses the large number of hysterectomies, episiotomies, and Caesareans in industrialised societies and criticises cosmetic surgery. The western public tends to barbarise and/or exoticise African practices of mutilation, but at the same time ignores those practices regularly carried out in industrialised societies. Up until now such practices have been taboo and rarely discussed in public. Hence, this book aims to make the public more aware of these operations and to encourage people to stand up against such practices.