Compromised bodies : cultural imperialism, agency, and the ban on "female genital mutilation" in Senegal / Sarah O'Neill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Neill, Sarah, 1979- author.

Series:

Contemporary ethnography

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Female genital mutilation--Senegal.

Female genital mutilation.

Female genital mutilation--Government policy--Senegal.

Female genital mutilation--Political aspects--Senegal.

Fula (African people)--Senegal--Attitudes.

Fula (African people).

Fula (African people)--Futa Toro--Attitudes.

Futa Toro--Social life and customs.

Futa Toro.

Government policy.

Senegal.

Physical Description:

viii, 261 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

illustrations.

maps.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2025]

Summary:

"The Senegalese parliament authorized a national ban on "Female Genital Mutilation" in 1999. Because only a third of the Senegalese population practiced female genital cutting (FGC) at the time, policy makers did not expect that the new law would cause controversy or provoke commotion. Yet, in Fouta Toro and among the Fulani, who traditionally practiced FGC, the response to the new law was fury, and frustrations often turned violent. More than a decade after the ban Fouta Toro was considered "the most difficult region" for anti-FGC activists, both from and outside the government. Tires were burned, international NGO delegates were threatened, and activists publicly speaking out against the practice were religiously condemned. Animosity towards the ban remains palpable in the region to this day. The ban, many (but not all) locals say, is nothing other than an overt act of Western cultural imperialism imposed on to their community. For these individuals, resisting the ban is critical for maintaining the autonomy and integrity of a traditional way of life. And from the outside, opposition to the law and NGOs can seem unified. However, anthropologist Sarah O'Neill discovers that on the ground, there are tensions between those who oppose the ban and those who support it - even as that support is nuanced and often complicated. This ethnography unravels the continued political tensions surrounding both national and international interventions in Fouta Toro and in Senegal that place protection of the female body at the center of their concerns. By way of the many stories of ordinary women and men caught up in debates around the value of the practice and meaning of FGC, the book reveals the personal struggles and difficult decisions Fulani face, be they traditional cutters, religious leaders, mothers, husbands, divorced women, or anti-FGC activists"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Events, representations, and the beginning of the end of excision in Senegal

Interlude. The events of opposition to the law and nongovernmental Intervention in Fouta Toro

Making gender : changing traditions and the procedures of cutting

Curbing desire : gender socialization and the physical foundations for moral personhood

Pleasure, desirability, and purity

Whose law, whose body, whose rule? The opposition to the law and FGC sensitization in Fouta Toro

A right to health, freedom of speech, and nondiscrimination : the role of human rights in the abandonment movement in Fouta Toro

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781512827231

9781512827248

151282724X

1512827231

OCLC:

1493512992

Publisher Number:

90104363409