[Discussion] Female Genital Cutting: Cultural Conflict in the Global Community

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Elizabeth Heger Boyle. Female Genital Cutting: Cultural Conflict in the
Global Community. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
xiii + 188 pp. Bibliography, index. $36.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-8018-7063-1.
*Reviewed by:* Evelyne Accad, Department of French, University of
Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and Lebanese American University, Beirut,
Lebanon.
*Published by:* H-Gender-MidEast <http://www.h-net.msu.edu/%7Egend-mid/>
(November, 2004)
National Sovereignty Does Not Disappear

Elizabeth Heger Boyle, associate professor of sociology and law at the
University of Minnesota, has provided us with a different analysis on
Female Genital Mutilations, usually referred to as FGM, than the ones
usually presented. The title of the book already sets the tone in that
Boyle refuses to side with those who consider the practice as
"mutilation." It is not that she approves such practices by any means,
but she prefers to use the word "cutting" in order to set her analysis
within a more neutral tone. While I do not adhere myself to such
neutrality, I respect Boyle's view and found her approach challenging
and insightful. It raises many important questions in the perspectives
of the international system, governments, and individuals. It describes
how the choices made by governments and individual women are influenced
by the conflicting principles of individual human rights and sovereign
autonomy. It leads her to conclude that while globalization may
exacerbate such conflicts, it can ultimately lead to social change.

Boyle provides us with background information on the practice, tracing
the history of the practices within its social context, as well as early
efforts for its eradication. The information this first chapter contains
is not new and I was surprised that Boyle did not document the efforts
of the Tostan association in Senegal which has had such a strong impact
on the practice and which, in my opinion, can serve as an example of
constructive efforts and vital results for the practice under
consideration, but also for many other forms of oppression affecting
women in our world today.

In the third chapter, Boyle argues that global institutions such as
national sovereignty do not disappear but the relationship between
institutions can change over periods of time. She shows how the practice
provides an example of how the expansion of rights operates. The
establishment of international law to protect women and children from
the consequences of unequal power in the family helps us understand the
mechanism.

The fourth chapter documents the actions of various associations
internationally along with the media and the states to bring about
policy reforms. It also illustrates the procedural character of the
debate. Chapter five explores policies against the practice more
specifically from the 1980s to the 1990s and shows how successful they
were in adopting them. She compares various countries. For example,
Western countries have tended to pass formal laws while African ones
established bureaucratic policies. More examples are developed in
chapter six focusing on Egypt, Tanzania, and the United States to
illustrate the national policy extension of the international debate
over the practice. Her interesting argument is that policies will be
more contested when the reform is relevant to local individuals, while
countries where the policy has local relevance, nation's standing in the
international system is also important.

In chapter seven, she examines the impact of religion on the practice
and its continuation. She also looks at the impact of occupation and
colonization, as well as the influence of employment and modernization.
A very interesting conclusion to this chapter was that regional
development influenced attitudes and behavior while national resistance
to international norms could outweigh the influence of regional
development. Thus, in recent years Egypt had been the country with the
most outspoken opponents to the international norm against the practice.

In chapter eight, Boyle discusses demographic and health survey data
from the Central African Republic, Egypt, Kenya, Mali, and Sudan. She
analyzes how women who oppose the practice tend to explain their
position through health and other issues but not through the cultural
values that support them.

Boyle ends her book by stating that even though she aimed at critically
examining the controversial practice of FGC, she wanted to show the
broader implications of this issue by addressing the complexity between
international actors, nation-states, and individuals, showing the
involvement of international actors in local practices, while
elaborating a theory on the interaction of institutions. She has
certainly achieved her aims.