Why does Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or Female circumcision still being performed in todays society ?
South African Aids experts have called for a mass circumcision programme after studies showed it reduced the rate of HIV infection by up to 60%. Professor Alan Whiteside said all boys born in public hospitals should be offered the operation. “It is so blindingly obvious that there are real reasons for circumcision,” he said at a national Aids conference. Some 5.5m South Africans have HIV – second only to India – and one person in nine is infected. Some, but not all, of South Africa’s ethnic groups practise circumcision. “In South Africa, high proportions of men and women find it acceptable to be circumcised,” said Neil Martinson of the Perinatal HIV/Aids Research Unit. Health minister ‘snub’ Some critics have, however, warned against mass circumcision, pointing out that it did not help women and could encourage men to feel they were immune and take part in risky behaviour. But Mr Martinson said these fears were not borne out by studies. “People weren’t going around and sleeping around
