ReviewInternational journal of impotence research2021
Current critiques of the WHO policy on female genital mutilation.
Review in International journal of impotence research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Unexplored avenues: a narrative review of cognition and mood in postmenopausal African women with female genital circumcision/mutilation/cutting.Frontiers in global women's health · 2024Pooled it
- Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices for Care of Women and Girls With FGM/C - A Survey of Health Workers at Swiss University Hospitals.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2026Article
- Community awareness and cultural beliefs on female genital mutilation in Ibadan, Oyo State: Insights from a localised intervention.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- Healthcare and community perspectives on female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C): a qualitative study.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Clinical, Ethical, and Legal Considerations Raised by Self-Reported Genital Mutilation Following Voluntary Cosmetic Labiaplasty.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- "I just wanted to be like everyone else…": Qualitative exploration of women's perspectives on female genital mutilation/cutting and its potential abandonment in Somalia.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- The Need for Standardized Nomenclature in Electronic Documentation of Female Genital Cutting in Health Records.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2024Article
- Rethinking the Definition of Medicalized Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Female genital mutilation and urinary incontinence: an analytical comparison with Sudan's prevalent demography.Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992) · 2024Article
- The Impact of Female Genital Mutilation on Sexual Function: A Study Conducted in Rural Sudan.Cureus · 2023Article
- Female genital cutting (FGC) type: proposing a multifaceted, interactive method for FGC self-assessment.The journal of sexual medicine · 2023Article
- Clitoral reconstruction: challenges and new directions.International journal of impotence research · 2023Review
- Health outcomes and female genital mutilation/cutting: how much is due to the cutting itself?International journal of impotence research · 2023Article
- Gendered genital modifications in critical anthropology: from discourses on FGM/C to new technologies in the sex/gender system.International journal of impotence research · 2023Review
- The relationship between dominant Western discourse and personal narratives of female genital cutting: exploring storytelling among Swedish-Somali girls and women.Frontiers in sociology · 2023Article
- "You must cut that long and stinking thing": uncovering the lived experiences of uncircumcised pokot women in North-Eastern Uganda.BMC women's health · 2022Article
- Addressing Female Genital Cutting among service providers in New York.Professional psychology, research and practice · 2021Article
- How to ensure policies and interventions rely on strong supporting facts to improve women's health: The case of female genital cutting, using Rosling's Factfulness approach.Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2021Article
- Out of the dark, into the light: sexuality and fertility in pediatric urological conditions.International journal of impotence research · 2021Article
- Women's Empowerment as It Relates to Attitudes Towards and Practice of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting of Daughters: An Ecological Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys From 12 African Countries.Frontiers in sociology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In recent years, the dominant Western discourse on "female genital mutilation" (FGM) has increasingly been challenged by scholars. Numerous researchers contest both the terminology used and the empirical claims made in what has come to be called "the standard tale" of FGM (also termed "female genital cutting" [FGC]). The World Health Organization (WHO), a major player in setting the global agenda on this issue, maintains that all medically unnecessary cutting of the external female genitalia, no matter how slight, should be banned as torture and a violation of the human right to bodily integrity. However, the WHO targets only non-Western forms of female-only genital cutting, raising concerns about gender bias and cultural imperialism. Here, we summarize ongoing critiques of the WHO's terminology, ethicolegal assumptions, and empirical claims, including the claim that non-Western FGC as such constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women. To this end, we highlight recent comparative studies of medically unnecessary genital cutting of all types, including those affecting adult women and teenagers in Western societies, individuals with differences of sex development (DSD), transgender persons, and males. In so doing, we attempt to clarify the grounds for a growing critical consensus that current anti-FGM laws and policies may be ethically incoherent, empirically unsupportable, and legally unsustainable.
Indexed as
Identifiers
32457498What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.