The Politics of Female Circumcision in Egypt: Gender, Sexuality and the Construction of Identity

by Maria Frederika Malmström

Overview

The percentage of women aged 15-49 in Egypt who have undergone the procedure of female circumcision, or genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) stands at 91%, according to the latest research carried out by UNICEF. Female circumcision has become a global political minefield with 'Western' interventions affecting Egyptian politics and social development, not least in the area of democracy and human rights. Maria Frederika Malmstrom employs an ethnographic approach to this controversial issue, with the aim of understanding how female gender identity is continually created and re-created in Egypt through a number of daily practices, and the central role which female circumcision plays in this process. Viewing the concept of 'agency' as critical to the examination of social and cultural trends in the region, Malmstrom explores the lived experiences and social meanings of circumcision and femininity as narrated by women from Cairo. It is through the examination of the voices of these women that she offers an analysis of gender identity in Egypt and its impact on women's sexuality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784531577
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/30/2016
Series:	Library of Modern Middle East Studies
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Maria Frederika Malmstrom holds a doctorate in Social Anthropology from the School of Global Studies, Social Anthropology, University of Gothenburg. She is a Senior Researcher for North Africa in the Conflict, Security and Democratic Transformation cluster at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden. She is also a visiting scholar at New York University, working from 2010-2012 in the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality and from 2012 in Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts. Malmstrom worked previously as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of School of Global Studies at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and at the Department of Cultural Studies, University West, Sweden. Additionally, she is a gender consultant for UNFPA and UNICEF and a member of several academic and policy networks.

Table of Contents

List of Plates viii

Acknowledgements ix

A Note on Transliteration x

Introduction: Female Circumcision in Modern Cairo 1

1 The Politics of 'Female Genital Mutilation' in Egypt 27

2 Women's Voices 61

3 Moral Sexuality: Creating Female Subjects as Wives and Mothers 102

4 Bearing the Pain: The Moral Lesson of Womanhood 138

5 The Continuous Making of Pure Womanhood: Cooking, Depilating and Circumcising 167

6 Concluding Discussion: The Embeddedness of Female Circumcision 190

Epilogue 203

Appendix 207

Notes 214

Bibliography 226

Index 240