Politics of Female Genital Cutting (FGC), Human Rights and the Sierra Leone State

Politics of Female Genital Cutting (FGC), Human Rights and the Sierra Leone State PDF Author: Tom Obara Bosire
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443866377
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Politics of Female Genital Cutting (FGC), Human Rights and the Sierra Leone State: The Case of Bondo Secret Society provides a comprehensive analysis of contemporary post-war Sierra Leone politics through ethnographic examination of key cultural institutions like the Bondo society, the law, media and state actors. The book discusses historical, medical and socio-cultural underpinnings of the Female Genital Cutting (FGC) practice among members of the Bondo society in Sierra Leone by pointing out inherent and apparent tensions of a secret society dedicated to the continuation of long established gender practices at the counter-point of concerted international condemnation against the practice. Drawing on ethnography, the study highlights the complexity of FGC as practiced in Sierra Leone owing to the fact that it is interlaced in multifarious ways to politics, cosmology, community idioms of inclusion, medical metaphors and the sociological vernacular of people that practice it. In the Bondo society, some women have access to considerable forms of powers which endear them to political actors in Sierra Leone. On account of this and in a context of donor aid conditionality tied to efforts at ending FGC, a stage is therefore set where the local political elite ambivalently attend to competing interests from FGC adherents and eradication proponents in the high stakes politics of legitimatizing power. The book’s subtle and nuanced view of power handy to members of the Bondo society, however, does not lead to a vindication of FGC but is an attempt to go beyond blunt condemnation of the practice in order to explore the cultural and socio-political underpinnings that animate the practice.

Politics of Female Genital Cutting (FGC), Human Rights and the Sierra Leone State

Politics of Female Genital Cutting (FGC), Human Rights and the Sierra Leone State PDF Author: Tom Obara Bosire
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443866377
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 235

Get Book Here

Book Description
Politics of Female Genital Cutting (FGC), Human Rights and the Sierra Leone State: The Case of Bondo Secret Society provides a comprehensive analysis of contemporary post-war Sierra Leone politics through ethnographic examination of key cultural institutions like the Bondo society, the law, media and state actors. The book discusses historical, medical and socio-cultural underpinnings of the Female Genital Cutting (FGC) practice among members of the Bondo society in Sierra Leone by pointing out inherent and apparent tensions of a secret society dedicated to the continuation of long established gender practices at the counter-point of concerted international condemnation against the practice. Drawing on ethnography, the study highlights the complexity of FGC as practiced in Sierra Leone owing to the fact that it is interlaced in multifarious ways to politics, cosmology, community idioms of inclusion, medical metaphors and the sociological vernacular of people that practice it. In the Bondo society, some women have access to considerable forms of powers which endear them to political actors in Sierra Leone. On account of this and in a context of donor aid conditionality tied to efforts at ending FGC, a stage is therefore set where the local political elite ambivalently attend to competing interests from FGC adherents and eradication proponents in the high stakes politics of legitimatizing power. The book’s subtle and nuanced view of power handy to members of the Bondo society, however, does not lead to a vindication of FGC but is an attempt to go beyond blunt condemnation of the practice in order to explore the cultural and socio-political underpinnings that animate the practice.

Cultural Expertise

Cultural Expertise PDF Author: Livia Holden
Publisher: MDPI
ISBN: 3039280503
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
Cultural expertise in the form of expert opinions formulated by social scientists appointed as experts in the legal process is not different from any other kind of expertise in court. In specialised fields of law, such as native land titles in America and in Australia, the appointment of social scientists as experts in court is a consolidated practice. This Special Issue focuses on the contemporary evolution and variation of cultural expertise as an emergent concept providing a conceptual umbrella for a variety of evolving practices, which all include use of the specialised knowledge of social sciences for the resolution of conflicts. It surveys the application of cultural expertise in the legal process with an unprecedented span of fields ranging from criminology and ethnopsychiatry to the recognition of the rights of autochthone minorities including linguistic expertise, and modern reformulation of cultural rights. In this Special Issue, the emphasis is on the development and change of culture-related expert witnessing over recent times, culture-related adjudication, and resolution of disputes, criminal litigation, and other kinds of court and out-of-court procedures. This Special Issue offers descriptions of judicial practices involving experts in local laws and customs and surveys of the most frequent fields of expert witnessing that are related with culture; interrogates who the experts are, their links with local communities, and also with the courts and the state power and politics; how cultural expert witnessing has been received by judges; how cultural expertise has developed across the sister disciplines of history and psychiatry; and eventually, it asks whether academic truth and legal truth are commensurable across time and space.

"They Took Me and Told Me Nothing"

Author: Nadya Khalife
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Female circumcision
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
Recommendations -- Background -- Female genital mutilation around the world -- Female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan -- Female genital mutilation : a human rights issue -- Official action on FGM.

Female "circumcision" in Africa

Female Author: Bettina Shell-Duncan
Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers
ISBN: 9781555879952
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
To ban excision in Meru, Kenya, Lynn Thomas

Female Genital Mutilation

Female Genital Mutilation PDF Author: Center for Reproductive Law & Policy
Publisher: Zed Books
ISBN: 9781856497732
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
1. Background and history

Transcultural Bodies

Transcultural Bodies PDF Author: Ylva Hernlund
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813541387
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
Female "circumcision" or, more precisely, female genital cutting (FGC), remains an important cultural practice in many African countries, often serving as a coming-of-age ritual. It is also a practice that has generated international dispute and continues to be at the center of debates over women's rights, the limits of cultural pluralism, the balance of power between local cultures, international human rights, and feminist activism. In our increasingly globalized world, these practices have also begun immigrating to other nations, where transnational complexities vex debates about how to resolve the issue. Bringing together thirteen essays, Transcultural Bodies provides an ethnographically rich exploration of FGC among African diasporas in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. Contributors analyze changes in ideologies of gender and sexuality in immigrant communities, the frequent marginalization of African women's voices in debates over FGC, and controversies over legislation restricting the practice in immigrant populations.

Politicising Polio

Politicising Polio PDF Author: Diana Szántó
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811361118
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
This book examines disability in post-war Sierra Leone. Its protagonists are polio-disabled people living in the nation’s capital of Freetown, organizing themselves as best as they can in a state without welfare. There is little concrete support for people with disabilities in a country where the government is struggling with the competing requirements of the international community, demanding - in exchange for its support - good standards of democracy and the maintenance of a free market economy. To what extent is the Human Rights framework of the disability movement effective in protecting the polio-disabled and what are the limitations of this framework? Diana Szántó’s detailed ethnography reveals, through many real-life examples, the vulnerability of disabled people living in the intersections of poverty, informality and disability activism. At the same time, it also tells about the many ways the polio-disabled community is transforming vulnerability into strength.

Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation

Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789241596442
Category : Clitoridectomy
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description


The Female Circumcision Controversy

The Female Circumcision Controversy PDF Author: Ellen Gruenbaum
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812292510
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description
To the Western eye, there is something jarringly incongruous, even shocking, about the image of a six-year-old girl being held down by loving relatives so that her genitals can be cut. Yet two million girls experience this each year. Most Westerners, upon learning of the practice of female circumcision, have responded with outrage; those committed to improving the status of women have gone beyond outrage to action by creating various programs for "eradicating" the practice. But few understand the real life complexities families face in deciding whether to follow the traditional practices or to take the risk of change. In The Female Circumcision Controversy, Ellen Gruenbaum points out that Western outrage and Western efforts to stop genital mutilation often provoke a strong backlash from people in the countries where the practice is common. She looks at the validity of Western arguments against the practice. In doing so, she explores both outsider and insider perspectives on female circumcision, concentrating particularly on the complex attitudes of the individuals and groups who practice it and on indigenous efforts to end it. Gruenbaum finds that the criticisms of outsiders are frequently simplistic and fail to appreciate the diversity of cultural contexts, the complex meanings, and the conflicting responses to change. Drawing on over five years of fieldwork in Sudan, where the most severe forms of genital surgery are common, Gruenbaum shows that the practices of female circumcision are deeply embedded in Sudanese cultural traditions—in religious, moral, and aesthetic values, and in ideas about class, ethnicity, and gender. Her research illuminates both the resistance to and the acceptance of change. She shows that change is occurring as the result of economic and social developments, the influences of Islamic activists, the work of Sudanese health educators, and the efforts of educated African women. That does not mean that there is no role for outsiders, Gruenbaum asserts, and she offers suggestions for those who wish to help facilitate change. By presenting specific cultural contexts and human experiences with a deep knowledge of the tremendous variation of the practice and meaning of female circumcision, Gruenbaum provides an insightful analysis of the process of changing this complex, highly debated practice.

Justice and Security Reform

Justice and Security Reform PDF Author: Lisa Denney
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136000240
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Justice and Security Reform: Development Agencies and Informal Institutions in Sierra Leone undertakes a deep contextual analysis of the reform of the country’s security and justice sectors since the end of the civil war in 2002. Arguing that the political and bureaucratic nature of development agencies leads to a lack of engagement with informal institutions, this book examines the challenges of sustainably transforming security and justice in fragile states. Through the analysis of a post-conflict context often held up as an example of successful peacebuilding, Lisa Denney reveals how the politics of development agencies is an often forgotten constraint in security and justice reform and development efforts more broadly. Particularly suited to upper-level undergraduates and postgraduate students, as well as practitioners, this book is relevant to those interested in security and justice reform and statebuilding, as well Sierra Leone’s post-conflict recovery.