According to the US Office of Health and Human Services:

"FGM/C can cause long-term problems with a girl's or woman's physical, mental, and sexual health. The type of FGM/C done may affect how much and how serious the health problems are. Type 2 and type 3 cause more serious health problems than type 1.

Long-term health problems include:

• Infections, such as genital abscesses (sores filled with pus that must be drained) and infectious diseases such as hepatitis B. In one large study, more infections and infectious diseases such as urinary tract infections, bacterial vaginosis, and HIV were found in women with type 3 FGM/C. This is probably because the damage caused by FGM/C can make vaginal tissue more likely to tear during sex. This increases the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
• Problems having sex. Extra scar tissue from FGM/C (most common after type 2 or type 3) can cause pain, especially during sex. This can lead to a lack of interest in sex, vaginal dryness, and lower overall satisfaction. Scarring can also cause vaginal tissue to be less elastic than normal vaginal tissue. It might not stretch as easily for sex or childbirth.
• Depression and anxiety. Girls may not understand what is being done to them or why. The effects of this painful experience are similar to those of post-traumatic stress disorder. Girls or women who have already been cut and are living in the United States may be disgraced or humiliated when they receive medical care. They may also fear that health care providers in the United States do not know how to take care of them. This can make adjusting to a new country more challenging.
• Painful and prolonged menstrual periods. Type 3 FGM/C may cause some girls and women to have painful menstrual periods. Some women are left with only a small opening for urinating and menstrual bleeding. They may not be able to pass all of their menstrual blood. This can cause pain and periods that are longer than normal. Some women may also have infections over and over again.
• Urinary problems. Type 3 FGM/C may slow or strain the normal flow of urine, which can cause urinary tract infections. Urine can also get trapped behind the scar and crystallize, forming hard masses called bladder, or urinary, stones.

Fistula, an opening between the urethra and vagina that lets urine run into the vagina. This can happen when the urethra is damaged during FGM/C. Fistula causes incontinence and other problems, including odors, and can cause girls and women to become social outcasts."

Normalization of FGM in Non-Islamic Countries—A Disturbing Trend

There is a disturbing trend in non-Islamic countries that has enormous potential to normalize, and by extension medicalize and bring to the mainstream the practice of Islamically-sanctioned FGM. Every year, more girls and women are undergoing medically unnecessary female genital cosmetic surgery (FGCS). There are many who support the notion of FGCS while simultaneously decrying the practice of FGM. But are they really all that different?

In societies where FGM is practiced, it is usually performed on minor girls. The parents consent to it, and the girl has no say in what will happen to her. Even if this ritual is not performed until adulthood, there is often little choice in the matter since it is considered an obligatory rite of passage for a woman, and is many times directly linked to her ability to take her rightful place in society. 

In the case of FGCS, while most procedures are deemed completely voluntary and carried out on adult women, each year an increasing number of minor (teenage) girls are going under the knife (also with parental consent) in order to “beautify” their genitals. In the vast majority of cases, there is no medical reason to perform any of these surgeries that involve the removal of perfectly healthy and functional tissue. They do this in order to conform to a certain standard of beauty. Whose standard? Where did this standard come from? Why would any parent consent to this? Why would any female willingly subject herself to such a procedure and all of its inherent risks when it is not necessary to do so?

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists warns:

"Patients should be made aware that surgery or procedures to alter sexual appearance or function (excluding procedures performed for clinical indications...) are not medically indicated, pose substantial risk, and their safety and effectiveness have not been established." 

They also point out that medically unnecessary FGCS performed on minor girls is considered FGM and is a criminal offence under 18 USC 116.

Women undergoing these types of procedures assume considerable risk to their health and self-esteem. Results are not always on par with expectations. Sometimes there are complications. There are documented cases of women who underwent FGCS only to regret their actions later on and feel that they mutilated themselves.

It is rather ironic that survivors of FGM are fighting to ensure their daughters never have to go through what many are now giving their daughters permission to do.

Moolaadé is an exquisitely made Senegalese film, written and directed by Ousmane Sembene, about a courageous woman who protects the young girls in her village from the torture of FGM. Watch it here for free.