Female Circumcision

Andrea Bruce

The Washington Post

Sheelan Anwar Omer, 7, enters a room looking for the party her mother had promised. As a local woman closed the door behind her, her mother told her to take off her underwear. This Kurdish neighborhood considers female circumcision a rite-of-passage much like male circumcision. The main difference being that female circumcision removes part of an organ, the clitoris. Male circumcision is the removal of a piece of skin.

Andrea Bruce, "Female Circumcision," in POYi Archive, Item #42956, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/42956 (accessed April 21, 2025).