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Migratory flows require our country to reflect on the compatibility of some aditional practices which appear irreconcilable with the fundamental rights of the person protected by the Italian Constitution and with the principles established at an international level. Among these, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) plays a leading role. A multidisciplinary therapeutic approach, framed in the guidelines of the World Health Organization and the international regulatory system, will allow the protection of women and the promotion of a preventive attitude free of prejudices and cultural resistance as well as the framing of FGM as a violation of human rights. This contribution therefore presents the main information on FGM, to address a type of person/patient who requires innovative and specific approccies for rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article analyses the ritual gukuna (i.e. the elongation of the labia minora) in Rwanda and among the Rwandan diaspora in Italy. This practice -- along with the kunyaza (male sexual technique) -- is expected to increase sexual pleasure. When I started fieldwork (in the late 1990s), the gukuna could be seen as a secret of female sexuality. Since the mid-2000s, new subjectivities started to emerge, with the introduction of gender-sensitive policies in the post-genocide context and with the rise of state feminism and a femocratic class. Furthermore, the movie Sacred water (2016) revealed the gukuna to the broader public, as a mystery of female ejaculation. Yet, according to WHO the gukuna remains a genital mutilation that must be "eradicated". Properly understood, gukuna reveals and challenges the culturalist and victimizing assumptions of the hegemonic representations of both FGM and the "African women", highlighting the continuities between the moralities of colonialism and humanitarianism, and some feminist trends, now locally incorporated. The article aims at deconstructing the gender mainstreaming discourse around gukuna as a "harmful traditional practice", in order to reflect on gender in Rwandan contemporary politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mutilations of female genital organs are a particularly difficult issue. That is the reason why it occupies historical, anthropological and medico-legal research. So the present article considers the situation in all these aspects together with the provisions introduced by Law n. 7, 9/1/2006 and article 583 bis of the Criminal Code for the Protection of the rights of women being mutilated.Indeed we believe that the mutilations are real and cause personal psychic injury. The custom of mutilation has nothing to do with religious beliefs, but is the product of old social prejudices against women, as an individual.La MGF (mutilation génitale féminine) est un sujet de société tristement actuel dont on dit qu'elle est pratiquée au nom des croyances religieuses les plus ancestrales.C’est la raison pour laquelle j’ai voulu avant tout consulter, bien que brièvement, l'analyse anthropologique, historique, médico-légale et juridique effectuée sur cet argument pour me pencher ensuite sur la loi italienne n° 7 du 9/1/2006 et sur l’article n° 583bis du Code Pénal Italien, ayant trait à la sauvegarde des droits inaliénables de la femme qui subit une mutilation.En effet les mutilations sont de véritables lésions physiques et souffrances psychiques qui plus que motivées par des croyances religieuses sont dictées par d'anciens us et coutumes combles de préjugés sociaux envers la femme en tant qu’individu.Le mutilazioni degli organi genitali femminili rappresentano un tema tristemente attuale legato per “comodità” alle credenze religiose più arcaiche.Per questo motivo, l’articolo ha voluto, da subito, volgere uno sguardo, seppur breve, all’analisi antropologica, storica e medico-giuridica dell’argomento per poi considerare la legge n. 7 del 9/1/2006 (che ha attuato i principi della Dichiarazione e del Programma della IV Conferenza mondiale dell’ONU sulle donne - Pechino 1995, nonché le disposizioni degli artt. 2,3,32 della nostra Costituzione - tutelando le donne vittime di questo sopruso e dichiarando reato ogni “lesione o mutilazione genitale femminile, provocata in assenza di esigenze terapeutiche, al fine di condizionamento sessuale”, punibile con detenzione da 6 a 12 anni ) e l’art. 583 bis c.p. con il quale si è venuti ad applicare la linea “dura” per tutelare la salute e la dignità della donna sottoposta a mutilazione. In realtà, nel caso delle mutilazioni genitali femminili è chiaro come ci troviamo di fronte ad atti imposti su minori, atti che provocano danni fisici e psichici - qualificabili, ai sensi del nostro codice penale, come lesioni - atti che costituiscono una vera e propria violenza con conseguenze a volte irreversibili sul piano psichico e fisico e che oggi hanno ben poco a che fare con delle giustificazioni religiose, ma sicuramente con costumi vetusti e colmi di pregiudizi.

Many women in the world are still undergoing female genital mutilations (FGMs) even if in almost all the countries, the practice of FGM is illegal. The increase of immigration, particularly from African Countries, to Europe, and Italy too, led to consider this phenomenon with particular attention and skill. All the operators in health services need to know the different types of FGMs and the related complications and the psychological and sexual sequels. Urological complications, in particular, are not rare and the changing anatomy of the external genital apparatus can also make the catheter insertion sometimes difficult. This review analyzes the epidemiology of FGMs, the reasons why the practice is still made, the complications, the ethical, and the principal legal aspects of this practise that must be hopefully early banned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between religion and cultural traditions through the specific case and controversial issue of Female Genital Mutilation, in particular in the Muslim context. Relating to this practice, the religious interpretations, intertwined with the conceptions of gender and sexuality, reveal a polyvalent discourse among the statement of the values of belonging culture, confrontation with western values, and political contestation. In this debated arena, characterised by a plurality of positions, religion plays a strategic role, both legitimating as delegitimating this cultural practice, taking into account the transnational context and the global flow of meanings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]