A Rite Of Passage

A Rite of Passage
An Evaluation

If you read the paper, peruse People magazine, or spend any time watching the
tabloid TV shows, you would have the strong impression that what Lorena Bobbitt did to
her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt, in the wee hours of June 23 in Manassas, Virginia, was
the equivalent of the shot heard ‘round the world.
You might think that Lorena Bobbitt single-handedly avenged the sexual crimes
that have been perpetrated against all women from the beginning of time.
There is no denying the primal, gut-wrenching reaction to John Wayne Bobbitt’s
wound. It is an unheard of crime, too horrible for men to contemplate, fascinating and
appalling to women.
It is understandably a major news story. Yet, if I happen to mention that this kind
of thing happens all the time to women in certain parts of the world, would it send the
same kind of shivers down your spine?
The July 14, 1996, Los Angeles Times, states that more than 120 million women
across a broad swath of the African continent have been subjected to the brutal genital
mutilation that is often called female circumcision. Most are children between the ages of
4 and 10 when the ritual takes place.
Although Westerners condemn it as torture, child abuse and a violation of human
rights, it remains a revered rite of passage in parts of Africa, the Middle East and
Southeast Asia. According to the World Health Organization, circumcision dates back
almost 4,000 years. No one knows exactly how the practice began, th...

A Rite Of Passage

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