Female Circumcision in Somalia and Women's Motives

Two hundred and ninety Somalian women have participated in a study. They responded adequately to the questionnaire administered. One hundred percent of these women were circumcised, despite their relatively high socio‐economic status as shown by their educational level. Eighty‐eight percent of them had been circumcised with excision and infibulation, A. 5% were circumcised with clitoridectomy and the remaining 5.5% with Sunna. The majority of these women justified the practice of female circumcision with religious reasons and all were willing to circumcise their daughters. Fifty‐two percent of the respondents had been operated on by medically untrained persons, usually traditional birth attendants and the majority were operated on at home.