It’s a heavy topic. Honestly, most people recoil just hearing the phrase. But to understand the purpose of female circumcision—more accurately known in medical and human rights circles as Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C)—you have to look past the immediate shock. You have to look at the "why" that keeps a practice alive even when it’s illegal in most of the world.
It isn't just one thing. It's a messy, deeply entrenched mix of culture, misunderstood religion, and social control.
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Around 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone some form of this procedure. That's a staggering number. It isn't happening in a vacuum. In many communities, if you don't do it, your daughter is an outcast. She can't get married. She's "unclean." These are powerful, terrifying social pressures that drive parents—who usually love their children—to continue a tradition that causes lifelong physical and psychological trauma.
The Social Glue: Why Communities Hold On
The most common purpose of female circumcision isn't actually medical. It's social. It's about belonging. In parts of Somalia, Guinea, and Egypt, the practice is so normalized that it is seen as a rite of passage.
Think about it like this. In these cultures, being "cut" is the ticket to womanhood. Without it, a girl stays a child in the eyes of the community. She’s excluded from the secret societies of women. She’s teased. She’s shamed. For a parent, the choice is often between causing their daughter pain now or letting her face a lifetime of social execution. It's a brutal "catch-22."
Economics play a huge role too. In many of the regions where FGM is prevalent, a woman’s only path to financial security is marriage. If the local men won't marry an uncircumcised woman because they believe she is "promiscuous" or "unclean," then circumcision becomes a survival strategy. It’s a way to ensure a girl is "marriageable." It’s about the dowry. It’s about the family’s honor.
Controlling Sexuality and the "Purity" Myth
We need to be blunt here. A primary, though often unspoken, purpose of female circumcision is the control of female sexuality. There’s this persistent, false belief that removing the clitoris or the labia will reduce a woman's libido. The goal? To ensure she remains a virgin until marriage and stays faithful afterward.
It's about "taming" her.
In some cultures, the external genitalia are viewed as "male" parts that need to be removed to make a woman truly feminine. There are myths that if the clitoris isn't removed, it will grow to the size of a penis. Or that it will kill a baby during childbirth if it touches the infant's head. These aren't just "old wives' tales"—they are deeply held beliefs that dictate the lives of millions.
- Type 1 (Clitoridectomy): Partial or total removal of the clitoris.
- Type 2 (Excision): Removal of the clitoris and the labia minora.
- Type 3 (Infibulation): The most extreme form. Narrowing the vaginal opening by creating a seal, often by cutting and repositioning the labia.
- Type 4: All other harmful procedures (nicking, piercing, scraping).
Each of these serves the same underlying goal: the physical enforcement of "modesty."
The Religion Argument (And Why It's Wrong)
You’ll often hear people say they do it because their religion demands it. This is a massive misconception.
No major religion requires FGM.
It's not in the Quran. It's not in the Bible. In fact, many Islamic scholars have issued fatwas (legal rulings) against it, calling it "un-Islamic" and harmful. Yet, the myth persists. Because the practice is often concentrated in specific Muslim or Christian communities, it gets incorrectly branded as a religious obligation. In reality, it’s a cultural practice that predates both Islam and Christianity. It’s a parasite that has latched onto religious identity to justify its existence.
The Physical Reality: What Actually Happens
The medical consequences are devastating. Because the purpose of female circumcision is often tied to "purity," the procedure is frequently performed by traditional practitioners using unsterile tools—broken glass, tin lids, or dull knives.
The immediate risks are terrifying:
- Hemorrhage (uncontrolled bleeding)
- Septicemia (blood poisoning)
- Extreme pain (often done without anesthesia)
- Infection and tetanus
Long-term? It’s a catalog of misery. Chronic urinary tract infections. Kidney failure. Cysts. Infertility. And then there’s childbirth. For women who have been infibulated (Type 3), the scar tissue must be cut open to allow the baby to pass, and then sewn back up afterward. This leads to higher rates of newborn death and maternal mortality.
Dr. Nawal El Saadawi, a world-renowned Egyptian physician and activist, spent decades documenting these horrors. She famously noted that the practice isn't just a physical wound; it’s a psychological one that severs a woman's connection to her own body.
The Shift Toward "Medicalization"
Lately, we’ve seen a weird and dangerous trend. In places like Egypt and Malaysia, parents are taking their daughters to actual doctors and hospitals for the procedure. They think that because a doctor is doing it with a scalpel and anesthesia, it’s "safe."
This is called the medicalization of FGM.
It’s still FGM. It still serves the same purpose of female circumcision: to control and diminish a girl's body. The World Health Organization (WHO) is incredibly firm on this: health professionals who perform FGM are violating basic medical ethics. "First, do no harm" doesn't allow for the elective removal of healthy tissue for cultural reasons. Medicalization doesn't make it right; it just makes the abuse "cleaner."
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The Psychological Scars
We talk a lot about the physical side, but the mental health impact is just as heavy. Imagine being five years old and having the people you trust most—your mother, your grandmother—hold you down while you are cut.
That is a betrayal that sticks.
Many women suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They deal with anxiety, depression, and a total loss of trust. In marriages, the very thing that was supposed to make them "virtuous" often makes intimacy a source of pain and fear rather than connection. It’s a cycle of trauma passed from mother to daughter, often fueled by the mother's own unresolved trauma. She does it to her daughter because she survived it, and she thinks it’s the only way her daughter will survive the world they live in.
How the World is Fighting Back
Progress is slow, but it’s happening. The purpose of female circumcision is being challenged from the inside.
In Senegal, the organization Tostan has seen massive success with their "Community Empowerment Program." They don't just show up and tell people to stop. They facilitate discussions about human rights and health. When the whole village decides together to end the practice, it sticks. It’s not a top-down law; it’s a communal shift in values.
More than 30 countries have now passed specific laws against FGM. But laws aren't enough. You can't just arrest your way out of a thousand-year-old tradition. You have to change hearts. You have to provide alternative rites of passage. In Kenya, some tribes have started "circumcision with words," where girls go through the traditional coming-of-age training and celebrations but without the physical cutting.
Practical Steps Toward Change
If you're looking to help or learn more, don't just stay in the "outrage" phase.
Support Grassroots Movements: Organizations like The Girl Generation or Tostan work directly with affected communities. They understand the nuance that outsiders often miss.
Educate Without Shaming: Shaming communities often causes them to retreat and perform the practice in secret. Education should focus on the health risks and the fact that it isn't a religious requirement.
Listen to Survivors: Groups like Desert Flower Foundation (founded by Waris Dirie) provide medical and psychological support to women who have already undergone the procedure. They are the leading voices in this fight.
Understand the Complexity: Recognize that for many parents, this isn't an act of hate. It's a misguided act of protection. Addressing the underlying poverty and lack of education is the only way to truly erase the perceived "purpose" of the practice.
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The goal isn't just to stop the cutting. It's to build a world where a girl's value isn't measured by what has been taken away from her, but by her agency, her health, and her right to her own body. This requires more than just legal bans; it requires a global shift in how we view the rights of girls.
Next steps for those interested in advocacy: Research the "Saleema" initiative in Sudan, which focuses on changing the language around "un-cut" girls to mean "whole" and "intact." Understanding these linguistic shifts is key to seeing how cultural change actually happens on the ground. Reach out to local NGOs if you are in a high-prevalence region to see how you can support community dialogues.