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genital mutilation
Genital mutilation may be practiced on males or females. It is usually done to children or infants, against their will.
Male prepuce amputation, foreskin amputation, or circumcision is much more widespread than female genital mutilation, but doesn't imply the consequences of sexual enjoyment loss that female genital mutilation has. Also, it is sometimes a practice performed for medical reasons such as recurrent infections under the foreskin (balanitis), or abnormal tightness of the foreskin (phimosis), and more recently it has been found that circumcised penises are significantly less exposed to AIDS infection.
Prepuce amputation consists of cutting off the ridged band, and a variable degree of the remaining part of the prepuce. The ridged band is situated at the distal end of the prepuce.
Female genital mutilation, also called clitoris amputation or female circumcision, involves cutting off most of the clitoris, and it may also involve sewing up most of the length of the vagina (excluding a small hole for urination). In some cases of women that have sustained clitoral amputation, they are still able to achieve clitoral orgasm, because there is still a stump of sexually sensitive tissue leftover.
Genital mutilation, of both male and female variants, originated in north-eastern sub-saharan africa, in the area around southern Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. From there, it spread far. Male genital mutilation in particular became very popular.
Early on, the practice of male genital mutilation spread north up the nile, into Egypt. From Egypt, the practice spread to the hebrews, who incorporated it into their religion. The hebrew religion spread south along the west coast of arabia, culminating in the founding of Islam, which retained the penis mutilation of judaism. The muslim arabian armies then spread the practice of penis mutilation far and wide. The people of the Philippines did not adopt Islam, but they adopted penis mutilation from them when Islam became popular in the area.
The practice of penis mutilation is also widespread in the United States. In the United States, penis mutilation is an imitation of the jewish practice rather than the muslim practice.
