“Balance our feminist rage”

Press, 22 July 1980, Page 12

“Balance our feminist rage”

. The last argument, that we have no right to interfere in whjit doesn’t concern us, particularly if the subject has an /anci'eht .tradition, ?.is < powerful, * daunting-., and. fits • neatlyinto an aspect of liberal:*; thinking. It is, however, specious.-, .' . . - Certainly, nothing could ..be morecounter-pfoduc-tivb‘: than* hordes of in? >- censed women .at the?. Copenhagen confer-' ence ./. those Third':' World , wbmenal- . reads 7 on the Warpath by howling for an’ end to _circumcision now,' "because we say' so. That might have happened a few, z years ago,: but- is much . less likely now. . . ,?? Gloria..'* Steinem,?? .in - vMarch, 'purged American •, part ic-ipants to be * cautious. ' “Never,” . she ‘said,*,.’ “has ;it. been more vital' for : ; jjdr-feminist rage. • to be balanced with tactical effectiveness.”’?-; •'* < . But- point is that Western “feminist saga” is. already shared, by

implement Third World* resolutions or include the hazards of circumcision in their health, education, training and family planning programmes. Ms Hosken is particularly distressed by findings that make her believe some governments and doctors are responding to '.charges of female injury by taking the operation but of the-: handstof unhygienic village midwives and establishing, it as an accepted part of a system of Western surgery.' to be done hygienical.ly with needles instead of thorns, in hospitals, Is this,- she asks despairingly, progress? . *• .;*''■ ■: Ms Hosken, like many fighting pioneers, eschews, ctact. She* is ah - obsessive* blunderbuss, a determined steam-roller who, almost singlehandedly, 'has taken . American.-opinion, by the •neck and,shaken*.it. Sore necks? have resulted. Sore? . necks have been deserved. Wishing to change any corner of the world never, won any popularity con,

her father was away because her mother . and grandmother both knew- he would forbid itj had he been at home. It is such men — and women with the views! of Edna Adan — who require our support and we should refuse to be warned away, as we frequently are, by too many international agencies who, after a ritual, condemnation of circumcision, ritually add threat, of “backlash reaction” to what, they always call “well-intentioned out- ' side interference.” The fact is that, for far too long, ■ government and chairty-aided * agencies have devoted themselves ■ to a myriad different aspects ’of Third World health, often with particular emphasis bn the health and education of women and. children! Yet they ? : have - managed, with consummate *. skilh-Mo ignore: -‘.and even officially deny,? .. the '-practice*;, of ’cifcum-. cisibn which, all by- itself, undermines •*' their every* lesson vby condemning