Abstract
ABSTRACT
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a custom that is widely spread especially in parts of Africa and the middle-east. Due to migration the tradition has also reached Europe and North America. WHO estimates that 130-140 million women worldwide are affected and approximately 3 million girls are in danger of being circumcised annually.
In this project thesis the main focus was to find out what attitudes men from countries with a high percentage of circumcised women have on these issues.
14 men who is now living in Norway, but who are immigrants from either Eritrea, Ethiopia or Somalia, have been interviewed on the subject. Their knowledge on the matter was somewhat variable, but most of them had a certain insight in both what was done to the girls and what short and long term consequences it had on their health and sexuality. The men expressed a unison opposition against type III FGM, each and all would resist having a future daughter infibulated and they all approved the prohibition law against female genital mutilation, which was introduced in Norway in 1995. If these men and their stand on this matter truly represent the broad majority of men in their ethnical group, their expressed attitude may be a weapon in the struggle against the harmful habit of FGM.