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Female circumcision
by Justin D. Long
A reader recently phoned us to confirm one of the statistics we had originally cited: the total number of women who are genitally mutilated each year (female circumcision). The shocking number: more than 84 million have been circumcised. Female circumcision is common throughout much of Africa and parts of the Middle East. Nor is this custom showing any sign of slowing down. According to the Fourth World Conference on Women in June 1995, "Globally, approximately 5 girls are mutilated every minute." If we do the math, we discover that equates to 300 per hour, or 7,200 per day, or 50,400 per week, or 2,620,800 per year.
This isn't a subject that we often find covered in Sunday School! Yet, if these statistics are indeed "signs from God" (as suggested by prior Roger Schutz, founder of the Protestant monastery and youth center, the Taize community in France), then we must ask ourselves, what is God directing us to do? Political activism is one ministry option. Ministry to women is another, since female circumcision can result in a number of reproductive illnesses and complications in pregnancies. World Bank researchers have estimated that 3 to 12 percent of all pregnancies worldwide result in serious illness for women. Ministering to pregnant women ought to be a viable ministry option which would be just as acceptable in many places as building shelters and helping with refugees.
Considering that women make up 49% of the world, form 35% of its paid labor force, head 33% of its households, make up 95% of its nurses, perform 62% of its work hours, yet receive 10% of the world's income, own 1% of its property, make up 70% of its poor, 66% of the illiterate, 80% of the refugees, 75% of the sick, it seems to me that women--in every country--deserve special ministry strategies and special focus. If your ministry is doing something special for women, why don't you write an encapsulated essay on your ministry and send it to the reality-check-discuss forum to share your knowledge?