RITUAL FEMALE GENITAL SURGERY AMONG BEDOUIN IN ISRAEL

Ritual female genital operations are common in many parts of the world , with varying degrees of mutilation from clitoridectomy and removal o f the labia to removal of the clitoral prepuce. Interviews of 21 Bedou in women in southern Israel revealed the practice to be normative in s everal tribes. However, physical examination of 37 young women from th ose tribes at a gynecological clinic revealed only small scars on the labia in each woman. Bedouin in southern Israel may offer a model of e volution of female circumcision into a nonmutilative ritual incision.