Fuambai Ahmadu

Fuambai Sia Ahmadu

Fuambai Sia Ahmadu is a Sierra Leonean-American anthropologist.[1] She has worked for UNICEF and the British Medical Research Council in the Gambia.[2]

Ahmadu obtained her PhD in social anthropology from the London School of Economics and undertook post-doctoral work at the Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago.[2]

Ahmadu is known for her work on female genital mutilation (FGM) and, in particular, for her decision as an adult and member of the Kono ethnic group to undergo clitoridectomy in Sierra Leone as part of an initiation into the Bundu secret society.[3] Contrary to the position of the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other UN bodies, she has argued that the health risks of FGM are exaggerated, its effect on women's sexuality misunderstood, and that critics are wrong to see it as an oppressive practice.[4] Ahmadu's view is shared by several other anthropologists,[5] although it remains a minority view.

Notes

  1. ↑ Hernlund, Ylva (2003). "Childhood: Coming of Age Rituals", in Suad Joseph, Afsāna Naǧmābādī (eds.). Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures: Family, Body, Sexuality And Health. Volume 3, Brill, p. 74.
  2. 1 2 "About Fuambai", fuambaisiaahmadu.com.
  3. ↑ Ahmadu, Fuambai (2000). "Rites and Wrongs: An Insider/Outsider Reflects on Power and Excision", in Bettina Shell-Duncan and Ylva Hernlund (eds.). Female "circumcision" in Africa: Culture, Controversy, and Change. Lynne Rienner Publishers, pp. 283–312.
  4. ↑ Tierney, John (30 November 2007). "A New Debate on Female Circumcision". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ Londoño Sulkin, Carlos D. (December 2009). "Anthropology, liberalism and female genital cutting". Anthropology Today Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 17-19.
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