What is female circumcision, or genital cutting?
It is an age-old tradition, whereby a young girl or woman has her genitals cut.

Depending on her ethnicity and nationality, a girl or woman may have part or all of her external genitals removed.

What are the different types of female circumcisions?
Type 1: the clitoris or the hood of the clitoris removed.
Type 2: the clitoris and also the inner labia are removed.
Type 3: the clitoris and the inner labia are removed and the vagina is sewn up.

Is it the same as male circumcision?
In short, no.

Male circumcision involves removing the foreskin that covers the head of the penis. To be be comparable, female circumcision must only remove the clitoral hood. However, most types of female circumcisions involve much more than this 

So if it's not really circumcision, why call it that?
Well, female circumcision is called different names depending on who's talking about it.

Because of the serious health consequences associated with it and the violation of girls' and women's rights, female circumcision is also called female genital mutilation.

Other people have adopted the more neutral term of female genital cutting to acknowledge that it is a procedure, but to not give the false impression that it is like male circumcision.

Circumcision, genital cut, or mutilation?
At Love Matters, we're aware of the ongoing debate between age old traditions and human rights. As well, we're aware that any form of genital modification - cutting, pricking, burning, or stretching of the female genitalia - can cause serious life-long health problems. So severe can these health problems be, that we agree that female genital mutilation is an appropriate term for these different procedures.

Yet, for the purposes of helping 'circumcised' young girls and women (and their partners), we've made a conscious decision to use the terms female circumcision and female genital cutting (FGC). Our rationale behind this decision isn't to deny the serious health consequences, but to provide helpful information to people who are suffering without re-traumatising them.