Sexuality, Gender empowerment and Development. A case study of clitoral rehabilitation of excision-affected women in Burkina Faso

Sammanfattning: This qualitative case study explores the empowering potentialities of clitoral reconstruction for mutilated women in Burkina Faso. In this developing country of sub-Saharan Africa, historical high prevalence rates of excision leave millions of women in the most physical and mental ill being. This, as a consequence, causes their marginalisation from the development process. The methodology is bond to the feminist empowerment theories. My feminist approach is critical to national and traditional structural mechanisms, which maintain mutilated women in subordination. Doing so, and influenced by a conception of development based on well-being for its intrinsic value, I mainly focus on clitoral reconstruction candidates striving towards more flourishing lives. The analysis is partly drawn from observation and interviews performed during a short field research in the capital city Ouagadougou. Rehabilitated women, doctors and professional workers in women’s support associations drove me closer to women’s issues. This allowed an exploration of both the enabling practices of clitoral rehabilitation, and the constraining national and traditional conceptions of sexuality. This study partly relies on the analysis of secondary data including policy documents. I conclude that genital reconstructive surgery of the clitoris has the potential to anatomically and psychologically rehabilitate a functioning sexuality to genitally impaired women. The contribution of the surgical treatment to women’s individual empowerment rests on women’s demands and entitlement to more fulfilling lives. This paper addresses public institutions and advocacy groups committed to fight feminine genital mutilation as well as women’s movements in general. The findings provide material for informing individual choices and ultimately for policymaking.