Disappearance of female genital mutilation from the Bedouin population of Southern Israel.
BACKGROUND
Recently, clinicians in Southern Israel perceived that the practice of female genital mutilation had disappeared entirely in the Bedouin population. We previously studied the prevalence of this practice in 1995.


OBJECTIVE
We decided to survey again the Bedouin population focusing on those tribes previously reported to perform this practice.


METHODS
Eighty percent of the interviews were done by an Arabic-speaking psychiatrist and 20% were done by an Arabic speaking nurse in the gynecologic clinic of a large Bedouin township or the gynecologic clinic of a smaller Bedouin township. Women were asked if they would be willing to answer a few questions about their past and if they were willing to have the gynecologist, with no additional procedure, note whether any operation had been performed on their genitalia.


METHODS
Physical examination by gynecologist and an oral questionnaire.


RESULTS
One hundred and thirty two women were examined. No cases of any scarring of the kind reported in the previous study were found on physical examination.


CONCLUSIONS
FGM has apparently disappeared over 15 years in a population in which it was once prevalent.
Halila
Suhil
S
Beersheva Mental Health Center, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva, Israel.
Belmaker
R H
RH
Abu Rabia
Yunis
Y
Froimovici
Miron
M
Applebaum
Julia
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D018912:Arabs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002648:Child; D019093:Circumcision, Female / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult