Female Genital Mutilation: Treating the Tears. Haseena Lockhat. London: Middlesex University Press, 2004, £15.99 pb, 198 pp. ISBN: 1-898253-90-0

Female genital mutilation is not a subject where neutrality is an option. Twenty years ago Northern European feminists took up the abolitionist cause with fervour. Abolitionists were attacked as culturally insensitive. They, in turn, accused their attackers of inappropriate cultural relativism. Some years later, Haseena Lockhat brings the topic properly to the UK. She is primarily interested in circumcised women in the UK, and what is in store for their daughters. She brings a measured tone to a controversial topic.

She clarifies the different forms of female genital mutilation; these vary in the extent to which part or all of the female external genitalia are removed. She places the practices in a cultural context, firmly refuting the idea that these practices are synonymous with Islam. Female genital mutilation is predominantly an African custom, but is far from ubiquitous in Africa. It has many purposes but seems most strongly linked with upholding traditional practices intended to guarantee chastity at marriage and to prevent a woman sexually straying thereafter.

UK law currently outlaws any form of female genital mutilation. This creates difficulties for migrant women in the UK who are circumcised and for families who want what they consider to be best for their daughters. Lockhat's careful documentation of the physical and psychological complications of female genital mutilation in UK residents leaves little room for sympathy for families that would put their daughters through what would normally be described as torture. One-third of her sample explained that they were circumcised without anaesthetic, while being held down. Unsurprisingly many of her sample had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. To compound the problems of these women, their experiences of healthcare in the UK were often poor. Neither their cultural mindset nor their bodily predicaments were well understood. They were equally unable to give voice to their unhappiness within their own community for fear of social disapproval.

This book will be valuable when clinical dilemmas arise either in relation to children or adult women and their families. It is not an easy read, nor should it be, given the difficulty and importance of the topic: 140 million women worldwide have been subjected to female genital mutilation, often as minors.