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The Male Neonatal Circumcision Debate: Social Movements,Sexual Citizenship, And Human Rights, Lauren M. Sardi

Societies Without Borders

Male circumcision is known to be one of the oldest and perhaps one of the most controversial body modification procedures in the history of humanity (Darby 2005; Gollaher 1994, 2000; Grimes 1980). Such scholars and activists, especially those who self-identify as being against the routinized procedure of male neonatal circumcision, discuss circumcision as a human rights violation. However, what is notable about the anti-circumcision movement more broadly is how they implement a Western notion of human rights in which there are contradictions between the rights of children versus the concept of cultural rights, which are both religious and secular in …