Sugar-Coating Female Genital Mutilation in United Nations Documents in English and Arabic: A Diachronic Study of Lexical Variation

Abstract

This study investigates the terminology used when addressing “Female genital mutilation” in English and Arabic and, the impact of each term. Large number of young girls in the Middle East, Asia and Africa go through female genital mutilation, which is known as ‘FGM’. According to a United Nations Children's Fund report (UNICEF 2005a), 91% of girls in Egypt and 88% of girls in Sudan experience this procedure annually. Arabic language practitioners’ lexes for FGM include the words (ﺧﺘﺎن) (khetan) which means “circumcision”, (طﮭﺎرة) (tahara), which means “purification”, (ﻗﻄﻊ) (Kat’e) which means “cutting”, (ﺗﺸﻮﯾﺔ) (tashweeh) which means “corruption - damaging” and the term (اﻟﺒﺘﺮ) (batr) which means “mutilation”. This study will focus on the translation of FGM from English to Arabic over twenty years from 1996 until 2016 in the United Nations documents.

Keywords: Female genital mutilation, United Nations, Terminology and Arabic