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Developments:
Female circumcision, although illegal, is common in northern Ghana. In the Kassena-Nankana District, near the Burkina Faso border, two thirds of young women are circumcised, usually around the age of 15. The operation involves cutting off a woman's clitoris, nearly always without an anaesthetic, and can cause fistula and problems during labour. In a survey by the Navrongo Health Research Centre, women described the practice as a rite of passage. Only circumcised women, they said, are fit to perform their mothers' funeral rites. By controlling their sexual desires, moreover, circumcision makes women more faithful to their husbands.
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