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Introduction
Lying on a blood-stained stretcher, Caleb's face is convulsed in pain. "The Kikuyus circumcised me by force," he says, moments before losing consciousness in the hospital's sweltering heat. 1
In this article, forced circumcision describes the circumcision of men against their will. Questions about infant circumcision are beyond its scope.
When forced circumcisions occur, people often protest, but there was little mention of this issue in ethical and human rights literature before the wave of forced circumcisions in Kenya that followed the 2007 elections. 2
UNAIDS policy to control HIV states that circumcision must be voluntary. 3 Forced circumcision is a problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, where circumcision is being promoted. One report of a mass circumcision programme in Rwanda stated, 'The programme will be voluntary, but those in the army likely will see circumcision promotion as an order.' 4 This throws 'voluntary' into question. Indeed, abuses may be expected in countries where forced circumcisions occur.
Methodology
Forced circumcision was rarely mentioned in the scholarly literature before 2007. My literature review involved screening newspaper and internet reports from 2001 to 2008 and again in 2013. I also surveyed other medical and historical references.
Findings
Findings are listed alphabetically. I found no instance of forced circumcision of men in North or South America. Most forced circumcisions happened in countries where circumcision is an accepted part of local culture.
Australia
Late in 1996 in North Queensland, a man passed out after drinking with an Aboriginal group. A woman in the group felt down his pants, found he was uncircumcised and called on her companions to 'make a man out of him.' They cut his foreskin with a broken beer bottle. The man was hospitalised, one assailant was convicted of unlawful wounding, and the man was awarded $A10,000 compensation for nervous shock. 5
India and Nepal
In April 2005, a 21-year-old Nepalese man escaped from a male brothel in Mumbai, India, and revealed details of the trafficking of underage boys. "I spent seven years in hell," says Raju....
A Muslim man ran the flesh trade there in young boys and girls, most of them lured from Nepal.
For two years, Raju was kept locked up, taught to dress as a girl and circumcised. Many of the other boys...