This article discusses female circumcision in Ethiopia and the eradication challenges. It argues
that despite an overall decline in the practice nationally, eradication efforts have caused
significant quandaries for girls and their families. The most common justification by far for its
continuance is that female circumcision confirms a girl’s social place by proving her readiness
for marriage and adulthood and thereby ensures her protection against material want. Often
intervention has resulted in the transformation, rather than the elimination, of the practice, the
exchange of one type of risk for another, or even increased risk to girls. In discussing policy, the
article argues that there has been a misapplication of the risk concept in the promotion of change
in Ethiopia. It calls for risk definitions and interventions that are more holistic, correspond more
closely with children’s social realities, and take into account the phenomenological dimensions
of experience.