The image of a nameless, five-year-old Indonesian boy who was so terrified about his impending circumcision that he climbed on the roof of the hospital where the procedure was about to take place and remained there for more than two hours, prompted Dr Kai Möller to explore an alternative perspective on male childhood circumcision.
Challenging the views of the boy’s elders who chose to interpret the behaviour as cute and endearing, but ultimately juvenile, Dr Möller instead highlights the trauma underlying this religious and cultural practice, and its relationship to the human rights of a child.
Read the piece in full here.