British Female Genital Mutilation, No Prosecutions

[Ripley]

British girls undergo horror of genital mutilation despite tough laws | Society | The Observer


British girls undergo horror of genital mutilation despite tough laws

Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars. Yet there have been no prosecutions against the practice

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British girls undergo horror of genital mutilation despite tough laws

Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays – leaving brutal physical and emotional scars. Yet there have been no prosecutions against the practice

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• Tracy McVeigh and Tara Sutton
• The Observer, Sunday 25 July 2010
• Article history

Survivors talk about the traumatic effect female genital mutilation has on their lives
WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS DISTRESSING AND DISTURBING IMAGES Link to this video Like any 12-year-old, Jamelia was excited at the prospect of a plane journey and a long summer holiday in the sun. An avid reader, she had filled her suitcases with books and was reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when her mother came for her. "She said, 'You know it's going to be today?' I didn't know exactly what it would entail but I knew something was going to be cut. I was made to believe it was genuinely part of our religion."
She went on: "I came to the living room and there were loads of women. I later found out it was to hold me down, they bring lots of women to hold the girl down. I thought I was going to be brave so I didn't really need that. I just lay down and I remember looking at the ceiling and staring at the fan.
"I don't remember screaming, I remember the ridiculous amount of pain, I remember the blood everywhere, one of the maids, I actually saw her pick up the bit of flesh that they cut away 'cause she was mopping up the blood. There was blood everywhere."
Some 500 to 2,000 British schoolgirls will be genitally mutilated over the summer holidays. Some will be taken abroad, others will be "cut" or circumcised and sewn closed here in the UK by women already living here or who are flown in and brought to "cutting parties" for a few girls at a time in a cost-saving exercise.
Then the girls will return to their schools and try to get on with their lives, scarred mentally and physically by female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that serves as a social and cultural bonding exercise and, among those who are stitched up, to ensure that chastity can be proved to a future husband.
Even girls who suffer less extreme forms of FGM are unlikely to be promiscuous. One study among Egyptian women found 50% of women who had undergone FGM "endured" rather than enjoyed sex.
Cleanliness, neatness of appearance and the increased sexual pleasure for the man are all motivations for the practice. But the desire to conform to tradition is the most powerful motive. The rite of passage, condemned by many Islamic scholars, predates both the Koran and the Bible and possibly even Judaism, appearing in the 2nd century BC.
Although unable to give consent, many girls are compliant when they have the prodecure carried out, believing they will be outcasts if they are not cut. The mothers believe they are doing the best for their daughters. Few have any idea of the lifetime of hurt it can involve or the medical implications.
Jamelia, now 20, who says her whole personality changed afterwards."I felt a lot older. It was odd because nobody says this is a secret, keep your mouth shut but that's the message you get loud and clear." She stopped the sports and swimming she used to love and became "strangely disconnected with her own body". Other girls have died, of shock or blood loss; some have picked up infections from dirty tools. Jamelia's mother paid extra for the woman to use a clean razor. It is thought that in the UK there are one or two doctors who can be bribed by the very rich to to carry out FGM using anaesthetic and sterilised instruments.
Comfort Momoh works at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, in one of the 16 clinics up and down the country who deal with FGM and its health repercusssions. Women who have had much of their external genitalia sliced off and their vaginas stitched closed, but for a tiny hole, also come to be cut open in order to give birth.
There are four types of female circumcision identified by the World Health Organisation, ranging from partial to total removal of the external female genitalia. Some 140 million women worldwide have been subjected to FGM and an estimated further two million are at risk every year. Most live in 28 African countries while others are in Yemen, Kurdistan, the US, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Canada.
The UK Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 makes it an offence to carry out FGM or to aid, abet or procure the service of another person. The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003, makes it against the law for FGM to be performed anywhere in the world on UK permanent residents of any age and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. To date, no prosecutions have been made under UK legislation.
"Obviously in summer we get really anxious. All activists and professionals working around FGM get anxious because this is the time that families take their children back home. This is the time when all the professionals need to be really alert," said Momoh.
"There is no hard evidence in figures about what is happening in the UK because it's a hush-hush thing. It's only now that a few people are beginning to talk about it, which is good because change will only come from within and the numbers coming forward are rising. But there is a lot of family pressure. When I first started in 1997 we had two clinics in the country, now we have 16."
One woman told the Observer how a midwife examining her had raced retching and crying from the room. She had no idea she was "abnormal" before that happened. There is a clear need for women who have suffered FGM to be able to visit health professionals who understand what has happened to them. Momoh said that for those who wanted it, some surgical reversal work could sometimes be done on women with the most severe FGM procedure, Type III. For those with other types, counselling and support is all that can offered.
"Periods are agony – you get a lot of women who are determined to have reversals while they are having their period but then when the pain has stopped they lose their nerve again," said Leyla Hussein, 29, who has had to have years of counselling to cope with her own anger and distress at what was done to her as a child. It has helped her forgive her own mother's complicity in the mutilation she endured, though the older woman could not understand why Hussein would not have her own child, now aged seven, cut. But Hussein has vowed that she will be the last generation of women in her family to suffer.
"It was my husband who said on our honeymoon, 'We are not going to do this thing to any child of ours.' I was quite shocked, I hadn't questioned it. But I now realise a lot of men are not in favour of FGM, not when you tell them the woman is not going to enjoy herself."
Hussein is among a slowly but steadily growing band of women who have reacted against what happened to them with courage and a determination to stamp out FGM. Hussein has run support and discussion groups for affected women and for men, and formerly worked at the African Well Women's Centre in Leyton, east London.
"I can really relate to some of the women who are very angry, but how do you blame your mother, who loves you yet planned this for you? There is a lot of anger and resentment. Many women blame themselves and of course there are flashbacks to deal with. I had blackouts – anytime I had to have a smear test, I would pass out because lying in that position brought it back to me, but the nurse is used to me now and allows a little more time with the appointment."
"The new generation, born and raised here in Britain, they are used to expressing their views and it will be a lot harder to shut them up. Last month was the first ever march against FGM [in Bristol where 15 to 16 mothers protested] and that is a sign of something new."
Asha-Kin Duale is a community partnership adviser in Camden, London. She talks to schools and to families about safeguarding children. "Culture has positive and negative issues for every immigrant community. We value some traditions, and most are largely good.
"FGM is not confined to African countries. It has no basis in Christianity, it has no basis in Islam; none of Muhammad's daughters had it done. For some parents it is enough to let them know that and they will drop it completely. Everyone needs to understand that every child, no matter what the background or creed, is protected by this law in this land."
She said there needed to be an understanding of why FGM took place, although that was not the same as accepting that the practice had a cultural justification.
"FGM has a social function and until this is understood by social services and other bodies they will never stop it. It is a power negotiation mechanism, that women use to ensure respect from men. It prevents rape of daughters and is a social tool to allow women to regain some power in patriarchal societies. With girls living in the UK there is no need to gain the power – it has to be understood that girls can be good girls without FGM."
For Jason Morgan, a detective constable in the Met's FGM unit, Project Azure, the solution lies with those girls themselves: "Empowering youth, giving them the information, is the way forward. They are coming from predominantly caring and loving families, who genuinely believe this is the right thing to do. Many are under a great deal of pressure from the extended families.




[ more at link]



Female genital mutilation: the facts

■ Female genital mutilation, also known as cutting, is practised in 28 African countries. The prevalence rate ranges from 98% of girls in Somalia to 5% in Zaire. It also takes place among ethnic groups in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, the US and New Zealand.
■ Until the 1950s FGM was used in England and the US as a "treatment" for lesbianism, masturbation, hysteria, epilepsy and other "female deviances".
■ A survey in Kenya found a fourfold drop in FGM rates among girls who had secondary education.
■ Reasons for the practice include conforming to social norms, enhancing sexual pleasure for men and reducing it for women, cleanliness and chastity.
■ No European country accepts the threat of FGM as a reason for asylum.
■ In Sudan, 20%-25% of female infertility has been linked to FGM complications.
■ In Chad, girls have begun to seek FGM without pressure from their immediate family, believing that to be "sewn up" proves they are virginal and clean. The fashion has led to uncircumcised girls being labelled "dirty".

[jojo333]

These people are barbaric and the UK is getting flooded with this scum.

[crazy dog]

Went out with a Gambian woman who had this done when she was a kid-no sexual feelings at all, hard to think of anything worse where sexual abuse is concerned. I think it is worse than rape, imagine the outcry if 2,000 kids were being taken away to be raped every year. Truth is the establishment in the UK is just scared of upsetting muslims and will not prosecute.

[harrybarracuda]

Went out with a Gambian woman who had this done when she was a kid-no sexual feelings at all, hard to think of anything worse where sexual abuse is concerned. I think it is worse than rape, imagine the outcry if 2,000 kids were being taken away to be raped every year. Truth is the establishment in the UK is just scared of upsetting muslims and will not prosecute.

Spot on. There is even a book for UK medical staff to explain how youmust not automatically assume a Muslim child bought in with injuries should be reported as child abuse, as it could be a result of the Shi'ite festival of Ashura.

Meaning UK medical staff are afraid to report Muslim parents for child abuse in case arseholes like another poster on this board call them "racist twats".

[Thaiguy]

Went out with a Gambian woman who had this done when she was a kid-no sexual feelings at all, hard to think of anything worse where sexual abuse is concerned. I think it is worse than rape, imagine the outcry if 2,000 kids were being taken away to be raped every year. Truth is the establishment in the UK is just scared of upsetting muslims and will not prosecute.

Spot on. There is even a book for UK medical staff to explain how youmust not automatically assume a Muslim child bought in with injuries should be reported as child abuse, as it could be a result of the Shi'ite festival of Ashura.

Meaning UK medical staff are afraid to report Muslim parents for child abuse in case arseholes like another poster on this board call them "racist twats".

You hit the nail on the head - call me racist if you like but I hate the c...nts that do this! - no apologies to anybody - the only ones I hate more are the ones that try to excuse or rationalise this archbastidry!

[BobR]

The failure to prosecute makes the Government equally repulsive.

[Mr Earl]

The failure to prosecute makes the Government equally repulsive.

Actually it makes the soft headed multiculturalist imbeciles worse. They know better.

The poorly educated followers of the Islamic religion of stupid haven't got much choice but to follow their ignorant and barbaric practices.

Western leaders know better which makes their crime of condoning these actions even worse than the actual barbaric deed itself.

Western culture needs to grow a set and start stringing up these Islamic clerics to light posts. That's the only thing those fucks understand I'm afraid.

They should just drop a big fat nuke right on Mecca during the Haj. That's what!

[SiLeakHunt]

Western culture needs to grow a set and start stringing up these Islamic clerics to light posts. That's the only thing those fucks understand I'm afraid.

They should just drop a big fat nuke right on Mecca during the Haj. That's what!

You limp wristed fence sitter.

In all seriousness a mate of mine was a trainee medic when I was at university, he came across a few Pakistani girls who'd been admited afdter having been subjected to this horror, he said it looked like it had been done with a couple of house bricks.

[Bangyai]

If the government made it clear that anyone having this mutilation would have their right to remain in the U.K. recinded and that their entire family would be deported back to their country of origin, it might make the idiotic parents think twice about subjecting their daughters to such barbarism.

[harrybarracuda]

If the government made it clear that anyone having this mutilation would have their right to remain in the U.K. recinded and that their entire family would be deported back to their country of origin, it might make the idiotic parents think twice about subjecting their daughters to such barbarism.

I'm sure they'd just have it done back in Pakistan or Bangladesh.

Plus the women would say they "volunteered" for the procedure, or risk a vicious beating from their father, uncles and brothers.

[oky]

If the government made it clear that anyone having this mutilation would have their right to remain in the U.K. recinded and that their entire family would be deported back to their country of origin, it might make the idiotic parents think twice about subjecting their daughters to such barbarism.

totally agree here!

[Thaiguy]

If the government made it clear that anyone having this mutilation would have their right to remain in the U.K. recinded and that their entire family would be deported back to their country of origin, it might make the idiotic parents think twice about subjecting their daughters to such barbarism.

And their property reverted to the Crown or State to be disposed of as the government sees fit.
If auctioned, successfull bidder must meet reserve set by valuer beforehand otherwise the moslems would gang up and purchase at gift prices for their use exclusively.

unfortunately :

[buriramboy]

■ In Sudan, 20%-25% of female infertility has been linked to FGM complications.

It's not all bad then.

[HollyGoodhead]

I wonder where the idea for this came from in the first place.
Also the number of women who let the cycle continue already having had experienced it themselves.... madness.
Is the clitoris removed in all cases? the article didn't specify. I read somewhere that sometimes they make a small cut on the clitoral hood and that is known as circumcision also.
Makes me feel sick.

[harrybarracuda]

I wonder where the idea for this came from in the first place.
Also the number of women who let the cycle continue already having had experienced it themselves.... madness.
Is the clitoris removed in all cases? the article didn't specify. I read somewhere that sometimes they make a small cut on the clitoral hood and that is known as circumcision also.
Makes me feel sick.

It came from a man, who wanted all of his gullible followers follow every word he said and have no distractions.

Women are second class in Islam, they are baby machines who cook and wash. If they choose to ask for more, they are usually beaten.

It's retarded religious nutjobs that keep it going.

[Jet Gorgon]

I blame the left-wingers in the West who allow other cultures to bring this crap into our nations. Leftie Ripley makes no comment on this issue, just posts the news. You allow this crap to seep in, your grandchildren will suffer the same torture.

[buriramboy]

I blame the left-wingers in the West who allow other cultures to bring this crap into our nations. Leftie Ripley makes no comment on this issue, just posts the news. You allow this crap to seep in, your grandchildren will suffer the same torture.

Of course none of this went on between 1980-1992, and 2000-2008 when there was a Republican president.

[Thaiguy]

I blame the left-wingers in the West who allow other cultures to bring this crap into our nations. Leftie Ripley makes no comment on this issue, just posts the news. You allow this crap to seep in, your grandchildren will suffer the same torture.

I agree about western weakies - trouble is most of us haven't got the guts to get up and demand the pollies state a definite intention to eradicate this - or lose our votes!

[Ripley]

I blame the left-wingers in the West who allow other cultures to bring this crap into our nations. Leftie Ripley makes no comment on this issue, just posts the news. You allow this crap to seep in, your grandchildren will suffer the same torture.

My comment is:
It is horrific, based on the most fanatic manifestations of sexism and should be stopped immediately. ( And I agree boys should not be circumcised, either. )

OT but in response to JG-
Since I firmly believe law abiding Americans should have the right to own guns, does that make me a," lefty liberal" ?

Actually , I'd say yes since my definition of liberal is non interference of freedom and my idea of conservatives is restricting it.

Does it fit in with your rigid, demonizing definition of " Libbies"

Does labeling people for their political leanings / beliefs really do any good?

[Ripley]

Women are second class in Islam, they are baby machines who cook and wash. I

Ain't just Islam. I see a lot of this mentality from males expats here in Thailand, women in the west are refusing to be household servants in addition to raising children and holding down full time jobs and so men come to Thailand to procure wives who will - or prostitutes....

Until women have equal numbers of representatives in governments of all nations, we ARE second class citizens.

Wanna change the world, change the way it is governed.

[khang]

I wonder where the idea for this came from in the first place.
Also the number of women who let the cycle continue already having had experienced it themselves.... madness.
Is the clitoris removed in all cases? the article didn't specify. I read somewhere that sometimes they make a small cut on the clitoral hood and that is known as circumcision also.
Makes me feel sick.

You're correct about the procedure sometimes involving only the removal of the clitoral hood. It is classified as "Type 1a" by the World Health Organization, and is the equivalent of male circumcision.

Any such cutting on males or females is almost 100% ritualistic, and to me should cease.

This excerpt, from the Canadian Medical Association Journal, states it very clearly.
________________________
When medical ethics confronts cultural values

by

Eike-Henner Kluge, PhD
With due alteration of detail, the same ethical reasoning holds for male circumcision. There rarely are medical reasons for performing the procedure; personal preference or religious values of the parents usually underlie the request.


If these are insufficient to justify the circumcision of girls then, unless there are distinguishing medical reasons, they are also insufficient to justify the circumcision of boys. To argue differently is to be guilty of discrimination on the basis of sex. The fact that female circumcision is a more serious intervention does not alter the situation. Both involve what in other contexts would be called non-consensual mutilation of a minor for non-medical reasons.


_______________________________________


But being as this is a political issue, it is interesting to me that, even on this forum, there is widespread condemnation of the barbaric nature of cultures that practice FGC, and those condemnations come from those from counties that now or recently have openly allowed male circumcision. Proponents of the respective procedures do have their medical "excuses" for both male and female cutting, which are essentially the same (lower incidents of HIV, cleanliness, less incident of infectious disease, etc), highly controversial, and would be equally applicable in males and females (prepuce and labia minora removal). That is to say, even proponents in western nations try to justify the practice on males.

Load of crap, frankly.

Also, very hypocritical.

Here is a message from all the kids out there to the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, the East, the West, Africa, and the rest of the world:

LEAVE OUR "JUNK" ALONE ... NATURE MADE IT THAT WAY FOR A REASON.

[Agent_Smith]

I wonder where the idea for this came from in the first place.

small minded control freaks

[billy the kid]

I wonder where the idea for this came from in the first place.

small minded control freaks

,,, it came from man .
who else , muslim man ,
again ,it's all about control.
woman is just a breeding piece of meat.
i'm shocked that it's happening in the uk.
the prostitution for fokin money and giving these muslim men what they want .
where are we going ?
backwards,, and for what reason ?
really find this unacceptable behavior. .

[Bower]

Its a horrific crime i have mentioned in another thread about child abuse.
The authorities in the UK are more than willing to prosecute but first they need to know who the planned victims and their parents are, in order to stop it. Secondly they find out about girls its already happend to, far too late, The families close ranks, the victims, after their recovery,are not willing to see their parents prosecuted.
Its not satisfactory but eductaion is the only way to stop it.

There are also many doctors who fail to report patients who have suffered to the relevant authorities.

[mr Fred]

I'm very much against cutting. My daughter is not and will not be cut regardless of what anyone else wants or thinks.
Much as daddy doesn't like to think of his little girl growing up and having a sex life, I know it's the normal course of things and I want her to enjoy her life fully and properly.
I won't accept a newspaper story without verification because they lie so much but, if it's true, the parents are bloody idiots and need hammering.