 “FGM is classified into four types, of varying severity; type 3 is the most mutilating and involves total removal of the clitoris, labia and a narrowing of the whole vagina. An estimated 70,000 women living in the UK have undergone FGM, and 20,000 girls remain at risk, according to Forward. The practice is common in 28 African countries, including Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria, as well as some Middle Eastern and Asian countries such as Malaysia and Yemen. It is generally considered to be an essential rite of passage to suppress sexual pleasure, preserve girls' purity and cleanliness, and is necessary for marriage in many communities even now. It has no religious significance.” |
“We are a multicultural society so you cannot pick and choose from other people's cultures and tell them what they can and cannot do. If circumcision is part of their culture then so be it, similarly if Sharia is part of the culture so be it. It is totally hypocritical to say we have a multicultural society and then start telling all these wonderfully diverse people that they can only have bits of their culture. Britain has no single culture anymore it has been ordained by the high priests of multiculturalism Blair and Brown so get used to it and stop bellyaching about what you have voted for. Since I have never voted for this utter nonsense then I can take the moral high ground and say "Told you so"”
-- Saxontimes, Sunday, 20 December 2009 at 08:33 am (UTC)
“Polygamy can correlate with increased female circumcision where the increase of male economic power could lead to an increase in the practice of polygamy, a symbol of male status. When adopted, polygamy has the potential to encourage stricter circumcision practices as a result of competition among wives to please their husband sexually. ... The goal in many of these communities is to protect a girl’s virginity, which is vital to ensuring her prospects for marriage. In communities where polygamy is prominent, female circumcision is also intended as a tool to curb women’s sex drive, thus easing the pressure on the husband to satisfy all of his wives sexually.”
-- Vanessa von Struensee, The Contribution of Polygamy to Women's Oppression and Impoverishment: An Argument for its Prohibition (PDF)
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UK fails to halt female genital mutilation
Girls are still at risk this Christmas as 'cutters' are flown in from abroad to perform the illegal procedure here
By Nina Lakhani, Independent
Sunday, 20 December 2009
 Women in Somalia being educated about the dangers of genital mutilation. Campaigners in the UK are angry that there have been no prosecutions of practitioners. Photo: Liba Taylor |
Hundreds of British schoolgirls are facing the terrifying prospect of female genital mutilation (FGM) over the Christmas holidays as experts warn the practice continues to flourish across the country. Parents typically take their daughters back to their country of origin for FGM during school holidays, but The Independent on Sunday has been told that "cutters" are being flown to the UK to carry out the mutilation at "parties" involving up to 20 girls to save money.
The police face growing criticism for failing to prosecute a single person for carrying out FGM in 25 years; new legislation from 2003 which prohibits taking a girl overseas for FGM has also failed to secure a conviction.
Experts say the lack of convictions, combined with the Government's failure to invest enough money in education and prevention strategies, mean the practice continues to thrive. Knowledge of the health risks and of the legislation remains patchy among practising communities, while beliefs about the supposed benefits for girls remain firm, according to research by the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development (Forward).
As a result, specialist doctors and midwives are struggling to cope with increasing numbers of women suffering from long-term health problems, including complications during pregnancy and childbirth.
Campaigners are urging ministers to take co-ordinated steps to work with communities here and overseas to change deep-seated cultural attitudes and stamp out this extreme form of violence against women.
The author and life peer Ruth Rendell, who has campaigned against FGM for 10 years, said: "When I helped take the Bill through Parliament seven years ago, I was very hopeful that we'd get convictions and that would then act as a deterrent for other people. But that has never happened and my heart bleeds for these girls. This mutilation is forever; nothing can be done to restore the clitoris, and that is just very sad for them. I have repeatedly asked questions of ministers from all departments about why there has never been a prosecution and why we still do not have a register of cases. But while they are always very sympathetic, nothing ever seems to get done. Teachers must not be squeamish and must talk to their girls so we can try and prevent it from happening."
FGM is classified into four types, of varying severity; type 3 is the most mutilating and involves total removal of the clitoris, labia and a narrowing of the whole vagina.
An estimated 70,000 women living in the UK have undergone FGM, and 20,000 girls remain at risk, according to Forward. The practice is common in 28 African countries, including Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria, as well as some Middle Eastern and Asian countries such as Malaysia and Yemen. It is generally considered to be an essential rite of passage to suppress sexual pleasure, preserve girls' purity and cleanliness, and is necessary for marriage in many communities even now. It has no religious significance.
The most common age for the procedure is between eight and 11 but it can be carried out just after birth or just before marriage. It carries the risk of death from bleeding or tetanus, and long-term problems include urinary incontinence, recurrent infections and chronic pain. Reversal procedures are necessary in order to avoid major problems for a woman and baby during childbirth.
In the UK, some women have to travel hundreds of miles to one of 15 specialist clinics because services and training are so patchy. There are no specialist clinics at all in Scotland, or Wales, and student doctors, midwives and social workers are not routinely taught to recognise or deal with FGM.
A DVD, paid for by Baroness Rendell, which shows health workers how to reverse FGM will be launched in January. She hopes the next generation of health professionals will be better equipped to help affected women, many of whom suffer from long-term psychological effects such as flashbacks, anxiety and nightmares.
Amina, 55, originally from Somalia, underwent type 3 FGM, with no anaesthetic, when she was 11. One of the lucky ones, she suffered no long-term physical health problems but still carries psychological scars.
She has been vilified by practising communities for campaigning against FGM and for refusing to allow four of her daughters to be mutilated; the fifth suffered the procedure while in the care of her grandmother. The government funding that allowed Amina to work with families in Yorkshire, going door to door, to schools and community centres, talking about legal and health risks, ran out in March.
The Somali model Waris Dirie was mutilated at the age of five. She set up the Waris Dirie Foundation in 2002 to help eradicate FGM. She said: "I am worried about the situation in Europe and the US, as FGM seems to be on the rise in these places. In the 21st century, a crime this cruel should not be accepted in a society as developed as England. No one can undo the trauma that is caused by this horrible crime; it stays in your head for ever. So what we should focus on is that there won't be another victim."
Jackie Mathers, a nurse from the Bristol Safeguarding Children Board, said: "These families do not do this out of spite or hatred; they believe this will give their daughters the best opportunities in life. We would like a conviction, not against the parents, but against a cutter, someone who makes a living from this. We have anecdotal information that the credit crunch means people can't go home, so they're getting cutters over for 'FGM parties'. It is hard for people to speak out because they are from communities that are already vilified as asylum seekers, so to stand up against their communities is to risk being ostracised. But we have to empower girls and women to address this, along with teachers, school nurses and social workers. We can't ignore it; it is mutilation."
A Home Office spokesman said: "We have appointed an FGM co-ordinator to drive forward a co-ordinated government response to this appalling crime and make recommendations for future work."
» » » » [Independent.UK]
FGM Leads Nigerian to Plea for Daughters' Asylum
Pamela Izevbekhai fled her native Nigeria for Ireland, hoping to save her two daughters from sexual mutilation, which killed a third daughter. Now she is struggling for asylum.
By Meghan Sapp, WeNews correspondent
Friday, January 27, 2006
DUBLIN, Ireland (WOMENSENEWS)--Pamela Izevbekhai fled her native Nigeria with her two young daughters just over a year ago and sought refuge in Ireland to save the girls from female genital mutilation.
Since then she has been alternatively in housing for asylum seekers, in hiding or in prison. On Monday she was released from prison and now her request for asylum has gone to the country's High Court.
She left her husband behind in Nigeria. It is his family who insists the girls undergo the procedure, and some relatives are in the United Kingdom. They chose to seek asylum in Ireland because it is an English-speaking nation and she felt safer there.
Izevbekhai, a banking executive who used to work in Lagos, knows the horrors of female circumcision well.
Her first daughter, Elizabeth, bled to death at 18 months of age in 1994 when the family of her husband--a successful businessman--demanded the procedure. Female genital mutilation sometimes entails the removal of the clitoris. It can also entail cutting the outer labia and sewing together the remaining skin so that only urine and menstrual fluid can escape.
"I have a daughter in the grave, don't you understand that?" Izevbekhai demanded of the barrister representing the Irish government during her hearing.
Now Izevbekhai is struggling to prevent her living daughters from meeting the same fate as their deceased sister.
On Monday, Irish High Court Justice Finlay Geoghehan released Izevbekhai from Mountjoy Prison where she had been held since Jan. 13 and ordered her to return to the asylum home in Sligo where she and her daughters had lived during the past year.
Despite repeated calls by Galway-based Rape Crisis Network Ireland and the Health Service Executive, the country's national health service, Izevbekhai may still be deported.
Lost Appeal in November
Last November, Izevbekhai lost her appeal to gain asylum in Ireland, resulting in the deportation order that sent her into hiding.
After a month in underground safe houses, she was arrested by immigration officers who followed a tip and discovered her in a meeting with a social worker who was trying to help her see her children. The girls, Jemima, age 3, and Naomi, age 5, were in state-run foster care at the time.
As the justice read out her prison release order on Monday, Izevbekhai held back tears, but one of her two female prison guards gave in to them.
Izevbekhai is herself "intact" and does not come from a tradition where girls are mutilated. She and her husband have been trying to protect their daughters from his parents who have stopped at nothing to get a hold of the girls, including attempted kidnap on a handful of occasions.
In his letter, the doctor said Izevbekhai's mother-in-law has approached the hospital where he worked to have the procedure done there. The hospital denied her request, he said, and though they tried to educate her against what he called the "evils" of female genital mutilation, he said she continues to believe her grandchildren will not find suitable husbands if they remain intact.
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