Let me make myself clear on this:
Additionally, I must stress again that FGM is a social custom, not a religious practice, which has been reiterated in this MEMRI video.
The UK’s Daily Mail has a well-researched article on FGM that you should read,
The unspeakable practice of female circumcision that’s destroying young women’s lives in Britain
Most people will be unfamiliar with this practice, which involves removing part or all of the clitoris, the surrounding labia (the outer part of the vagina) and sometimes the sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstrual blood.
It is carried out for a variety of cultural reasons. Such is the secrecy that surrounds the practice that even those aware that it occurs in large swathes of Africa and Asia will be shocked to learn that it is prevalent in Britain.
During a highly disturbing, four-month investigation, however, we uncovered evidence that thousands of British-African girls, in towns and cities throughout the country, have been forcibly “cut”.
By conservative estimates, 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated. This figure, accepted by the Metropolitan Police, came in a report by a volunteer organisation funded by the Department of Health and carried out with academics from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and the City University.
The article states that political correctness rears its cowardly head, again:
The Met team also educates regional police forces about FGM, and speaks to mosques, community groups and local authorities.
Usually their visits are well-received, but we found that at least one London council declined to publish material highlighting the suffering and danger the practice causes – for fear of offending ethnic African residents.
This kind of attitude incenses Detective Inspector Hamilton. “We are all becoming very culturally sensitive,” she says. “People are a bit frightened of saying ‘You can’t do this here’ because people shoot back with ‘But it’s our culture’.
Among them,
Several leadings Imams have openly condemned the practice. This, though, does not deter its proponents, who maintain that it is their inalienable right to live according to their traditional beliefs and customs, rather than conform to British values. Indeed, some argue that the freedom to carry out FGM is a fundamental principle of our multi-cultural society.
Let’s look at the dictionary definition of inalienable:
not alienable; not transferable to another or capable of being repudiated
FGM is worthy of repudiation, and as civilized people we must repudiate it. The “freedom” to carry out FGM is the “freedom” to carry out (and without the benefit of anesthesia) the following,
- Remove the clitoral hood with or without removal of part or all of the clitoris.
- Remove the clitoris together with part or all of the labia minora.
- Remove part or all of the external genitalia (clitoris, labia minora, and labia majora) and stitching and/or narrowing of the vaginal opening leaving a small hole for urine and menstrual flow
- Or,
Pricking, piercing, stretching, or incision of the clitoris and/or labia;
Cauterization by burning the clitoris and surrounding tissues;
Incisions to the vaginal wall;
Scraping (angurya cuts) or cutting (gishiri cuts) of the vagina and surrounding tissues; and
Introduction of corrosive substances or herbs into the vagina to cause bleeding or for the purpose of tightening or narrowing it.
Now, read that again carefully.
The physical health consequences of FGM are horrendous. The psychosexual and psychological health are equally severe.
Ponder each one of those items and tell me WHO in their right minds would defend the inalienable right to perform any of these barbaric butcherings.
The FGM Education and Networking Project is making great strides in ending this barbaric practice.
UPDATE
Via SC&A, three links to those defending FGM:
Besotted multiculturalist anthropologists defend female genital mutilation
Cultural rights or human rights: the case of female genital mutilation
Healing the wound
Update 2
Genital Mutilation Practice Growing In Britain
(ht/ Pamela)
Previous posts on FGM and female genital mutilation.
