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Police plea on genital mutilation
by BBC
Thanks to Geoff for the link.
Reposted from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6288940.stm
The Metropolitan Police is offering a £20,000 reward for information which would bring to justice anyone involved in female genital mutilation.
Operations are usually performed on girls aged four to 13
The campaign is being launched at the start of the summer holidays, during which young girls - mainly from African communities - are thought most at risk.
Mutilation involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia for cultural reasons.
Up to 7,000 girls in the UK are seen as at risk of this form of circumcision.
The long summer holiday is seen as the most likely time for parents to seek the procedure for their daughter as she has time to recover from what is usually a brutal ordeal before returning to school.
She can be sent abroad for the treatment, but police say they know it is also being carried out within the UK itself.
A new law was introduced in 2003, which not only repeated 1985 legislation banning the procedure, but also criminalised those who took a child outside the country for mutilation to be performed.
No-one has been prosecuted under the new legislation.
"It's a hidden act," said Alastair Jeffrey, head of the Child Abuse Investigation Command, as he announced the reward. "And that's why it's so hard to uncover.
"This is child abuse. It is not an attack on anyone's culture, it is an attack on anyone who commits this horrendous abuse of children."
Preserving purity
The police said they were anxious not to arrive at a situation where young girls returning from holidays in Africa were routinely checked at airports, and that they desperately needed grassroots support to stamp out the practice.
Female genital mutilation is practised in a number of mainly Muslim African communities, and the tradition can travel when immigrants settle abroad.
Islamic scholars say it has no justification in the Koran, and several have recently spoken out against the practice.
Yet many families apparently believe it is an essential part of initiation into adulthood and the only way to ensure their daughter is seen as "pure" and thus desirable by potential husbands.
One London youth worker within the Somali community said this was so ingrained that she had even come across young women who had wanted to be circumcised.
"You want to be part of the community," said Leyla Hussein. "You want to be married, and you don't want to be considered dirty."
There are several types of mutilation, ranging from a minor piercing of the clitoris to the complete removal of all the external genitalia.
In some cases, what remains is then stitched up with coarse thread - leaving a tiny hole, perhaps just the size of a matchstick, for urinating and menstruation.
The procedure is in most cases carried out by older women who have no medical training. Anaesthetic is rarely used and the cuts are sometimes made with the most basic of tools such as razors or even pieces of glass.
It can have a range of short and long-term consequences including infection, incontinence and infertility, as well as causing significant psychological damage.
And it can be fatal.
Egypt, where as many as 90% of women have been circumcised, has just announced a full ban on the practice after a 12-year-old girl died last month.
Reposted from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6288940.stm
The Metropolitan Police is offering a £20,000 reward for information which would bring to justice anyone involved in female genital mutilation.
Operations are usually performed on girls aged four to 13
The campaign is being launched at the start of the summer holidays, during which young girls - mainly from African communities - are thought most at risk.
Mutilation involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia for cultural reasons.
Up to 7,000 girls in the UK are seen as at risk of this form of circumcision.
The long summer holiday is seen as the most likely time for parents to seek the procedure for their daughter as she has time to recover from what is usually a brutal ordeal before returning to school.
She can be sent abroad for the treatment, but police say they know it is also being carried out within the UK itself.
A new law was introduced in 2003, which not only repeated 1985 legislation banning the procedure, but also criminalised those who took a child outside the country for mutilation to be performed.
No-one has been prosecuted under the new legislation.
"It's a hidden act," said Alastair Jeffrey, head of the Child Abuse Investigation Command, as he announced the reward. "And that's why it's so hard to uncover.
"This is child abuse. It is not an attack on anyone's culture, it is an attack on anyone who commits this horrendous abuse of children."
Preserving purity
The police said they were anxious not to arrive at a situation where young girls returning from holidays in Africa were routinely checked at airports, and that they desperately needed grassroots support to stamp out the practice.
Female genital mutilation is practised in a number of mainly Muslim African communities, and the tradition can travel when immigrants settle abroad.
Islamic scholars say it has no justification in the Koran, and several have recently spoken out against the practice.
Yet many families apparently believe it is an essential part of initiation into adulthood and the only way to ensure their daughter is seen as "pure" and thus desirable by potential husbands.
One London youth worker within the Somali community said this was so ingrained that she had even come across young women who had wanted to be circumcised.
"You want to be part of the community," said Leyla Hussein. "You want to be married, and you don't want to be considered dirty."
There are several types of mutilation, ranging from a minor piercing of the clitoris to the complete removal of all the external genitalia.
In some cases, what remains is then stitched up with coarse thread - leaving a tiny hole, perhaps just the size of a matchstick, for urinating and menstruation.
The procedure is in most cases carried out by older women who have no medical training. Anaesthetic is rarely used and the cuts are sometimes made with the most basic of tools such as razors or even pieces of glass.
It can have a range of short and long-term consequences including infection, incontinence and infertility, as well as causing significant psychological damage.
And it can be fatal.
Egypt, where as many as 90% of women have been circumcised, has just announced a full ban on the practice after a 12-year-old girl died last month.
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Posted: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 | PermalinkComments 1 - 38 of 38 |
Reload Comments | Back to Top | Page Numbers2. Comment #55408 by Rosemary on July 11, 2007 at 3:26 am
I hope these efforts are effective in preventing girls from being subjected to this nauseating mutilation. Other Comments by Rosemary
3. Comment #55414 by tieInterceptor on July 11, 2007 at 3:40 am
she looks like the priest from 'Indiana Jones and the temple of doom' but instead of ripping your heart out with her hands, she cuts your private parts with a scisor,
the stuff of nightmares...
Other Comments by tieInterceptor
4. Comment #55423 by bitbutter on July 11, 2007 at 4:12 am
"Islamic scholars say it has no justification in the Koran"'Raised consciousness' alarm: The implication being that if clear Koranic justification could be found for this abuse then it would be acceptable.
I really hope that more people start to notice, and be alarmed by the subtexts of what the Islamic scholars say in cases like these.
Great to see the UK taking action on this.
Other Comments by bitbutter
5. Comment #55424 by HunterZolomon on July 11, 2007 at 4:13 am
Comment #55414 by tieInterceptor:Very apt comparison, she's the female version of Mola Ram.
Other Comments by HunterZolomon
6. Comment #55431 by ridelo on July 11, 2007 at 4:46 am
'Culture' is becoming a word with a very bitter aftertaste.Other Comments by ridelo
7. Comment #55438 by Theocrapcy on July 11, 2007 at 5:02 am
Proof that culture is dispensable. Other Comments by Theocrapcy
8. Comment #55439 by nancy2001 on July 11, 2007 at 5:13 am
This is a sickening practice.Other Comments by nancy2001
9. Comment #55440 by Nuclearman on July 11, 2007 at 5:25 am
Mutilation involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia for cultural reasons.
Smacks of religious deference and apologetic gymnastics, to me. Is it possible for the media to acknowledge that this practice is *not* for "cultural reasons" but is, in fact, entirely the result of *religious* reasons!
Other Comments by Nuclearman
10. Comment #55442 by Rtambree on July 11, 2007 at 5:27 am
The left is often criticised for defending these perverse cultural practises in the name of multiculturalism, but I'd like to know who these mysterious lefties are? Their names are never cited. All the lefties I know (Chomsky, Pilger, Fisk, Monbiot, etc) condemn these practises. Secular Enlightenment liberal values that promote human rights are the foundation of the left.AC Grayling recently called the denial of education to woman a human rights abuse. Supporting repressive undemocratic theocratic regimes such as the House of Saud is a right-wing position.
Other Comments by Rtambree
11. Comment #55447 by pewkatchoo on July 11, 2007 at 5:41 am
RTambree, I don't think that it is that the left support these practices so much as well meaning legislations passed by left wing governments and promoted by left-wing groups has allowed such things to flourish. For example, multiculturalism is a form of moral relativism that is promoted by those of the leftist persuasion and it, together with political correctness has a lot to answer for. Because of this we have the ridiculous hate crime laws that are totally subjective and unenforceable. Incitement to religious hatred is perhaps the most banal of these.By the way, I don't think all politically correct measures have been bad, just that the doctrine itself is misguided. Common sense and rational thought seem to have been abandoned by some people in the desire to be seen as non-judgemental.
Other Comments by pewkatchoo
12. Comment #55449 by Rtambree on July 11, 2007 at 5:56 am
Fair enough Pewkatchoo, I just wish this intangible abstract movement called "the left" is not blamed for defending genital mutilation. I want the accusors to name names. Who are the prominent lefties defending genital mutilation, burqas, and the denial of education to women, or rights to homosexuals?In the USA, religious-motivated discrimination (e.g. denial of gay marriage) is normally a right-wing position (and there I can name names), and yet the left are often saddled with the blame of similar abuses (but names are conspicuously absent). Doesn't make sense.
The way it seems to me is:
"Support our foreign policy in the Middle East (oil, war-profiteering, invasions, bombings, occupations, etc) which may as a byproduct help some minorities, and if you don't support us, you're a lefty that defends genital mutilation".
Other Comments by Rtambree
13. Comment #55457 by PrimeNumbers on July 11, 2007 at 7:06 am
How sexist is it that now they say they're going to clamp down on female circumcision, but little boys still have to suffer..... It must be "it's ok to take away the religious excuse from Muslim's" week. I guess we can't do the same for the disgusting Jewish practise of male circumcision. Other Comments by PrimeNumbers
14. Comment #55460 by HunterZolomon on July 11, 2007 at 7:18 am
Rtambree: I don't think anyone is claiming that the left condones these horrid practices. Noone in their right mind would. However, when multiculturalism is applied dogmatically (all cultures are equal), you are not allowed to even discuss much less criticize the cultural practices of so-called minorities. And if you do, the retort usually comes in the form of "But the U.S./West/Israel, they are truly evil!" Moral relativism and political correctness combined with the intense and often unbalanced hatred of the U.S. stifles any attempt to honestly speak on these matters. That I think is the reason the left is implied in these discussions. Not because they would ever defend these horrid practices, but because when some leftist philosophies are applied without common sense, the result is an effective ban of a sound debate.
Just as bad and dishonest as the "if you're not with us you're against us" right-wing policy you mentioned.
All cultures are not equal.
Other Comments by HunterZolomon
15. Comment #55462 by Mango on July 11, 2007 at 7:23 am
"This is child abuse. It is not an attack on anyone's culture,
Obviously it's child abuse, but the authorities still find the need to avoid being labeled "racists" or "ethnocentric." (but ultimately it is an attack on a cultural/religious practice).
Other Comments by Mango
16. Comment #55463 by Tintern on July 11, 2007 at 7:26 am
What's needed is a test case where someone claims to have suffered the procedure against their will , has that claim validated and prosecutes the people responsible. It may never come about however; apart from twats screaming cultural relativism etc., the source would be a child in an oppressive religious system having the will, courage, support and means to prosecute their own parents. It would be a hell of a step though.Other Comments by Tintern
17. Comment #55465 by geckoman on July 11, 2007 at 7:39 am
This talk of the 'political left' strikes me as inaccurate terminology.Roughly speaking, on the political spectrum Marxist Leninism is the extreme left and conservative ultra nationalism the extreme right.
Today's 'political left' are largely capitalists, often monetarists and social conservatives. They are only called the left because on some issues they take a different view from the extreme right. But to call liberal Democrats in the USA, or liberal members of the British Labour Party 'left' is stretching things to say the least.
It is nonetheless gratifying that the UK Government has seen fit to set pc notions aside and banned circumcision. Coming on the heels of Rushdie's knighthood I wonder if we are seeing a policy shift in the UK of -'ok, we have been real touchy feely with domestic Islam but homegrown extremists are still bombing us, so let's start toughening up when appropriate '. I hope so.
Other Comments by geckoman
18. Comment #55468 by Bonzai on July 11, 2007 at 7:53 am
A thoughtful rebuttal to cultural relativism and spirited defence of Enlightenment ideals from a left perspective.http://www.kenanmalik.com/essays/anti-imperialism.html
Some highlight:
CLR James, like most anti-imperialists over the past two centuries, recognised that all progressive politics were rooted in the 'Western tradition', and in particular in the ideas of reason, progress, humanism and universalism that emerged out of the Enlightenment. The scientific method, democratic politics, the concept of universal values - these are palpably better concepts than those that existed previously, or those that exist now in other political or cultural traditions. Not because Europeans are a superior people, but because out of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the scientific revolution flowed superior ideas.
The Western tradition is not Western in any essential sense, but only through an accident of geography and history. Indeed, Islamic learning provided an important source of both the Renaissance and the development of science. Many of the ideas we call 'Western' are, in fact, universal, laying the basis as they do for greater human flourishing. And that's why for much of the past century radicals, especially third world radicals, recognised that the problem of imperialism was not that it was a Western ideology, but that it was a system that often acted as a obstacle to the pursuit of the progressive ideals that arose out of the Enlightenment. As Frantz Fanon, the Martinique-born Algerian nationalist, put it, 'All the elements of a solution to the great problems of humanity have, at different times, existed in European thought. But Europeans have not carried out in practice the mission that fell to them.' For thinkers like Fanon and James the aim of anti-imperialism was not to reject Western ideas but to reclaim the best of them for all of humanity.
Indeed, Western liberals were often shocked by the extent to which anti-colonial movements adopted what they considered to be tainted notions. The Enlightenment concepts of universalism and social progress, the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss observed, found 'unexpected support from peoples who desire nothing more than to share in the benefits of industrialisation; peoples who prefer to look upon themselves as temporarily backward than permanently different.' Elsewhere he noted that the doctrine of cultural relativism 'was challenged by the very people for whose moral benefit the anthropologists had established it in the first place'.
Other Comments by Bonzai
19. Comment #55472 by Rtambree on July 11, 2007 at 8:02 am
Good post, Bonzai, especially about the cherry-picking of the best of cultures. It's a good way of describing it, as opposed to polarised opposites. In a sense, there's a experiment being run by 180+ countries (mutation and selection) to see who can make their population the happiest. Which country does the best education? Choose that. Which country does the best health care? Choose that. Which country does the best science research? The best media? The best transport? The best environmental policies?Perhaps the authoritarian - libertarian axis makes more sense in this debate than the left - right axis (which is remnant of the 20th century). And there's a third axis we shouldn't forget for all 21st century issues, the ideological - empirical axis.
Other Comments by Rtambree
20. Comment #55489 by jaytee_555 on July 11, 2007 at 9:23 am
bitbutter (comment 55423) is absolutely right.Suppose the Koran HAD sanctioned female circumcision, that would have made it OK then?
The Bible (OT) sanctions male circumcision; and as Christopher Hitchens frequently points out, this also is nothing more than child abuse based on superstition. If people want to have their sex organs mutilated, they must be old enough in law to consent to the procedure, and even then, only when it has been shown they are not being put under pressure from clerics and cultural leaders.
Other Comments by jaytee_555
21. Comment #55493 by pewkatchoo on July 11, 2007 at 9:32 am
PrimeNumbers, er arabs also circumcise their boys. It is not just a jewish practice. Other Comments by pewkatchoo
22. Comment #55500 by PrimeNumbers on July 11, 2007 at 10:08 am
Sure - still wrong though. Other Comments by PrimeNumbers
23. Comment #55503 by ChinmayKukade on July 11, 2007 at 10:32 am
Male Circumcision is certainly just as painful if not as damaging as the female version, especially when performed on babies/young children when the foreskin is still attached to the glans and has to be literally torn apart - my mother is a pediatrician and she has to frequently shift hospitals to where she is not always asked to perform circumcsions.I believe the respect and medical merit accorded to it arises purely out of the cultural conditioning coming from its religious mandates.
That's not to say it may not have benefits - (no doubt breast removal helps prevent breast cancer!)
but its ACCEPTANCE as something OK and even good - (Jews/Muslims, in a perfect example of circular reasoning, say "circumcision doesn't hurt and it's not cruel" Why? "God would never order anything cruel!")
Not cruel? Take a look at this..
http://picasaweb.google.com/chinubhaikukade/CircumcisionProcedureOrCriminalGenitalMutilation
Other Comments by ChinmayKukade
24. Comment #55505 by Bonzai on July 11, 2007 at 10:36 am
Male Circumcision is certainly just as painful if not as damaging as the female version,
Are you crazy? I concurred with a poster on another thread who said that every time the topic of FGM comes up you can expect some men showing up to hijack the thread to talk about their dicks.
Other Comments by Bonzai
25. Comment #55509 by ChinmayKukade on July 11, 2007 at 11:00 am
"Are you crazy? I concurred with a poster on another thread who said that every time the topic of FGM comes up you can expect some men showing up to hijack the thread to talk about their dicks."Firstly, I'm not a man.
Secondly, this is a forum about religion, also dealing with the topic of how religion is coercive towards children, of which male circumcision is a definite component.
Thirdly, if it is religious dictates you are talking about, male circumcision is a far more absolute and integral component of religious belief(e.g. Yahweh's covenant, without which one is "cut off from his people") that FGM, which was, as you may know, banned in a move supported by the religious establishment in Egypt and is only loosely suggested in the Hadith.
To get back to the topic, the UK really does need to monitor and perhaps even control mosques more
- they are increasingly becoming the centers for each and every movement - religious, cultural, social or political - within the Muslim community.
Other Comments by ChinmayKukade
26. Comment #55512 by ChinmayKukade on July 11, 2007 at 11:18 am
As I mentioned, the Religion of Peace has backed away:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L24694871.htm
A Dutch Mosque advocating FGM back in 2004:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/001497.php
It is chilling how mosques have almost become the local centres of a state-within-a-state.
Other Comments by ChinmayKukade
27. Comment #55515 by ChinmayKukade on July 11, 2007 at 11:30 am
Atheists, long accused of being on the "far left" that appeases and is in cahoots with Islamic radicals can perhaps say for themselves that they are what the West really stands for.All this talk of Judaeo-Christian heritage is nauseating. What are we, really? Are we the Old Test. brutes who stone women and indulge in every horror that our laws and constitutions would today condemn? Or are we better than the stoning, flogging, demented crowds of the Middle East because we chose to trade religion for secularism?
Other Comments by ChinmayKukade
28. Comment #55564 by Nefrubyr on July 11, 2007 at 2:32 pm
24. Comment #55505 by Bonzai on July 11, 2007 at 10:36 amI concurred with a poster on another thread who said that every time the topic of FGM comes up you can expect some men showing up to hijack the thread to talk about their dicks.
Yep, and it's going to happen as long as there are people who think that mutilation of boys is fine and dandy.
"This is child abuse. It is not an attack on anyone's culture, it is an attack on anyone who commits this horrendous abuse of children."
I agree entirely with this statement with regard to all genital mutilation. It sickens me that anyone can think it should only apply to FGM. I am appalled at the idea that one can collect a reward for bringing a mutilator to justice while the NHS is offering a similar "service" to the unprotected half of the population.
Consider this sentence from the article:
A new law was introduced in 2003, which not only repeated 1985 legislation banning the procedure, but also criminalised those who took a child outside the country for mutilation to be performed.
More accurately, it should read:
A new law was introduced in 2003, which not only repeated 1985 legislation banning the procedure, but also criminalised those who took a girl outside the country for mutilation to be performed. Boys can still be mutilated legally at home and abroad.
Other Comments by Nefrubyr
29. Comment #55573 by Morro on July 11, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Mutilation involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia for cultural reasons.
Cultural reasons? Cultural reasons? God damn the liberal media! It's not the culture that encourages it, it's the RELIGION that encourages it. But of course, you'd need half an ounce of balls in order to say that in a leftist publication, and we all know how likely we are to find that. Ugh. Cultural reasons!
We get no mention of harsh anti-female rhetoric in the Quran, but a paragraph dedicated to some Muslim scholar claiming that Islam is not the reason for this atrocity. Ask Ayaan Hirsi Ali whether Islam encourages genital excission.
Other Comments by Morro
30. Comment #55588 by Ivan The Not So Bad on July 11, 2007 at 3:31 pm
"Islamic scholars say it has no justification in the Koran, and several have recently spoken out against the practice."The following is taken directly from an article in a recent edition of The Economist magazine:
As a case of the bizarre effects of competition between scholars, take some recent exchanges on female circumcision. More clearly than before, Mr Gomaa [the Grand Mufti of Egypt]laid down on June 24th (after an 11-year-old died under the knife) that it was not just "un-Islamic" but forbidden. Mr Qaradawi [the Mufti who preaches on Al-Jazeera], by contrast, has suggested that genital cutting is permissible so long as the clitoris is "reduced in size", not removed entirely. It says something about the mood of religious conservatism on the Egyptian street that Mr Qaradawi's ruling was seen as "playing to the gallery".
Other Comments by Ivan The Not So Bad
31. Comment #55610 by Big T on July 11, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Genital mutilation of either sex is unfortunate. And judging from what I have read about female genital mutilation, it is sometimes carried to an extreme that makes it much more extensive and damaging than circumcision. There are doubtless religious and cultural reasons for it, but if the world were a rational place, it would be outlawed everywhere, and loathed by people of all political persuasions. I am glad the UK is trying to put a halt to it.Other Comments by Big T
32. Comment #55616 by Morro on July 11, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Female genital excission is as follows:The clitoris and inner labia are cut or carved, (occasionally scraped) away, and twine (consecrated holy twine!) is used to stitch the outer labia together. A small hole is bored just off to the side, to allow the flow of urine and blood, both from periods and from bleeding due to the excission. The girl is then bound at the legs for a period up to two weeks, in order to facilitate healing of the abominable wound that they've created. The upshot of this is that the vagina forms a mass of scar tissue that makes intercourse literally impossible, outside of extreme physical trauma, usually caused by either a knife, or extended periods of rough thrusting on the wedding night.
So yes. While male circumcision is an obscene religious blood sacrifice, it's nowhere NEAR on the level of female "circumcision."
Other Comments by Morro
33. Comment #55657 by Shuggy on July 11, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Morro wrote:Female genital excission is as follows:
The clitoris and inner labia are cut or carved, (occasionally scraped) away, and twine (consecrated holy twine!) is used to stitch the outer labia together. A small hole is bored just off to the side, to allow the flow of urine and blood, both from periods and from bleeding due to the excission. The girl is then bound at the legs for a period up to two weeks, in order to facilitate healing of the abominable wound that they've created. The upshot of this is that the vagina forms a mass of scar tissue that makes intercourse literally impossible, outside of extreme physical trauma, usually caused by either a knife, or extended periods of rough thrusting on the wedding night.
So yes. While male circumcision is an obscene religious blood sacrifice, it's nowhere NEAR on the level of female "circumcision."
You can't generalise. FGC isn't always that bad, MGC sometimes is. They're on two overlapping bell-shaped curves of severity. I've just been reading about a baby who lost half his glans in Florida
(http://www.circumstitions.com/Complic.html#mogen).
More recently, a boy died in Pakistan
(http://www.circumstitions.com/News26.html#pakistan)
another (non-religious, and as RD points out, babies don't have religions anyway) in Ottawa
(http://www.circumstitions.com/News25.html#death)
and scores of tribal boys die every year in Southern Africa.
When we're talking about human rights, why are we distinguishing between the sexes?
Other Comments by Shuggy
34. Comment #55857 by Morro on July 12, 2007 at 4:35 pm
All three of your examples are of MISTAKES, though. A "successful" male circumcision is not anywhere near as extreme as a "successful" female circumsisions. Other Comments by Morro
35. Comment #55883 by flyingscot on July 12, 2007 at 6:30 pm
I am glad that Britain is doing something about female genital mutilation. It is a horrific procedure. I wish them success. Now they have to step up and outlaw male genital mutilation. All children should be protected from this barbaric abuse.
Other Comments by flyingscot
36. Comment #55919 by Shuggy on July 12, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Morro:Cultural reasons? Cultural reasons? God damn the liberal media! It's not the culture that encourages it, it's the RELIGION that encourages it.No, not all FGM is Islamic, some in sub-Saharan Africa is tribal.
All three of your examples are of MISTAKES, though. A "successful" male circumcision is not anywhere near as extreme as a "successful" female circumsisions.Not always. There is overlap between the worst of one and the least worst of the other. The surgery is never necessary. The practitioners all did their best. (I guess you could blame the babies for having the wrong kind of foreskin or the wrong kind of blood....) Here is a link to some "successful" circumcisions:
http://www.circumstitions.com/Botched.html
Other Comments by Shuggy
37. Comment #56969 by Mercury on July 18, 2007 at 2:14 am
This is just another example of how men assert their dominance over women in this twisted religion. If only the muslim men would snip their bits we would have nations full of candidates for the Darwin Awards.Other Comments by Mercury
38. Comment #84947 by Pete M on November 4, 2007 at 10:17 am
Female genital excission is as follows:
The clitoris and inner labia are cut or carved, (occasionally scraped) away, and twine (consecrated holy twine!) is used to stitch the outer labia together. A small hole is bored just off to the side, to allow the flow of urine and blood, both from periods and from bleeding due to the excission. The girl is then bound at the legs for a period up to two weeks, in order to facilitate healing of the abominable wound that they've created. The upshot of this is that the vagina forms a mass of scar tissue that makes intercourse literally impossible, outside of extreme physical trauma, usually caused by either a knife, or extended periods of rough thrusting on the wedding night.
I almost lost my lunch when I read this. It is a horrific practice, and pure physical abuse, whether in the name of god or not.
Pete
Other Comments by Pete M
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1. Comment #55404 by Logicel on July 11, 2007 at 3:00 am
Other Comments by Logicel