MUSLIM FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION OR CIRCUMCISION
Female Genital
Mutilation: Sara’s Story
APR 1, 2021 11:00
AM
BY CENTRE FOR
INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCH CANADA (CIRCANADA)
Sara’s story
is brutal, emotional, and tears at the soul. Her bravery in telling it is a
testament to her survivor spirit.
A young woman
from the United States shared her story with us. This is Sara’s journey out of
Islam and her voice against FGM.
I cannot stay
silent anymore!
“My name is
Sara. I was born in Somalia but grew up and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya
half of my life. My biological mother died right after I was born. My
biological father and I were separated due to the civil war in Somalia 1991.
Many years later, I came to America without a formal education and did not even
know how to write my first name. Today, I graduated with my bachelor’s degree
in social service and am seeking my masters for social worker!
I am an Ex-Muslim,
and though I do not like labels, I feel compelled to use this word Ex-Muslim to
normalize the dissent of Islam, that it’s ok to leave Islam without
consequences! Getting beaten up is something normalized in the Somali
community.
I remembered
very well a big event that took place in my teenage years, one time my
biological father’s side of the family wanted me to do something that I didn’t
want to do, so I was beaten for questioning since I was a small girl.
Beating of women happens all the time in the Somali community, even here in
America, because it is written in the Quran. There was an incident one evening,
I was told to do something that I didn’t agree to. During this incident, I was
beaten brutally, abused emotionally and physically.
I escaped from
my biological family to seek a better life. Many years later, I came to America
with basically no formal education. In other words, I didn’t even know how to
write my own name! This means I literally started from zero at the age of
seventeen!
Currently, I
live in America, and with hard work and dedication I’ve learned how to read,
write and speak English! Today, I’m writing a book to share my story and voice.
I’m grateful and thankful for having this opportunity to be able to explore my
potential and most importantly, I was able to free myself from the Hijab and
Islam! This was difficult to do, being part of the Somali community, because I
was looked down on as bad girl! It was very difficult to take off my hijab and
speak out and challenge the old narrative!
Since working
in the school system, I have seen that girls are scorned if they do not wear
their hijab, (here in America) so almost all of them wear it. I was told
not to associate with non-Muslims, even though many of the people who have been
kindest to me are non-Muslims.
I remembered
when I first came to the USA at the age of seventeen, all the girls who I came
with all got married and got jobs. I remember that back in Kenya
especially in the camp where I grew up, girls got married (arranged and forced)
at very young ages between 14- 15. In Somali culture and community, it’s
common practice. I was against girls being forced to marry without their
consent. This should not happen to anybody. I never pictured myself in a life
like that. I dreamed of a different world where I could choose what I wanted in
life. My goals and dreams were to become literate. I had dreamed as a little
girl that someday, I would go somewhere in the world and become something! I
didn’t quite know what that “something” was, but I knew I wanted to become
educated and especially learn how to read and write.
My caregivers
wanted me to do the same thing the other girls were doing. This meant they
thought I should get married and maybe also get a job and make money so that I
could send some financial support to people back in Kenya. I stood up for
myself because my dream was to go to school and get education even though the
family didn’t approve of this. However, with determination and dedication I
stood up to them and stuck to my word. I said it is never too late to learn and
I am going to become literate!
I discovered
that it’s a lie that Allah will strike you down if you remove your hijab in
public. When I first removed my headcover (Hijab), it was the first time
since I was six or seven. I felt good about my decision and it absolutely was
an empowering experience! It was a beautiful moment to feel the wind through my
hair, especially when I rode my bike! I learned how to ride a bike about 3
years ago! I remember where I grew up, girls didn’t ride bikes because that was
not acceptable and was said to be cultural appropriation.
I believe it
was around 2016 to 2017 when I started looking into Islam and its teachings in
a critical manner. One day while I was having a conversation with a Somali
coworker, Ayaan H Ali’s name came up in the conversation. The person I was
having a conversation with said “Ayaan needs to die and deserves to be killed!”
I replied, “Why would you kill someone? Doesn’t she have the same rights as
you?” Then this person said to me, “Do you know that I can kill you
(meaning me) if you leave Islam and remove your headcover?” (hijab). That day I
was terrified and so heartbroken that my coworker told me she can kill me and
Ayana because her book (Quran) allowed her to do so!
I would say
this was my full wake-up call and I started reading about Islam and its
teachings. I’ve discovered that if individuals simply decided to leave this
ideology of Islam and its teachings, they are apostates. This means Islam and
its teachings call for my death and many other Ex-Muslims! These threats,
bullies and abuses happen around the world, even in America. That this happens
in America is not right to me!
We need to
deal with Islam’s denials, stigmas and taboos. We are told not to talk about
Allah’s words which I find very hard. We need to discuss the rights of the
whole human being, women, children, and vulnerable people. It is sad that the
religion of Islam cannot tolerate critique/criticism. I have always
thought that if religion is truly from a creator, that it should speak for
itself. I have a dream that someday people will look at each other as human
beings, rather than at their race or religion.
FGM
Between the
ages of 5 to 6, I and many other innocent little girls including one of my
cousins were forced to undergo female genital mutilation. Even today, 31
years later, I and many girls who went through these horrible practices still
suffer from PTSD and trauma.
I remembered
that it was mid-morning when an old lady came to my house at a refugee camp. We
as little girls were told it was something good for us. This was done to
all girls and it was normalized in this community. To be quite honest everyone
was going through these horrible practices because it was part of the culture
and also religion encourages that girls must be purified so they can be
clean and to make sure they’re virgins until their marriage.
Just thinking
about this now my stomach literally turns upside down and how absolutely
disgusting and disheartening these forms of child abuse and sexual abuse are
been allowed in this century!
It was very
painful and this was done without any medical procedure. No medicine. In other
words, no Novocain for numbing the areas that have been cut off and
scraped off. I don’t remember a lot, my mind has blanked most of it out, but I
have seen it being done to other girls. The procedure I had is called Firauni. The girl is held down, everything is scraped
off, the girls’ legs are tied together so the skin will fuse together. After
several weeks, if the fusion did not take place, the whole procedure is
repeated. There is only a small hole left for urination and menses. It’s
horrible and inhuman and it should not done to any
human being! I’m myself and many Somali girls have gone through the Firauni type. 80 % to 95% of Somali girls have gone through
the FGM.
Usually, the
individuals who perform FGM are older persons between 50 to 70 years of age or
even sometime older. Most of these ladies are illiterate individuals and don’t
do anything about health risks and childhood trauma that come with these
experiences. These elderly women do get paid for performing these practices. I
would say places where I grew up in the Kenya camp, I can swear that it was
done 100% to little girls and every girl I know has gone through FGM! If
you didn’t go through this, these girls were bullied, excluded, abused, and
singled out from the Somali community! Literally, if you didn’t go through
this, you are or were an alien in the world and invisible.
In the West
it’s happening secretly. We know that children (girls) are taken over seas and
I have no doubt it’s also being practiced here secretly even though it’s
illegal. It is still happening in America and other western nations. Going
back to this part of my memory that I’ve sort of deleted because the pain and
the darkness that comes with it hasn’t been easy but it was definitely therapy
to write about it.
Now that I
live in this great country USA, I can heal myself and also help others to heal
from this awful trauma from childhood! Also, I am grateful that now I’m able to
read and write and use my voice and fight these horrifying practices. It breaks
my heart this is happening still today especially in a world such as America
and the Western world that is supposed to protect little children from these
horrifying things.
It absolutely
makes me sad and angry that I had no choice. The camp where I grew up, every
girl went through it because it was something that was normalized through the community I grew up in. The irony of this is that here in
the USA, we should not allow these horrifying practices to be continued, but it
still happens!
I have a
message for those who claim to say they care for people such as immigrants. If
you do care, I urge you to take immediate action to stop FGM forever and
ever!
Ayaan Hirsi
Ali is my hero, and I was so excited that I could meet her! The Somali
community hate her and threaten her, but she keeps fighting against FGM. She is
my inspiration! Her story and her voice is forbidden
in the community. If people hear her name, automatically they jump to the
conclusion that she is awful and she shames the Somali culture and Islam!
Yes, I would
like to bring awareness and also encourage and empower individuals to share
their stories/perspectives and voices! Yes, I am against any ideologies
especially Islam gender-discrimination and many other problematic issues that
take place within this ideology. In my opinion, it is so sad that the religion
of Islam cannot tolerant, any critique/ criticism. In my opinion, Allah’s words
takes human dignity/rights away.
No human
being, especially children, should go through these awful dark traumatic
experiences! I’ll fight for those who are voiceless, children and
vulnerable people! That’s why it’s important for me to share my story and
voice.”
FGM is
practiced all over the world. The story below is reminiscent of Sara’s story.
This was reported on several years ago on Iraqi television.
Four-year-old
“Shwin” enters the room, cuddling a plastic toy, not
knowing what awaits her. Her mother holds her down on an old blanket, and
moments later, an elderly woman takes out a razor and cuts off a small part of
the baby’s reproductive system (clitoris). The woman says that “the
circumcision of the girl child is dependent on her physical development.
(development of the clitoris) It may happen in some at the age of three or
four, but it does not appear before seven in others.” The woman then sprinkled
the affected part with ashes “in order to heal the wound quickly and for blood
to clot and the child not to bleed. I learned the profession 20 years ago, and
a doctor advised me to pay attention when cutting the clitoris, so that this
does not negatively affect her sexual feelings and to avoid bleeding.” She adds
that “cutting must be according to the Sunnah (sharia) of the Prophet Mohmad
only, because this tradition we inherited is old and it is present in Islam.
The Messenger ordered us to follow his Sunnahs and
this is why we practice it.”
The woman who
carried out the FGM explains that she receives 2,000 Iraqi dinars (one and a
half dollars) for each FGM and that she circumcises more than 100 girls every
year.
This is not an
unusual practice in Iraq either. A study was conducted in 190 villages in
Kurdish region of Iraq. Between 75% to 95% of women and small girls have faced
FGM. Generally today, the age of procedure is 14, but
it is done younger as well, as in the story above. No anesthetic, no
disinfectant, no sterile instruments. It is done by local women, behind locked
doors of the home.
The World Health Organization has
published an extensive article on the practice.
Female genital
mutilation (FGM) involves the partial or total removal of external female
genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
The practice
has no health benefits for girls and women.
FGM can cause
severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as
complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
More than 200
million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries in Africa,
the Middle East and Asia where FGM is concentrated.
FGM is mostly
carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.
FGM is a
violation of the human rights of girls and women.
Treatment of
health complications of FGM in 27 high prevalence countries costs 1.4 billion
USD per year.
Female
circumcision is practiced in 27 African states, in Indonesia and in Kurdish
region in Iraq. Parts of a woman’s genitals will be circumcised without any
reason except that sharia requires it.
Parents force
their daughters or sisters to undergo FGM. It is not a government directive,
but much pressure is put upon families to perform FGM on their females. Women
who faced FGM feel ashamed and have suffered not only pain, but lack of
confidence in their sexuality. They have less desire to have sex. Many women
try to hide the fact that they have undergone FGM.
Many girls in
the community, if they voice misgivings or refuse, are attacked by the women in
the community. They are threatened by the men that marriage is out of the question
unless they are circumcised.
FGM IN WESTERN
COUNTRIES
FGM has been
revealed to be practiced in Canada and the United States as well. Often, girls
are sent to their country of origin to have the procedure, but it is also
performed here in secrecy.
In 1997,
the Parliament of Canada passed
an amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada expressly prohibiting all forms of
female genital mutilation in Canada. Under the code, it is prohibited to aid,
abet or counsel such assault and to interfere with genitalia for nonmedical
reasons. Moreover, the amendment expressly prohibits the transport of a child
outside of Canada for the purpose of obtaining female genital mutilation.
Anyone found to have carried out these offences faces up to 14 years in prison
and/or a fine.
Such a law
does not prevent communities from performing FGM. The Somalian community is
known for this practice, and it is done within the community. Other Islamic
communities in Canada also practice it, but it is sometimes fought against by
the women in the community.
In the United
States, a doctor was charged for
involvement in FGM procedure. The case, believed to be the nation’s first
involving female genital mutilation emerged in April 2017 when a Dr Nagarwala was arrested and accused of heading a conspiracy
that lasted 12 years and involved seven other people. In 2020, a federal judge
dismissed the most serious remaining charge against the doctor.
Conclusion
Sara’s story,
and the stories of many other women like her need to be told. Although she has
gone through so much trauma in her life, she is full of hope and thankfulness
for her opportunities in her new home, the United States of America. Many of
her communications with us ended with expressions of peace and kindness.
Much more
needs to be done to expose this barbaric practice. No matter how uncomfortable
it makes us, we need to expose this practice more and more, so that it is truly
eradicated.
Sara’s
postscript
I previously
mentioned that I left Islam because I remembered as a little girl, I never had
the choice to decide if I wanted to be Muslim or follow this ideology! I was
unfortunately (I feel) born into this ideology and to be Muslim was expected of
everyone who was Somali!
When we leave
the religion of Islam, it’s not like other religions like Christianity.
Individuals who leave this particular ideology, their lives are on the line!
Since I am no longer practice Islam or I should say not Muslim and especially
speaking out, sadly it comes with consequences that even in the west we have to
be careful and avoid going to places that will put us in danger!
I’m much
happier to not belong to a toxic and unhealthy ideology and community any
longer! I’m stronger and a better human being. 2021 is the year that I finally
am no longer staying silent and hiding who I am! I am very passionate regarding
freedom, especially freedom of religion!
It’s time for
individuals like me to speak out and share their voices and stories! Stay
humble and spread kindness.
As a
Somali-American I agree with what Ayaan says. Ayaan’s story and experiences
overlap with mine and there are much similarities with
experiences. Reading her book The infidel was
reading my own story! It so relatable for me, especially to someone who grew up
in a refugee camp! As I am new to this journey of sharing my story and voice in
public, I am learning a lot and willing to listen and learn from others. I’m
nervous and excited for where this journey is going to take me! Thank you for
reading my story!
Somalia Sees "Massive" Rise in FGM
During Lockdown and Ramadan
By Emma Batha
18 MAY 2020
Reuters
London — Plan International says crisis is
undermining efforts to end the ancient practice in Somalia which has the
world's highest FGM rate
Somalia's coronavirus lockdown has led to a
huge increase in female genital mutilation (FGM), with circumcisers going door
to door offering to cut girls stuck at home during the pandemic, a charity said
on Monday.
Plan International said the crisis was
undermining efforts to eradicate the practice in Somalia, which has the world's
highest FGM rate, with about 98% of women having been cut.
"We've seen a massive increase in recent
weeks," said Sadia Allin, Plan International's
head of mission in Somalia. "We want the government to ensure FGM is
included in all COVID responses."
She told the Thomson Reuters Foundation nurses
across the country had also reported a surge in requests from parents wanting
them to carry out FGM on their daughters while they were off school because of
the lockdown.
FGM, which affects 200 million girls and women
globally, involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia. In
Somalia the vaginal opening is also often sewn up - a practice called
infibulation.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has
warned that the pandemic could lead to an extra two million girls worldwide
being cut in the next decade as the crisis stymies global efforts to end the
practice.
Allin said families in
Somalia were taking advantage of school closures to carry out FGM so that the
girls had time to recover from the ritual, which can take weeks.
The economic downturn caused by coronavirus has
also spurred cutters to tout for more business, she said.
"The cutters have been knocking on doors,
including mine, asking if there are young girls they can cut. I was so
shocked," said Allin, who has two daughters aged
five and nine.
She said restrictions on movement during the
lockdown were making it harder to raise awareness of the dangers of FGM in
communities.
"FGM is one of the most extreme
manifestations of violence against girls and women," said Allin, who has been cut herself.
"It's a lifetime torture for girls. The
pain continues ... until the girl goes to the grave. It impacts her education,
ambition ... everything."
The UNFPA, which estimates 290,000 girls will
be cut in Somalia in 2020, said the spike was also linked to Ramadan, which is
a traditional time for girls to be cut.
UNFPA Somalia representative Anders Thomsen
said the pandemic was shifting world attention and funding away from combatting
FGM.
But he said there were also grounds for
optimism, pointing to the recent criminalisation of
FGM in neighbouring Sudan.
"There are glimmers of hope and we do hope
and believe that may rub off on Somalia, which I would call ground zero for
FGM," he said.
New data also shows families are beginning to
switch to less severe forms of FGM with 46% of 15 to 19-year-olds having been
infibulated compared to more than 80% of their mothers.
Muslim groups
call for female circumcision to be medicalised
2018-09-07
Daily Mirror
A number of Sri Lankan Muslim groups have called on the government to medicalise female circumcision.
In representations made to the Parliamentary Committee on Women and Gender,
members of the All Ceylon Jamiyathul Ulama, All
Ceylon YMMA Conference, Centre for Islamic Studies and United Religions
Initiative urged the Health Ministry to withdraw a recent
circular prohibiting medical professionals from carrying out female
circumcision.
In their submission, the joint Muslim groups stated that the Muslim community
is very concerned about moves to ban this obligatory Islamic duty on the
grounds that it is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
“We wish to categorically state that the practice of female circumcision is an
obligatory Islamic duty, that it confers numerous benefits and is not Female
Genital Mutilation. As such we condemn all moves to ban the practice of female
circumcision by legislation and/ or by government bodies and urge that no moves
be taken in this direction which we will regard as an unwarranted intrusion on
and infringement of our religious duties guaranteed by the law and constitution
of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka”, the Muslim representatives
said in their submission. “We also request the Ministry of Health to withdraw a
recent circular it issued prohibiting medical practitioners from performing the
procedure and to issue a fresh circular excluding Islamic female circumcision a.k.a hoodectomy from the
definition of FGM”
Joint Spokesperson Noor Hazeema Haris
said that although Muslims wholeheartedly support the abolition of traditional
practices harmful to women and children such as FGM, in case it is shown to
exist in Sri Lanka, the Islamic practice of female circumcision is vastly
different. She pointed out that this religious obligation practiced by the
Muslims of the country for centuries in keeping with the requirements of the
Islamic faith is not FGM. This was evident from the Joint Ministry of Health
(MOH) and WHO report on Violence and Health in Sri Lanka in 2008, which states
categorically that FGM does not exist in Sri Lanka.
She pointed out that while countless Sri Lankan Muslim Women have undergone
childbirth deliveries in Governmental and Private Hospitals over the past
decades, not a single case has arisen where Muslim women have been shown to have undergone FGM. It is therefore very clear that
Sri Lankan Muslim women have never experienced FGM.
She further pointed out that female circumcision practiced by Muslims is a very
minor procedure similar to male circumcision where the prepuce of the clitoris
is removed. This is the same as hoodectomy which is a
legal cosmetic procedure chosen by women to improve genital hygiene and enhance
their sex lives.
“It is something that is arranged and done by women. Those who say this is male
oppression against women are mistaken. It is we who do it just like our mothers
and grandmothers and countless generations of our women have done. We continue
to practice it because we know it benefits us. Even educated Muslim women
support it wholeheartedly”, she added.
The submission concluded that female circumcision like male circumcision is a
religious obligation for Muslims and that their religious rights as Sri Lankan
citizens are safeguarded by the Constitution of Sri Lanka. Since this is a
religious obligation, almost all Muslim Women and girls would have to undergo
the procedure by hiring the services of traditional female circumcisors
known as Ostha Mamis in
case doctors refuse to perform this procedure citing the above
mentioned circular. This could lead to serious medical complications
which would amount to FGM.
If as medical complications have arisen among some women circumcised by Osthamaamis as alleged by Women’s Rights groups, it is all
the more reason to medicalise the procedure instead of
prohibiting it, which will only drive the procedure underground and put girls
and women at unnecessary risk.
“We therefore urge the Parliament of Sri Lanka to reject any legislation
drafted with a view to prohibit the practice of female circumcision as it will
be infringing on the rights of Muslims to the free practice of their faith.We also urge that the Ministry of Health immediately
withdraw the said circular and if needs be, issue a fresh circular
prohibiting FGM, but exempting the Islamic procedure of female circumcision
from the definition as done in other Muslim countries like Indonesia” concluded
the submission.
The Muslim Representatives included M.N.M.Naphiel,
President of the All Ceylon YMMA Conference, Asiff
Hussein, Vice-President Outreach, Centre for Islamic Studies, Noor Hazeema Haris, Co-ordinator of United Religions Initiative, Sheikh M.F.M
Farhan, Manager, All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama and
Sheikh M.A. Haris, Co-Ordinator of the Fatwa
Committee of All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama.
The committee agreed to give them a hearing and requested that medical evidence
be submitted to prove that female circumcision of the type prescribed in Islam
causes no harm and benefits women as stated by the joint representatives.
Aid agencies decry decision to encourage FGM in Somaliland
Source: Xinhua
2018-02-25
MOGADISHU, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Three international aid agencies on Saturday
expressed concern over a recent ruling by the government of Somaliland in
Somalia that encourages female genital mutilation (FGM).
In a joint statement, Save the Children, CARE International, and International
Rescue Committee (IRC), said the Feb. 6 ruling goes against the commitment to
abandon female cutting and eliminate all harmful practices.
"Female genital mutilation is a harmful procedure regardless the level of
mutilation. It must be discouraged at all levels," said Timothy Bishop of
Save the Children Somalia/Somaliland on behalf of the other organizations.
However, the organizations welcomed the banning of extreme forms of FGM but
insisted that the decision should apply to all forms of FGM.
On Feb. 6, Somaliland announced a new fatwa, or religious edict, banning two of
the three types of female cutting.
The edict by the Ministry of Religious Affairs allows FGM victims to receive
compensation but it does not say whether the compensation will be paid by the
government or by violators of the ban.
According to the organizations, the ruling made a certain type of FGM/C
"mandatory" for every girl in Somaliland and at the same time banning
the most extreme forms.
The religious edict came barely a month after Somaliland's parliament approved
a bill criminalizing rape and requiring prison terms for those who are
convicted.
Female cutting, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is also often
performed on girls under the age of 15, resulting in complications that range
from bleeding and infection to problems with urination and complications with
childbearing.
Somalia is among countries in which FGM is most prevalent. An estimated 98
percent of Somali females ages 15 to 49 have undergone the procedure.
The aid agencies said the decision to encourage FGM will erode decades of
investments made in ending FGM in Somalia/Somaliland and undermines the
mobilization, awareness-raising and prevention work undertaken by communities,
national and international organizations and the government aiming at total
abandonment of FGM/C in Somalia/Somaliland.
The organizations said they will continue to engage with the government of
Somaliland to explore ways in which decisions made will be for the best
interest of a child in Somaliland.
Feds drop bombshell: Up to 100 girls may have had their genitals cut in
Michigan
By: Tresa Baldas
Detroit Free
Press
Published 4:01
p.m. ET June 7, 2017
A federal prosecutor dropped a bombshell in court Wednesday, telling a federal
judge that the government estimates that as many as 100 girls may have had
their genitals cut at the hands of a local doctor and her cohorts.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Woodward disclosed the information while trying to
convince a judge to keep a doctor and his wife locked up in the historic case.
It involves allegations that two Minnesota girls had their genitals cut at a
Livonia clinic in February as part of a religious rite of passage and were told
to keep what happened a secret.
"Due to the secretive nature of this procedure, we are unlikely to ever
know how many children were cut by Dr. (Jumana) Nagarwala,"
Woodward said, referring to the lead defendant in the case,
later adding, "The Minnesota victims were not the first
victims."
Against Woodward's wishes, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman granted bond to
two other defendants in the case: Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, 53, of Farmington
Hills, who is accused of letting Nagarwala use his
clinic to perform genital cutting procedures on minor girls; and his wife,
Farida Attar, 50, who is accused of holding the girls' hands during the
procedure to keep them from squirming and to calm them.
The government believes the three defendants, all members of a local
Indian-Muslim sect, subjected numerous girls to genital cutting procedures over
a 12-year period. To date, the government says it has identified eight victims
-- including the two Minnesota girls -- though Woodward said the government
estimates there could be as many as 100 victims. She said that's a conservative
estimate, and that it's based on Dr. Attar's alleged admission to
authorities that he let Nagarwala use his clinic up
to six times a year to treat children for genital rashes.
Attar's lawyer, Mary Chartier, scoffed at the claim.
"I think the government has overstated so many aspects of this case and
this is one more example of overreaching," Chartier
said after the hearing, during which she and another lawyer convinced the judge
to set the Attars free.
The defense has argued that the Attars did not engage in any criminal
act and that the procedure at issue is a protected religious rite-of-passage that involves no cutting, but rather a
scraping of genital membrane. They also argued the Attars
are not a danger to the society and have no reason or desire to flee,
convincing U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman to release them on bond.
Friedman, who stressed that he believes the case involves "serious"
charges, issued the following conditions in granting bond to the defendants:
• They have to surrender their passports.
• They will be on house arrest, on GPS tethers,
and are not allowed to communicate with anyone except family members or their
lawyers.
• They will only be allowed to leave the
home to visit their lawyers or for doctor's visits -- both of which have to be
approved first.
"I think he is thrilled," Chartier said of
her client, Dr. Attar. "He is anxious to fight this case and clear his
name."
The Attars will likely not be released from jail until Thursday, when their
lawyers surrender their passports to authorities. At issue for the Attars is
their parenting rights. Currently, they are not allowed to live with their
minor daughter as the state is trying to terminate their parenting rights.
Chartier said a hearing is scheduled on the
parenting-right issue for next week, and she is hoping that the Attars will be
allowed to live with their daughter again.
The Attars have been jailed for more than a month since getting charged in
April in an explosive case that has captured international attention and
planted a bull's-eye on a small Muslim sect known as the Dawoodi
Bohra.
The Attars are Bohras, along with the lead defendant
in the case, Dr. Nagarwala,
44, of Northville, who is accused of performing the cutting procedures on the
two Minnesota girls.
Nagarwala, meanwhile, remains locked up pending the
outcome of her trial. Her attorney, Shannon Smith, was in court Wednesday. She
declined comment on allegations that her client subjected up to 100 girls to
genital cutting, but noted that she, too, will
seek to have her client released on bond.
If convicted, Nagarwala and Dr. Attar face up to life
in prison; Attar's wife faces up to 20 years. The two physicians face the most
serious charge in the case, transportation of an individual with intent to
engage in criminal sexual activity, which carries a minimum of 10 years and a
maximum of life in prison.
A trial is set for October 10.
Thousands of Female Genital Mutilations STILL taking place illegally in Britain
THE NHS has seen a shocking rise in the number of case of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Britain - despite
the practice being banned for more than 30 years.
By SOFIA PETKAR
March 7, 2017
Express.co.uk
Medical staff recorded almost 5,500 cases in 2016 alone, according to shocking
new statistics.
FGM is a
procedure that sees the genitals of young girls deliberately cut, injured or
disfigured for “cultural, religious or social reasons”.
A report,
published on Tuesday, found 1,286 new cases in the last quarter of 2016 -
compared with 1,240 in the previous quarter.
The report also found more than 16,000 FGM-related attendances at NHS hospitals
and GP surgeries over the year.
Doctors also
discovered that while 96 per cent of women were aged 17 or younger when FGM was
carried out on them, almost all – 98 per cent – were over 18 when their cases
were recorded.
After the
practice was banned in the UK, families began taking their daughters abroad for
the procedure.
In 2003, the
UK government expanded the law making it a criminal offence for British
nationals or permanent residents to take their child abroad for FGM.
It is now also
mandatory for healthcare professionals to alert authorities if they come across
a case of the illegal practice.
Liberal Democrat
shadow equalities secretary Lorely Burt has called on the Government to
“redouble efforts” to tackle the issue.
She said: “The
figures are astonishing. Whilst clear progress is being made at identifying FGM
in a health setting, far more must be done in schools to raise awareness of the
practice and help teachers flag children at risk.”
FGM can cause
a host of physical and psychological problems - in some cases girls can bleed
to death or die from infections caused by dirty blades.
The practice has
been illegal in the UK since 1985, and is classified as child abuse.
However,
no-one has been prosecuted over the practice since it was banned.
This is widely
put down to the stigma attached to the "horrific" operation
preventing thousands of victims from coming forward.
The ancient ritual is commonly practised in Africa
and pockets of Asia and the Middle East.
It is often
deemed in some cultures as a religious obligation - although it is not
mentioned in the Koran or Bible.
The country
with the highest rate of FGM remains Somalia where figures show 98 per cent of
girls and women aged between 15 and 49 have been cut.
Guinea,
Djibouti and Sierra Leone also record high rates of the potentially lethal
practice.
However,
overall FGM prevalence rates have fallen in the last three decades, with
Liberia, Burkina Faso and Kenya showing sharp falls.
FGM cases in
Birmingham rocket by almost 30 per cent
8 June 2016
ITV Report
New cases of
female genital mutilation in Birmingham have rocketed by nearly a third,
according to new figures.
The number of
incidents increased from 52 between October and December 2015 to 67 from
January to March this year – a 28 per cent rise. The statistics were released
by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
In total 1,242
newly recorded cases of FGM reported across the country in the same time
period.
Back in
February, it was revealed that more than two cases of female genital mutilation
were being reported in Birmingham and the West Midlands every day.
A spokesman
from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, said the
figures showed how widespread the problem in the region was.
“There are no
medical reasons to carry out FGM. It doesn’t enhance fertility and it doesn’t
make childbirth safer. It is used to control female sexuality and can cause
severe and long-lasting damage to physical and emotional health. FGM or female
circumcision is usually carried out for religious, cultural or social reasons.
But let’s be clear – it is child abuse and it causes long-lasting physical and
emotional damage. The practice must stop.”
Fifty girls taken from UK to Somalia for
FGM
17 July 2015
Reports that at least 50 girls were taken from the UK to
Somalia for female genital mutilation are being investigated by Scotland Yard.
Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Tonge
contacted the Metropolitan Police after spotting a large group of girls on a
flight from Heathrow last Saturday.
The girls were said to be aged 11 to 17 and with their
mothers or grandmothers.
It comes as Bedfordshire Police secured the UK's first
FGM protection order, preventing two girls from going abroad.
The Metropolitan Police said officers from the
Specialist Crime and Operations Command were investigating Lady Tonge's report.
'Scattering of grannies'
Speaking to the BBC, Lady Tonge
said the girls spoke English and were of Somali origin.
"It was just odd," she said. "They were
young girls and mothers and a scattering of grannies."
They were on an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Addis Ababa
on 11 July and according to the Lib Dem peer transferred onto a plane to
Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
Lady Tonge, along with the Labour MP for Halifax, Holly Lynch, was on a trip to the
Financial Development Conference in Addis Ababa.
FGM, also termed female circumcision, is illegal in the
UK. It refers to any procedure that alters or injures the female genital organs
for non-medical reasons.
It is a painful ritual carried out on women and young
girls from certain communities from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Lady Tonge said that both she
and Ms Lynch felt the presence of so many girls at
the start of the summer holidays was "suspicious", given that it was
the start of the so-called "cutting season" when FGM is carried out,
and she decided to raise the alarm on her return to the UK.
Scotland Yard confirmed that police had been called by a
"woman concerned about a large number of girls on a flight from Heathrow
to Ethiopia on 11 July whom she believed were at risk of FGM".
That confirmation from the Met came after Bedfordshire
Police said it secured a protection court order on the day new powers came into
effect.
The civil legislation allows officials to seize
passports from people they suspect are planning on taking girls overseas for
FGM, and breaching an order is a criminal offence.
The move prevents two girls being taken to Africa,
Bedfordshire Police said.
The force said it is estimated that more than 20,000
girls under the age of 15 in the UK are at risk of FGM each year, although very
few cases are reported.
Det Ch Insp Nick Bellingham, from Bedfordshire Police's
Public Protection Unit, said: "With schools breaking up for the summer holidays
today, we will continue to use this legislation where needed to prevent young
girls who we believe may be at risk from being taken out of the country.
"This is child abuse, and we will do everything in
our power to ensure that children are kept safe and that those responsible are
caught."Aneeta Prem, founder of women's charity
Freedom Charity, said the use of a protection order was a positive step.
But she warned that the authorities must also look out
for "cutters" - people who carry out FGM "for as little as £200
a girl" - entering the UK.
"We can't be politically sensitive. Girls who are
mutilated in this way suffer a lifetime of scarring and permanent damage,"
she said.
The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland, and the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act 2005
in Scotland states that FGM is illegal unless it is necessary for health
reasons.
The law states that is also illegal to arrange for a UK
national to be taken overseas to undergo FGM.
The order secured by Bedfordshire Police, which can be
made by courts in England and Wales, was introduced under the Serious Crime Act
2015.
Equalities and Justice Minister Caroline Dinenage said the protection orders have been
"fast-tracked... to make sure women and girls facing the awful threat of
FGM can be kept safe".
"These orders mean girls and the communities around
them now know they will have somewhere to turn, that the law is on their side
and help is out there.
"The government is committed to ending FGM."
Study reveals shocking FGM prevalence in Iran
By Hajir Sharifi
7/3/2015
rudaw.net
A new study has found the practice female genital
mutilation (FGM) to be common in areas of Iran, refuting repeated government
claims that the practice does not exist in the Islamic Republic.
The comprehensive report about FGM in Iran, released June 25 by Kurdish social
anthropologist Kameel Ahmady,
identified FGM in at least four Iranian provinces, most notably Hormozgan where nearly six out of 10 women had undergone
the practice.
The rate of FGM was discovered to be 21 percent in West Azerbaijan, 18 percent
in Kermanshah, and 16 percent in Kurdistan, according to field interviews and
research conducted by Ahmady and his team.
The southern Hormozgan province, with a rate of 60
percent, had the highest FGM prevalence in Iran. Hormozgan
province is one of the most impoverished and undeveloped provinces of Iran.
In June 2014, the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in a direct letter to
the Iranian government asked Iranian authorities to “accept” the existence of
the practice in Iran, and take active steps to eradicate the practice in that
country. Women's rights groups have for many years condemned Tehran for
trivializing or officially denying the issue.
The UN noted that Iranian Shiite authorities justified their inaction by
framing FGM as a religiously sensitive issue that would cause anti-Shiite
sentiment among the Sunni minority if it were
banned.
Research shows the four provinces associated with FGM also have high rates of
other types of violence against women, such as honor killings, child brides,
forced marriage and polygamy.
“Religion is used to justify the practice by all practitioners of FGM,” the
research found. Among the Sunni Muslims, a branch known as Shafi’i
has the highest rate of the practice.
According to Shafi’ie faith, a woman becomes a Muslim
only when she is circumcised. Although there are different interpretations of
religious directives, Mohammad Rabi’ie, a
distinguished cleric in Kurdistan, believes that “FGM is the Prophet Ibrahim’s
tradition.”
The followers of the Shafi’ie faith believe that a
woman's sexual desire is harnessed after being cut and whatever she does
subsequently become halal, or acceptable to Islam.
It is also believed by some that FGM facilitates marriage by reducing the a woman's sexual desire and helps her to remain virtues
and pious.
The recent study shows that the same religious interpretation dominates the
current practice. “They usually believe that FGM was practiced during the early
years of Islamic Kingdom when the Prophet’s and Imams’ wives and daughters were
circumcised,” Ahmady said.
Among the Kurds in Iran, FGM is mainly practiced by Sunni Shafi’i
Kurds who speak the Sorani dialect, but not among Sunni Shafie
Kurds who speak the Kermanji dialect. Followers of
the Sunni Hanafi sect do not follow the practice, research found.
The Kurdistan province in Iran is predominantly populated by Sunni Shafi’i but there is a Shiite religious minority.
“The prevalence of FGM in Kurdistan is patchy and varies sharply from one
region to another,” the researcher said, adding that FGM is mainly practiced in
rural and undeveloped areas.
“FGM stems from men’s desire to subjugate women and is another sign of
injustice rooted in imbalanced gender power relationships and men’s power over
women’s bodies,” said Iranian Kurdish women and children rights activist Parvin
Zabihi.
“Enacting such a practice perpetuates women’s oppression and pushes women to a
submissive and inferior position in the society,” Zabihi
told Rudaw.
According to Iranian women rights activist’s, Iranian
government either denies the existence of the practice in Iran or considers it
as a minor issue that only exists in a handful of villages.
FGM is locally referred to as “Khatne” or “Sunat” in Iran. In this context, Sunat
("tradition") means "mandatory practice" not Sunat as a voluntarily act. The practice is generally
carried using traditional methods by the elder women in the community.
"In some locations, girls are usually
‘circumcised’ between the ages of three and six with sharp razor or a knife
and, afterwards, some ash or cold water is applied to their mutilated
genitals,” Ahmady said.
“The attitude of officials and authorities is that FGM doesn’t exist in Iran.
The Iranian public is also largely ignorant about the subject,” he added.
Ahmady said the Iranian government has been reluctant
to tackle the problem and has framed it as a practice that exists in Africa not
Iran.
The UN describes FGM as “a manifestation of deep-rooted gender inequality that
assigns [women] an inferior position in society.”
Based on 2014 UNICEF figures, roughly 130 million girls and women alive today
worldwide have undergone some form of FGM. Further UN research indicates 92 million of these women are over the age of 10 and mostly
live in Africa.
According to UNICEF, FGM is most common in 29 countries in Africa, as well as
in some countries in Asia and the Middle East, and among certain migrant
communities in North America, Australasia, the Middle East and Europe.
Female genital cutting in Thailand's south
FGM is a rising cultural practice in southern Thailand
and, with little regulation, concerns are at an all-time high.
Gabrielle Paluch
02 Apr 2015
Aljazeera
Yala, Thailand - "Just a little," Dr Patimoh Umasa says, pinching the
tip of her finger showing how she cuts the clitorises of small girls.
Dr Umasa runs a small clinic on Yala's
main drag, just down the street from a bombed-out building, near the edge of
the Muslim quarter.
As one of the few female doctors in the city, she is the one everyone goes to
for sunat - the practice of female circumcision,
which the World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies
as female genital mutilation (FGM).
"Just an incision to leak some blood, no excision of flesh," Dr Umasa says, using her grey cat, asleep at the clinic
reception, to demonstrate the way she holds the girls still before she cuts
them.
"It takes three people, see? The mother holds the baby up here for
comfort, and an assistant holds the legs open like this," she says,
spreading the cat's legs apart and pinning them down to the counter.
She adds: "And then with my left hand I spread the labia, and with my
right hand I pull back the clitoral hood, and slice."
Umasa uses a sterile size-11 surgical blade, and performs
the procedure for free, because she says its a
religious procedure.
"The babies cry," she says, "but not much. They don't have any
lasting health complications."
Like others, Dr Umasa believes that the procedure, if
done by a doctor, should not be considered mutilation.
"If it's done by a trained doctor, they are using the right technique,
then never mind!"
In the past, traditional birth attendants performed sunat
on the newborn baby girls a few days after birth.
Wamae Tahe is a 65-year-old
retired midwife who says in the 23 years she worked in Yala,
she performed sunat on almost all female babies whose
births she attended.
"But now babies are born in the hospital, so I no longer do cutting,
because mothers are afraid to have it done at home," she says.
"It's important to be careful and not hurt the baby's vagina! But I wasn't
concerned that I was harming the baby. They cried a little, but it must be
done."
She says on two occasions she performed the procedure on girls over the age of
18, which she said made her very nervous.
Off the radar
Dr Umasa says she performs anywhere between 10 and 20
procedures a month, and the figure is rising as women increasingly give birth
in hospitals.
The practice of female genital cutting in southern Thailand is virtually
undocumented, and the prevalence is unknown as there is no reliable data
available. But Dr Umasa believes it is universally
prevalent.
Dr Sudarat Teeraworn is a
maternal health supervisor for the department of public health in Yala province, and she says the issue of female genital
mutilation is completely off the Thai Health Ministry's radar.
Adding to this, Dr Teeraworn says, it's just simply
not a topic of discussion: many women do not even know if they are
"cut" since most of the procedures are performed during infancy.
"There are no laws or regulations surrounding the practice, and the Health
Ministry doesn't say anything about it or study it because it's not harmful -
it's a cultural phenomenon. If it's cultural and not harmful, then what can we
do about it?"
Dr Teeraworn says there have been no prevalence
studies done in Thailand, but believes the prevalence in border provinces is
probably similar to the FGM's prevalence in Malaysia.
An unpublished study conducted in 2011 by the University of Malaya's department
of preventive medicine in Malaysia found that 93 percent of Muslim women in
Malaysia have undergone the procedure.
Though not comprehensive, the numbers for Kelantan state, which borders
Thailand, are similar.
The cutting that occurs in Malaysia is similar to the process described by Dr Umasa in southern Thailand. It falls under type IV of the
WHO's classification system - the least invasive type, typically done without
removing flesh.
Undefined procedure
Malaysia's highest religious authority issued a fatwa, an Islamic legal edict,
in 2009 making the cutting procedure required for all Muslim women, unless
"harmful".
Many religious leaders in Malaysia, like their counterparts in Thailand,
believe the procedure as practised there is so
minimally invasive that it should not be called mutilation.
Saira Shameem, who works with the United Nations
Population Fund, says the process is never harmless, and the WHO created the
type IV category specifically to include the practices in countries like
Malaysia.
Because there is such a variety of practices of increasing invasiveness, she
says any sort of cutting on a woman's genitals, no matter how small, is harmful
and should not be done.
Malaysia's fatwa does not define the procedure, and Shameem says health
officials are trying to work that avenue to change the practice to a more
symbolic one.
"In order to prevent the procedure from becoming more extensive, we are
trying to persuade the Ministry of Health to replace it as currently practicsed with cleansing with an alcohol swab," she
says, referring to a routine examination typically performed by obstetricians
at birth.
The fatwa poses a dilemma for medical professionals caught between their
unwillingness to violate WHO guidelines, and parents who feel pressure to have
their daughters cut.
But Shameem says doctors can play a big part in the transition to eradicating
the behaviour.
"We don't have as much influence and control over traditional
practitioners as doctors, so if you're talking about effectively eradicating
the procedure, working through the medical system with doctors would shift the
practice more quickly," Shameem said.
The religious and social pressure to have a baby girl cut in Thailand works on
practitioners as well. As retired midwife Tahe
explained, "If parents come to me to ask me to do it, I can't say 'no'.
Can I?"
Accessing 'red zones'
Julia Lalla-Maharajh is the CEO of Orchid Project, a
London-based organisation that advocates against
female genital mutilation.
She says the biggest problem they face is massive information gaps.
"There is very little data or evidence about the practice outside of
African countries, and this is something we absolutely need to address,"
she says.
"We cannot show how urgent and important this issue is, so we would urge organisations around the world to really keep asking the
questions: Is [female genital cutting] happening in your country, and what can
be done about it?"
Dr Teeraworn says she and her health teams have no
access to so-called red zones in Thailand's conflict-stricken south, areas
where bombings and attacks occur regularly.
She is unable to directly supervise health stations there.
Thailand's deep south was part of the independent Malay Pattani sultanate some
200 years ago,and the
practice of sunat dates back to that era.
Today, ethnic Malay Muslims who inhabit the region speak Bahasa Melayu and consider themselves to be culturally Malay,
though they are Thai nationals.
Since 2004, over 6,000 people have died in sporadic bombings and attacks that
are part of a violent insurgency, which has an apparent but unclear demand for
increased autonomy.
Imam Abdullah Abu-Bakr of the Committee of Islamic Council of Yala says Muslims in the south are more observant than
their co-religionists in Bangkok, because there are more foreign-educated imams
and fewer distractions, such as the entertainment hub of Bangkok.
He himself was educated in Syria and Malaysia.
Thailand's fatwa committee has not issued a fatwa surrounding the practice of sunat, but Imam Abdullah says everybody knows the practice
is required for boys, typically in a public ceremony around age seven, and
though is not absolutely required of women, it is something all women should
do.
He says the way it is currently practised is not
harmful, and is key to a Muslim's cultural identity.
"You must peel a banana before you can eat it," Abu-Bakr says,
"and for women, it will reduce their wildness, making them clean and
strong."
Female Genital Mutilation and African AIDS
By Marion D. S. Dreyfus
FrontPageMagine.com June 8, 2005
In Frontpage’s
recent symposium, The Radical Lies of Aids, I was dismayed and surprised that,
in a roundtable discussion on the current state of HIV/AIDS, no mention was
made of Islamic cultural habits and African tribal customs.
The experts on the panel parse the “puzzling” absence of
causes for the widespread HIV pandemic in Africa, legitimately dismissing the
foolish, politically correct notion of heterosexual HIV transmission --
fostered so fatally for the past 25 years and which has led to the needless
deaths of so many thousands. Indeed, once upon a time, the self-appointed HIV
disease handlers had to pretend that various populations were at risk who were
not at risk at all. They could thus belabor and wheedle reluctant funding out
of the government and the Centers for Disease Control. President Reagan,
remember, pretty much ignored the phenomenon for more than four years. The
“next risk group,” however, has never been ordinary heterosexuals with no IV
drug or promiscuous sexual habits, which is what the ballyhoo remained for too
long, while the real culprits never got proper attention.
As the Frontpage
symposium indicates, homosexual-rights interest groups refused to
consider closing bath-houses and notorious sex-parlors in the three disease
hotspots -- New York, San Francisco and LA. They refused to advocate the
historically tried and true containment methods of behavior modification or
contact tracing, insisting on the far weaker alternatives of “safer-sex” and
universal condom usage.
The problem is that condoms are hardly foolproof in the
best of times, and HIV/AIDS has been one of the toughest tests they have had to
weather. Dismissing the hocus-pocus of healthy partners in penile-vaginal
transmission, or vagina-penis disease transfer – it is much harder to transfer
disease entities from females to males, for a variety of reasons -- the experts
in the symposium seemed oddly unclear as to what can be reliably pointed to as
plausible explanations for the continued spread of HIV. Yes, they did
acknowledge the well-documented and well-understood actions of accidental
pin-sticks and poor technique, office-based error, non-professional insertions,
“barefoot doctors” and the like, which are called “iatrogenic” causes. Needle
punctures, from dirty or used syringes or application error, are a prime vector
of transmission -- but this cause is responsible primarily for medical
personnel becoming infected. Not, usually, actual patients or nonmedical
people.
In other words, dirty needles and bad medical technique
can hardly -- especially in the case of Africa -- be considered the primary
cause of fatal HIV transmission. After even one visit to Africa -- I have made
six -- one learns that sexual custom for men in many tribes, in urban as well
as rural areas, includes extramarital sex with non-local females, prostitutes,
as well as with boys, often, and even with animals, when females are
unavailable. The male then returns to the bed of his wife or common law mate.
All viruses and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
picked up from the unfaithful sexually active mate find a hospitable
environment in the misused wife and incubate into various forms of sexual
disorder or, of late, especially into HIV. Sadly, the now visibly-ill women are
frequently blamed for initiating the disease: beaten, divorced or otherwise
abused. This is a frequent Islamic reaction from husbands, brothers, fathers,
even sons, to the perceived ‘dishonoring’ of the family or rape of their
(innocent) women.
More relevant in this cultural inplication
is that more than 100 million, even as many as 140 million -- that is correct
-- African girls and women are estimated by WHO and ReligiousTolerance.com
(among many others) as victim/recipients of female genital mutilation (FGM,
also called infibulation). Infibulation in the medical literature or public
arena is so widespread and so taboo that it assumes a special place in the
history of hushed-up critical problems in the world. Like not mentioning that
woolly mammoth smack in the middle of your living room.
Because it is considered a private, 'social' or often a
“religious” issue, one that riles up many Muslim (male) “authorities” and
average healthcare practitioners, infibulation –FGM -- is a major third-rail
political agenda, one vociferously denied and hotly “debated” in outrage with
anyone intrepid or foolhardy enough to bring up such a detonating topic.
The existence of virtually ubiquitous FGM in African
tribal cultures guarantees long-term vaginal tissue damage, as the genital mutilation
has been performed --without anesthesia or sterile tools of any sort-- by lay
non-physician practitioners, usually female, acting on shanghai’ed
and unprepped preteen girls. After “stitching” with rough thread or twine, the
local medicine woman leaves an opening the width of little more than a
matchstick head. Barely enough to expel ureic wastes or menstrual fluids.
At marriage -- or rape -- the force of intercourse on
this wrecked and nearly nonfunctional site instigates massive tissue damage, and
initiates a wound site that is continually subject to infections, bleeding,
bacterial fester and disintegration of various sorts, including the
proliferation of bacteria and viruses from prior sexual encounters and new
diseases foisted on them by their men.
The use of barrier prophylactics, condoms, which some
say is effective as anti-STD-transmission, is firstly, frowned upon in black
African (often Muslim) or animist societies as “unmasculine” and suspect;
secondly, haphazardly practiced, if the woman is lucky enough to be with
someone willing to use one; and thirdly, widely acknowledged to be tragically
undersupplied in the third-world regions where HIV casts its longest and
darkest shadows.
Add two other salients:
condoms cost money, even in Africa. And prostitutes cannot charge unsympathetic
customers the going rate if they try to use such fanciful flourishes.
In concert with a disregard for safe or practical
concepts of sex, or with animal-human sexual encounters that are still a
sometime-habit in Africa to contend with, intimacy with a sexually wandering
mate often provokes painful and persistent gynecological disfigurement and
exacerbation as well as the flourishing of any lurking HIV. Normal sexual
intercourse with healthy females and non-HIV-carrying mates is known to be a
safe bet in relation to contagion in every other circumstance, so there is no
reason to think that, given similar circumstances--healthy male-female intimacy
in Africa--there would be an upsurge in reported cases of HIV/AIDS.
Vaginal intercourse, difficult and painful for African
females who have been brutally deprived of their clitori
by FGM (whose purpose is to stem their sexual hunger, lust or potential
unfaithfulness to future spouses) often leads to male preference for anal
intercourse at home. Fragile rectal tissue in all people yields only
reluctantly to force, of course. The subsequent lesions and tissue breakage in
the female anal tract (no less, of course, than in the male, which is the
source of the lion’s share of homosexual transmission) is anything but
unfriendly to the blossoming of the virus.
Childbirth of course presents more complicating factors,
and often leads to HIV-afflicted infants.
The intransparency of male
sexual misbehaviour -- their failure to admit what
they have been doing-- in almost all of Sub-Saharan Africa adds to the
difficulties scientists and investigators have in discovering the means of
transmission of many diseases, especially in viral-origin diseases so much in
the news today, but is an open secret to locals, and those who -- equally
passionately -- refuse to subject their “private” erotic behaviors of
dismissive sexual abuse to their women to the open air of detailed examination
and rigorous scientific discussion.
Despite strong medical considerations, many tribal and
Islamic councils have consistently voted to continue the primitive practice of
clitoral ‘circumcision’ so as to ensure their females' continued “purity” and
an unsullied “family honor.” And if, as the literature attests, victims of FGM
do have a lower incidence of HIV, the reasons are easy to adduce: Such women
have less sex, far fewer sexual contacts; they clearly don't seek out sex as
much as their unmutilated sisters, and consequently their risk and their
exposure, and thus their incidence of disease, is less.
If this writer has seen such casual abusive treatment of
women and ignorance of the transmission modes and loci demonstrated by the
Islamic or local animist males in many African cultures, and has heard numerous
tribesmen, with some measure of both embarrassment and pride, admit their
sexual proclivities in countries as diverse as Sudan, Egypt, Uganda, Zambia,
Mali and Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania, these countries, while suffering the
difficult societal constraints upon women imposed by the minority religion of
Islam or animism, the problem is even more notable in countries where the
dominant religion is Islam, or is becoming more Islamo-dominant,
such as Nigeria, and tacit prohibition on discussion of FGM (cliteridectomy in more 'advanced' circles) is even more
pronounced. Mothers in countries coming under increasing Islamic influence must
be constantly vigilant to prevent their daughters from falling into the hands
of FGM proponents.
Conversely, women in countries where modern Christianity
or other non-Islamic faiths are entrenched or experiencing inroads are likely
experiencing a growing, if below-the-radar, resistance to a practice that has
come to be regarded as mandatory in order to ensure a good marriage partner,
although the Qur’an does not, strictly speaking, order it: Muslims have
apparently adopted this modality by themselves, in fervid and random excess
against the possibility of female orgasmic pleasure hinted at in the Qur’an,
where women are “nine parts of desire” (to men’s single part out of 10).
FGM has been practiced for as little as 1400, and
perhaps as long as 2000 years, among the nomadic and African tribes and, since
the advent of Islam in the seventh century, by Muslims. In terms of how much
mutilation women endure, once the extreme-practice version has been practiced
in any region, as seen in many religious arenas, it is difficult to go back to
the more moderate, less extremist version. Some practiced only to “minimize”
the size of the “outsize” clitoris (Egypt), where others removed all labia plus
clitoris under the general rubric of 'less [sexual tissue] is… more secure
[against sexual enjoyment and unfaithfulness].'
Current research indicates those females fortunate
enough to have mothers educated beyond even the third year of school often
escape the predations of this ugly and joy-deadening procedure. Such women,
accordingly, will be far freer of HIV/AIDS than will their less fortunate
captive sisters under the terrible aegis of a pre-medical faith that has yet to
be updated to contemporary standards of hygiene and routine healthcare
practice. Of late, several women (a Somali case was in the news some years ago)
have notably sought refuge, even the legality of political asylum, as escapees
of the procedure in the United States.
That a cautionary symposium, "The Radical Lies of
AIDS," would be missing such important and critical elements of the African
and, particularly, Islamic experience is unfortunate and in need of a crucial
corrective.
There is something all of us can do to make a change in
terms of the terrible crime and tragedy of FGM. While FGM, or female
circumcision such as that described here, is illegal in advanced countries,
some animist religionists and Islamic practitioners occasionally try to foist
it on their female children in the United States and the West, by coercing or
bribing sympathetic medical practitioners. Such tragic efforts must be strongly
resisted, and practitioners brought to the attention of municipal medical
authorities. Healthcare practitioners must refuse to perform the operations. As
modern healthcare methods are becoming more understood, more educated females
are learning of the consequences of such primitive customs, and the practice
has, happily, been fading as newer generations become acquainted with the
physiological costs, dangers and damages.