The wonderful effects of male domination. [sarcasm]http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/23/us-female-genital-mutilation-petition-signatures
Friday 23 May 2014
A petition to help end female genital mutilation (FGM) in the US has crossed a significant milestone of 100,000 signatures.
Jaha Dukureh, a 24-year-old survivor of FGM, created the Change.org petition, which urges the US government to commission a report that would update statistics on the prevalence of women subjected to FGM in the US. It collected its 100,000th signature on Friday afternoon.
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Her campaign is supported by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, prominent Muslim cleric and activist Imam Baba Leigh, US congressman Joe Crowley and the Guardian.
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The petition calls on the federal government to commission research on the prevalence of FGM in the US to enable it create a comprehensive plan to end the practice and provide services to women who have already been subjected to it. The practice was outlawed in the US in 1996, but at least 228,000 women in the US are thought to be affected, according to research from Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston.
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http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/13/fgm-american-survivors-girls-female-genital-mutilation
FGM survivors: 'It happens on US soil, but it happens in secret'
Alexandra Topping
theguardian.com, Tuesday 13 May 2014
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Campaign groups and survivors of FGM warn that despite legislation against female genital mutilation – which involves removing part or all of a girls outer sexual organs and can result in physical complications, death in childbirth and lifelong trauma – American girls are being taken out of the country to be cut, and may be subjected to mutilation on US soil.
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A lack of widespread knowledge and information about FGM put girls like Leyla at risk, says Shelby Quast, policy advisor at the campaign group Equality Now. “One of our biggest concerns is that girls are being taken out of the country for vacation cutting during school vacations,” she says. “We look at the various diaspora communities and as they grow, the number of girls at risk grows as well.”
Mariama Diallo, African community specialist at Sanctuary for Families, a New York-based nonprofit, said there was anecdotal evidence that cutters were flown over by families to cut a number of girls, often babies. “There is a big lack of knowledge about FGM. It’s seen as a cultural issue, but it is a harmful practice that amounts to child abuse and it is happening to US citizens,” she says. She has clients with children in some communities who are terrified of taking their children to their birth country, and are ostracized for refusing to get their daughters cut.
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FGM has been illegal in the US under federal law since 1996, and “vacation cutting” has been outlawed since last year. But a lack of prosecutions and desire to hold on to what is seen as a deep-rooted cultural practice, means American girls are still being cut, according to experts. At least 228,000 American women and girls are at risk of the practice, according to research from the African Women’s Health Center of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Having had a typical American upbringing, Leyla, now 23, was horrified and scared at the idea of going through surgery in a remote area. Choking back tears, she describes the moment she was taken to the house of the cutter: “They had to hold me down. There was no anaesthetic, no gloves, no pain medication after, no nurse to take care of you. It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. They cut you like they are cutting paper. It’s like you die. I was screaming and crying.”
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The consequences of FGM can be life-changing and, in some cases, fatal.
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Other complications include an increased risk of death during childbirth, recurrent infection and pain during sex. Types of FGM range from type one, which involves the removal of the clitoris, to type three, the removal of clitoris, labia and sewing up of a girl so only a small hole remains to urinate and menstruate. Lesha was subjected to type three. “Sex is painful, and I hate, hate, hate it,” she says. “I hate being touched. It feels like rape every time.”
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The survivors the Guardian spoke to were adamant that in their own communities in the US making sure girls were cut – and therefore kept ”pure” before marriage – was common.
“This is absolutely an American problem. We have vacation cutting, we have people sending money home so their relatives daughters can have the ceremony,” says Naima Abdullahi, 36. She went through FGM in Kenya as a nine-year-old. “It absolutely happens on US soil, but it happens in secret.”
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But the consequences of speaking out can be severe. Several of the FGM survivors the Guardian spoke to would only speak anonymously. “When someone speaks out about FGM, the whole community turns against them,” says Lesha. “Plus, we have no protection. No one understands what I go through or what it means.”
Naima, who is openly identifying herself as a survivor for the first time, hopes that with more women coming forward to tell their stories the taboo around FGM can at last be challenged. “Silence is a huge problem. Yes this is a cultural issue, but it’s a cultural problem,” she says. “ I need Americans to hear this. Because every girl that died, or ends ends up in an emergency room because of FGM – they are paying the price for that silence.”
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/21/egyptian-doctor-fadl-trial-female-genital-mutilation-landmark-case
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Most villagers said they thought the practice was prescribed by Islamic law. But female genital mutilation is not mentioned in the Qur'an and has been outlawed by Egypt's grand mufti, one of the country's most senior Islamic clerics. It is also practised in Egypt's Christian communities – leading activists to stress that it is a social problem rather than a religious one.
"It's not an Islamic issue – it's cultural," said Suad Abu-Dayyeh, regional representative for Equality Now, a rights group that lobbied Egypt to follow through with Fadl's prosecution. "In Sudan and Egypt the practice is widespread. But in most of the other Arab countries – which are mostly Muslim countries – people don't think of it as a Muslim issue. In fact, there has been a fatwa that bans FGM."
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