Hunh, the U.N. still has the power to do something good? Imagine that.
The article below by Emma Batha points out that it is not only Islamic cultures practicing this atrocious abuse against females but also that the "tradition" is pre-Islamic and can be found among Christians and others in various cultures. However, it should be noted that female genital mutilation ("FGM") most assuredly is justified using Islamic texts, and most of its victims are Muslim.
In this regard, almost all females in Egyptian villages are mutilated, and some 90% of females in Egyptian cities are as well, despite the governmental ban over a decade ago. Moreover, Islamic leaders in Egypt are calling for legal reinstatement of the practice, which obviously is justified therefore by Muslim authorities as an Islamic tradition, despite the fact that FGM was practiced in pre-Islamic Egypt. In reality, the women in Egypt are told that they must ignore the ban and continue to mutilate their girls specifically because Allah has ordained the practice for "purification" purposes.
"The Prophet has ruled that this thing must be done."
-Sheikh Ashraf, insisting that FGM is ordained by Islam
Note also that as FGM-practicing peoples migrate, this anti-female violence is being brought with them, so it is now occurring in Europe, Australia, Canada and Smalltown, USA. Over seven years ago, I was shocked by the mother of a nurse in a small American town telling me that the emergency room there was seeing young FGM victims, so it's been happening in the United States for quite some time.
UN set to ban female genital cutting
* Scourge affects 140 million women and girls worldwide
* Campaigners compare psychological effects to rape
* U.N. resolution seen as powerful tool for activists
By Emma Batha
LONDON (TrustLaw) - At seven years old, Khady Koita’s childhood was torn apart when she was pinned down and attacked by two women wielding a razor blade. The violence inflicted on her that day would change her life forever.
On Monday, Koita, a leading figure in the campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM), will join other high-profile activists at the United Nations to drum up support for a global ban on a practice forced on millions of children every year.
"FGM is horrific, brutal, degrading and indefensible," said Koita, who was born in Senegal and now lives in Brussels. "My big hope is that one day no girl will have to go through what I have been through."
The move to stamp out FGM – which is widely practised in Africa and pockets of the Middle East and Asia – is being driven by African member states of the United Nations, led by Burkina Faso.
They are now applying the finishing touches to a draft resolution banning FGM to be presented to the U.N. General Assembly in early October. It is expected to be adopted in December.
An estimated 140 million girls and women have undergone FGM, which can cause serious physical and emotional damage. Campaigners liken the psychological effects of FGM to those of rape.
"It is important that women like me who have suffered so much from this humiliation … and who have the privilege to be able to shout our rage, that we do so for those who can’t," said Koita, founder of campaign group La Palabre.
In Africa, FGM is practised in 28 countries from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east. Other places it is found include Yemen, Iraqi Kurdistan and Indonesia.
Many believe it preserves a girl’s virginity and see it is an important rite of passage and prerequisite for marriage. Parents say it is done out of love because it purifies the girl and brings her status.
FGM ranges from the partial or total removal of the clitoris to the most extreme form called infibulation, in which all external genitalia are cut off and the vaginal opening is stitched closed.
It is usually arranged by the women in the family and performed by traditional cutters who use anything from scissors to broken glass and tin can lids.
FGM can cause haemorrhaging, shock, chronic pain, recurrent urinary tract infections, cysts, menstrual problems and infertility. It increases the risk of labour complications and newborn deaths.
The procedure itself can prove fatal. "About 6,000 to 8,000 girls are mutilated every day," Koita said. "No one knows how many die."
Mutilated at seven years old, the woman in this story working to end this abominable practice has the ability to broach this agonizing subject because of our "Western" democracies, so let us please not allow our societies to be destroyed, as they are the safe havens for asylum seekers like her.
Kurdish mullah: Female genital mutilation 'is an obligation' in Islam
Further Reading
Female genital mutilation
A mutilated woman speaks out
Religious views of female genital mutilation
"Circumcision is Evil"
Female genital mutilation rife in Egypt despite ban
Avaaz petition to stop FGM in the UK
NoFGM.org
End FGM (Europe) by Amnesty International
Cote d'Ivoire: Punish Those Carrying Out FGM, Say Campaigners
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|2012-11-07 19:25:27 Jonathan M - Infected???
I was just wondering if these poor girls have sepsis or any other kind of infection. It seems that the practitioner in the pictures above are not even doctors; without sterile gloves or germ-free blades or any kind of antibiotics after the procedure.
It's just kinda upsetting to see these girls mutilated all because of traditions which has NO propound relationship to nature and reality.
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|2012-11-08 01:47:43 Pray Hard - Yes ...Many of them die. Many or most have infections then and their entire lives. All are disfigured, many more are further disfigured due to infection. Swatting the flies away during the interview and with the same hands, perpetrating FGM on young girls.
Disgusting, lost people.
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|2012-11-08 00:48:25 Jonathan M - DelusionalReligion is not the opiate of the masses, religion is the placebo of the masses. - Gregory House, House MD Season 5 Episode 15
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|2012-11-08 02:51:25 Pray Hard - Sissy boys ...The midwife is nothing but a despicable con person. What a pathetic, degraded, deluded, ignorant, barbaric people ...
What I wouldn't give for a sissy boy imam, mullah or mufti a day to use as a practice dummy. What complete inexcusable excuses for men.
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|2012-11-23 15:59:15 brandCheck out:
"Article I about the Enslavement of Christians by the Muslims in Western Literature:Lord Byron"
http://www.antisharia.com/2012/02/07/article-i-about-the-enslavemen...
"Article IV about the Enslavement of Christians by Muslims in Literature:French Novelist Lesage and Islam"
http://www.antisharia.com/2012/03/10/article-iv-about-the-enslaveme...
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|2012-11-08 22:27:12 Dr. Mustafa - All child mutilationAs a civilized peoplewe must ban all child mutilation. Circumcision is also horrific. Religion is a myth whose time has passed. Science has shown us the truth. Let us embrace it wholly.
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|2012-11-12 01:22:56 Shane - HoweverSubjective and relative sciences and religions are... All should agree child mutilation is wrong , if not ,,,you're a nazi scientist and Muslim imam . My Circumcision was preformed in a clean , safe medical facility by licensed dr. And I'm proud to be the way I am . Science and religion combined, Relatively speaking. - peace
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|2012-11-12 03:16:03 JacksonI can agree with that, if an adult chooses to be circumcised then, that's their choice. Nobody should be making that choice for kids for religious reasons.
Marines are trained to protect and fight for those who cannot defend themselves so, why is the US allowing child genital mutilation with helpless kids? Why aren't the so-called "pro-life," anti-abortion crowd in an uproar over all this - because they really couldn't care less. Shameful.
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|2012-11-12 00:55:02 Pray Hard - Said the owl to the mouse ...What we must do first is see it for what is is and call it what it is. FGM is nothing more than child sexual predation by persons equally sick and perverted as any other sort of child predator, ranging from child molesters to child murderers. Take away the delusional falsity of the "religious" and "cultural" reasoning and you have nothing but butchery by perverse criminals. Sexual predation of children has gone on for thousands of years cloaked in the religious piety of the blood sacrifice or just garden variety piety, whether hidden or visible. It is time for it to cease. And, for it to continue under the guise of goodness simply for the economic support of greedy old midwifery witches and or the dictates of some screechy delusional pedophile imam is truly beyond comprehension.
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|2012-11-12 00:58:54 ShaneHow very sad for children who suffer.
How EVIL it is that they would do this to your child if Islam were allowed too.
It it one thing to respect another's culture due too social global ignorance , such as finding some lost cannibal tribe deep in an isolated part of the world. However, even then the global community responds by informing them that such behavior is not tolerated.
What's the U.N.'s excuse? Aversion to war ? Seems like if we had any real excuse to fight such cultures , it should be for human rights! Not human privilege !
They use their religion to justify their actions the same way the u.n. uses their pocket books to justify war. The problem is in my opinion there is just no money in responding into human rights violations because most of offending countries supply oil and drugs and human slaves . And until they begin to respond in the manner of their supposed tenements , they are nothing but greasy greedy wacked out pedophiles , united. - peace
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|2012-11-19 06:27:21 mike reedI'm going slice the Kurdish mullahs nuts off and then claim "God told me to do it!"
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|2012-11-28 20:13:01 Pray Hard - Approaching a bloody milestone ...Sitting, at the moment, at 19,996 ...
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/
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|2013-01-01 18:42:57 Anonymous - female circumcision supporterI am a great believer in female circumcision, if the profit has called for it to be done then we must obey him. I myself was circumcised as a 3 year old girl & it has turned me into the woman i am today. I am able to please my husband & have three daughters who are also circumcised.
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|2013-01-01 13:53:39 ASThanks for confirming that Islamic doctrine is used to justify mutilating a female's genitals.
And thanks also for the display of the mental illness called "Stockholm Syndrome," as you happily agree to be a mindless barnyard animal for your slavemaster.
Needless to say, I find your misogynistic, self-abusive and child-mutilating perspective to be heinous and vile.
In the meantime, be advised that I will not tolerate on my blog the advocacy of violence against defenseless and innocent children, including and especially the evil practice of hacking at their genitals.
For shame. If it were up to me, you and your husband would be arrested for child abuse. I pity your poor little girls. You are a disgrace for committing this vile crime against them. Your motherly instincts to protect them from harm have obviously been destroyed by your subservient status.
These people are no different psychologically, from demons and ghouls that books and myths talk of.