tagged w/ Female Circumcision
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Journalist Mustafa Akyol talks about the way that some local cultural practices (such as wearing a headscarf) have become linked, in the popular mind, to the articles of faith of Islam. Has the world's general idea of the Islamic faith focused too much on tradition, and not enough on core beliefs?Journalist Mustafa Akyol talks about the way that some local cultural practices (such... more
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PART ONE...
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/05/21/america.female.genital.cutting/index.html
Pressure for female genital cutting lingers in the U.S.
By Stephanie Chen, CNN
Photo: Despite cultural pressures, Fatima Mohamed, a Somali living in the U.S., refuses to allow her 11-year-old daughter to be cut.
(CNN) -- Fatima Mohamed, a 45-year-old Somali immigrant living in America, was faced with a question most parents will never worry about: Should my daughter be circumcised?
The United States has outlawed female genital cutting, but cultural and religious pressures to circumcise girls linger among some African and Muslim immigrant families. Mohamed says the decision was an easy one for her to make after going through the painful experience herself in Africa as a child. She strongly opposes the idea of cutting her 11-year-old daughter, an American-born Somali with long curly hair, who plays soccer and likes watching "American Idol."
But not every family in her African community in Massachusetts feels that way. Nor can they they swiftly make the decision to reject circumcising their daughters, because it's a cultural ritual integral a woman's identity, she says.
"They say they don't want to hear it," Mohamed says. "Some think I'm disrespecting my own culture. Some will say, 'You act like an American now. You forgot about who you are.' "
Women at risk of FGC
States with the highest estimated number of women who've been circumcised or are at risk for genital cutting:
California: 38,353
New York: 25,949
New Jersey: 18,584
Virginia: 17,980
Maryland: 16,264
Minnesota: 13,196
Texas: 13,100
Georgia: 9,531
Washington: 7,292
Pennsylvania: 6,508
(Courtesy of Brigham and Women's Hospital)
Female genital cutting is often a coming-of-age ritual practiced in various parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but the procedure isn't just invoking concerns in the developing world. Religious and cultural beliefs fueling female circumcision often follow immigrants and refugees who move to America. Rarely have cases of female genital cutting been documented in the U.S., but much more likely, cutting has moved underground in the U.S. and overseas, advocacy groups and doctors say.
In the U.S., an estimated 228,000 women have been cut -- or are at risk of being cut -- because they come from an ethnic community that practices female genital cutting, according an analysis of 2000 Census data conducted by the African Women's Health Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The Census reports there are roughly 150 million women living in the United States.
The World Health Organization estimates up to 140 million women and children worldwide have been affected by female genital cutting. The WHO defines female genital cutting as a process that alters or injures female genital organs for nonmedical purposes.
There are several types of female circumcision. The most severe types require the inner or outer labia to be sewn together, a procedure performed in parts of Somalia and Egypt. Other forms include excising the entire clitoris or part of the clitoris.
Genital cutting dates back at least 5,000 years, says Marianne Sarkis, a professor of international development at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Some women desire the procedure because they believe they are dirty or unmarriageable if they are not cut, she said. There are cultures that begin cutting women as early as infancy, while some wait until adolescence.
Communities divided
Not all families in communities where female genital cutting is commonplace will want to participate. In Mohamed's immigrant community in Massachusetts, families are divided, she says. Some refuse to allow the procedure, as she does. Others say they want it, and many remain silent.
Some will say, 'You act like an American now. You forgot about who you are.'
--Fatima Mohamed, Somali immigrant in the U.S.
Occurrences of the practice have been documented in the U.S. In March, a Georgia mother was charged with female genital mutilation after the father noticed an infant's genitals "appeared to be have been circumcised," according to the Troup County Sheriff's Office. Officers wouldn't comment further on the family.
Several advocacy workers say the more common scenario involves sending girls back to their home country to have the ritual performed. Over the past few years, Taina Bien-Aimé, president of the women's advocacy group Equality Now, has heard several anecdotal stories of girls being sent back to have the procedure.
With summer vacation approaching, one 34-year-old mother from Senegal, living in New York City, says she knows several African families in limbo about genital cutting. One of her female friends abandoned her husband earlier this year when he asked for their 6-year-old daughter to be cut in Africa this summer. The friend, who speaks little English and is jobless, fled to a shelter with her daughter.
"A lot of them, it doesn't matter if they [the daughters] were born here, they want the procedure done," said the mother, who declined to be named out of fear of being ostracized by her community. She was also cut in Africa as a child.
National surveys determining U.S. immigrant attitudes toward female genital cutting are nonexistent, because cutting affects few American families, advocacy groups say. Neither have studies been completed to track whether parents are sending their girls to their country of origin to be circumcised. Conducting such studies, doctors and advocacy groups say, would be near impossible since most families remain hushed about the taboo topic.
CONTINUED...PART ONE...... more
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What is happening in Uganda this week? Lots of news-making legislation apparently. The big news all week has been the Parliament's consideration of an anti-homosexuality law that up until Wednesday would have made "aggravated homosexuality" a capital offense. Now before we cheer the Ugandan Parliament for removing the threat of death from the bill, let's consider that Uganda is still talking about making being gay illegal. Controversy has swirled through headlines throughout the week and then today Uganda was back in the news: banning female genital mutilation (or female circumcision).
Let's go back to the anti-gay bill first. It's been big news here in the States because many see connections to conservative Christians here who have allied themselves with Uganda. Evangelical pastor Rick Warren has been a strong supporter of the Uganda, calling it a "purpose-driven nation". The country's lawmakers seem to be inspired by the efforts of US Christians who believe that homosexuality can be cured and gays can become "ex-gays".
Ex-Gay (Video) - A personal journey through an ex-gay program.
Warren this week finally distanced himself from the anti-gay bill, condemning it in a statement Thursday. But despite Warren's rejection of it and the reported removal of the death penalty, human rights activists still fear Uganda will pass the bill soon. So the timing is strange then that gender rights activists now have something to celebrate in the passage of the bill banning female genital mutilation (FGM). An effort to try to distract the international human rights community with some good news to mask all this week's bad press? Whatever their reasons - the ban is welcomed. This video will give you a sense of the struggle against FGM in Africa.
FGM in Sierra Leone (Video)
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Her work has brought her death threats. Rugiatu Turay, 32, helps girls avoid the cruel and internationally condemned ritual of female genital mutilation (FGM).
Speaking about the millennia-old practice, which affects 8,000 girls worldwide daily, is taboo in Turay's homeland Sierra Leone, as it is in many other African countries.
But she refused to remain silent. In 2003, Turay founded the Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM), a women's rights group that fights FGM.
'It's my heart's desire to spare girls the brutal genital mutilation that I myself experienced,' she said.
Turay was 12 years old when she fell victim to female circumcision, a procedure in which the clitoris and labia are removed with knives and razor blades. It happened 10 days after the death of her mother, when Turay was taken to a secluded place along with her sisters and female cousins.
'We were glad. We didn't know what awaited us. We thought it was an outing,' she emotionally recalled in the Hamburg office of the children's rights organization Plan International, which backs AIM.
'It was horrible,' she said. 'My sister lay screaming on the ground. I was blindfolded. I resisted with all my strength because my mother had told me that no one should touch me there.'
Turay lost so much blood that she was unable to walk for seven days. She was not taken to hospital and nearly died.
'I fled to my father and showed him my wounds,' she said. Her father could not help her, however.
'It's almost impossible to talk about it. They want you to be afraid. But I have no fear,' Turay said. By 'they' she meant the men of Poro, a powerful secret society in Sierra Leone. The Poro men tried to intimidate Turay by laying supposedly magic objects in front of her house.
But she went to the police and asked the Poro chief, 'What would you do if someone wants to kill your child?'
According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there are 150 million girls and women worldwide whose genitals have been mutilated. Most of them are in African and Arab countries such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Sudan, Somalia and Sierra Leone.
Meant to prepare girls for marriage and motherhood, female circumcision is often associated with Islam. Neither the Koran nor the Bible mention it, however. But girls who have not been circumcised are considered 'unclean.'
The circumcisers, who are female, are highly respected and well paid. AIM does not try to publicly shame them, but to persuade them that circumcisions are a bad idea.
'We educate them about the consequences of genital mutilation and suggest alternative sources of income,' Turay said, adding that she had converted the Poro chief by showing him a video of FGM.
Through Plan International, AIM also offers school seminars informing children of their human rights. Though an increasing number of girls are aware of the dreadful consequences of FGM, many are unable to overcome the power of the authorities and the circumcisers, as well as pressure from their families, and so have no choice but to flee.
'Since 2005, we've had a least three girls a year who ran away from genital mutilation,' Turay said. They found shelter at an AIM centre in the African nation of Guinea, and two of the girls live in Turay's house in Lunsar, her home village.
'With the help of donations, we want to establish a women's refuge there, too,' she said.Her work has brought her death threats. Rugiatu Turay, 32, helps girls avoid the cruel... more
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Thousands of girls mutilated in Britain
The NHS is offering to reverse female circumcision amid concerns that there are 500 victims a year with no prosecutions
Experts warn that each year more than 500 British girls, some as young as 5, are circumcised in British African communities. In a bid to increase awareness of the ongoing practice, as well as offer free operations to reverse the controversial procedure, the NHS is launching an advertisement campaign next month. It will be aired on a Somali satellite TV station that is popular among the Somali community in the UK. It's expected to undermine demand for female circumcision and increase popularity of the reversal procedure.
Frankly I'm quite shocked that this happens in the UK.Thousands of girls mutilated in Britain
The NHS is offering to reverse female... more
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"For Kurdish girls, a painful ancient ritual ... the widespread practice of female circumcision in Iraq's North highlights the plight of women in a region often seen as more socially progressive.
Sheelan Anwar Omer, a shy 7-year-old Kurdish girl, bounded into her neighbor's house with an ear-to-ear smile, looking for the party her mother had promised.
There was no celebration. Instead, a local woman quickly locked a rusty red door behind Sheelan, who looked bewildered when her mother ordered the girl to remove her underpants. Sheelan began to whimper, then tremble, while the women pushed apart her legs and a midwife raised a stainless-steel razor blade in the air. "I do this in the name of Allah!" she intoned.
As the midwife sliced off part of Sheelan's genitals, the girl let out a high-pitched wail heard throughout the neighborhood. As she carried the sobbing child back home, Sheelan's mother smiled with pride."
How can such horror be justified or explained?"For Kurdish girls, a painful ancient ritual ... the widespread practice of... more
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Please read this and pass it on to your friends. Everyone should be aware of the horrors of female circumcision!! We must stop this practice!!
Kudos to the churches and Maendeleo Ya Wanawake for having the guts to stand up against FGM!!
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At least 300 girls in south-western Kenya have fled from home and sought refuge in churches in a bid to escape forced female genital mutilation (FGM).
The girls, some as young as nine, are at two rescue centres in rural Nyanza province, police told the BBC.
Female circumcision is banned in Kenya, but remains common in some areas where it is considered to be part of a girl's initiation into womanhood.
The traditional ceremonies take place between November and December.
The girls in Kuria District are now in the care of the two churches and Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, a women's organisation.
Police are providing security at the centres to ensure that the girls are not forcibly removed or harassed.
Beatrice Robi, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake's district chairperson and a gender activist, says that at least 200 girls are undergoing circumcision in the district a day.
She said she had found a seven-year-old girl who had just been circumcised.
"There are more girls who are still in their homes and they are undergoing it [circumcision], whether it is voluntarily or they are being forced," she told the BBC.
She says her organisation along with the local churches and authorities have been trying to convince the community to stop the practice and rescuing girls from forced circumcision.
Paul Wanjama, the commanding officer in Kuria District, says girls in the region usually flee to the rescue centres until the season ends.
He said that in some cases, parents encourage the girls to go to the rescue centres to avoid being circumcised.
"There are some parents who are against that [FGM practice] but they get pressure from these traditional people," he told the BBC.
Girls who undergo circumcision feel that they are ready for marriage and do not go back to school when the term begins in January leading to a high drop-out rate, Mrs Robi said.
She appealed to other girls to seek refuge in the centres until the end of the traditional ceremonies and praised the local police for their support.
Mr Wanjama says some cases of forced circumcision had been reported to the police and legal action has been taken.
The FGM operation involves the partial or total removal of the external genital organs.
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) says it leads to bleeding, shock, infections and a higher rate of death for new-born babies.
In Africa, about three million girls are at risk of FGM each year, according to the UN.Please read this and pass it on to your friends. Everyone should be aware of the... more
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A community in eastern Uganda has banned the deeply rooted practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), an official has said.
Kapchorwa district chairman Nelson Chelimo said it was "outmoded" and "not useful" for the community's women.
The Sabiny are the only group in Uganda that practises FGM, which involves cutting off a young girl's clitoris.
Mr Chelimo said the council had submitted legislation to parliament for the ban to become law nationwide.
"The community decided that it was not useful, that women were not getting anything out of it, so the district council decided to establish an ordinance banning it," Mr Chelimo told AFP news agency.
He said there was a local belief that women who married without circumcision would be stricken by illness, but that this was "really outmoded".
FGM is seen in some countries as a way to ensure virginity and to make a woman marriageable.
In Africa, about three million girls are at risk of FGM each year, according to the UN.
UN agencies have called for a major reduction in the practice by 2015.
They say it leads to bleeding, shock, infections and a higher rate of death for new-born babies.
-About time. A community in eastern Uganda has banned the deeply rooted practice of female genital... more
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SULTAN ZAWYIT, Egypt - In this small Nile River farming village, Maha Mohammed has started to doubt whether she should circumcise her two daughters.
A year ago, she had few qualms about female genital mutilation, the practice of cutting a girl's clitoris and sometimes other genitalia. She herself was cut two decades ago, and she fears her daughters will not find husbands otherwise.
But Mohammed also has heard that circumcision can be medically risky and emotionally painful. And a strong-willed neighbor, another woman, has been dropping by her house regularly to persuade her to say no.
"I hear that girls suffer not just physically but psychologically," the 31-year-old Mohammed said. "But I am afraid. I don't want my daughters to have uncontrollable demands for sex."
Such doubts are significant. With vigorous grass-roots campaigns and the passage of tough laws against circumcision, Egypt seems to be making a dent in this deeply ingrained practice, which is thousands of years old. The number of young girls circumcised is now steadily declining in a country where an estimated 96 percent of married Egyptian women have had their genitals cut.
The most recent comprehensive study predicts about 63 percent of Egyptian girls 9 years old and under will be circumcised over the next decade. The numbers are lower in urban areas like Cairo - about 40 percent - but higher for rural areas in the south - about 78 percent, the government's 2005 demographic and health survey predicts.
SULTAN ZAWYIT, Egypt - In this small Nile River farming village, Maha Mohammed has... more
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