Dad Found Guilty Of Genital Mutilation

Ethiopian Immigrant Convicted In Circumcision Of 2-Year-Old Daughter

(AP)  An Ethiopian immigrant who was convicted Wednesday of the genital mutilation of his 2-year-old daughter was sentenced to 10 years in prison in what was believed to be the first such criminal case in the United States.

Khalid Adem, 30, was convicted of aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Prosecutors said he used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in his family's Atlanta-area apartment in 2001.

The child's mother, Fortunate Adem, said she did not discover it until more than a year later.

During her father's trial, the girl, now 7, testified on videotape while clutching a teddy bear that her father "cut me on my private part."

Federal law specifically bans the practice of genital mutilation, but many states do not have a law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of Fortunate Adem, passed an anti-mutilation law last year, but Khalid Adem was not tried under that law since it did not exist when his daughter's cutting allegedly happened.

During the trial, Khalid Adem testified he never circumcised his daughter or asked anyone else to do so. He said he grew up in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and considers the practice more prevalent in rural areas.

The Adems divorced three years ago, and attorney Mark Hill suggested that the couple's daughter was coached to testify against her father by her mother, who has full custody of the girl.

Khalid Adem, who cried throughout the trial and during his testimony, was asked what he thought of someone who believes in the practice. He replied: "The word I can say is 'mind in the gutter.' He is a moron."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, using figures from the 1990 Census, has estimated that 168,000 girls and women in the U.S. had undergone the procedure or were at risk of being subjected to it. Since 2001, the State Department estimates that up to 130 million women worldwide had undergone circumcision.

Knives, razors or even sharp stones are usually used, according to a 2001 department report. The tools often are not sterilized, and often, many girls are circumcised at the same ceremony, leading to infection.

The report estimated that 73 percent of women in Ethiopia had undergone the procedure, based on a 1997 survey.

The practice crosses ethnic and cultural lines and is not tied to a particular religion. Activists say the practice is intended to deny women sexual pleasure. In its most extreme form, the clitoris and parts of the labia are removed and the labia that remain are stitched together.

[gossimer]

The only word to describe this is BARBARIC!

[squiz2]

It's amazing how ignorant some people are to the human body. I do understand that it's a cultural thing, but good lord. Another prime example of why we need better education across the globe.

[bumbee0]

Why the heck are they calling it circumcision? I believe if this were a male they would call it castration. Maybe if they castrated the males the situation would be taken more seriously instead of just considering it just taking a teeny bit of skin, instead of the pratically the whole *** organ, but the area that allows men the pleasure of enjoying *** and having offspring to carry on further destruction.

[delta5243]

sick.....is the only thing that comes to mind

[sinoindian]

It is one of the MOST UNFORTUNATE things still happening in this modern WORLD...someone got to stop it.

[lisamort]

People need to be careful of kids in court. kids are easily convinced into believing things that are not true. They can be bribed or rewarded for doing something from someone that they trust. Kids do lie in court. In custody battles the number of sexual abuse cases increase so one of the parents are able to get custody for there children. It can happen to anyone, it can happen to you. And until people wake up and realize this, innocent people are going to prison for life. Remember how many people are getting out of prison after 10+ years due to advances in DNA. Innocent people do not belong in jail. Kids should not be the soul evidence in court. and after 4 years what does this little girl really remember. BEWARE! innocent people are in jail.

[squiz2]

I don't think that you're going to forget who cut off your ******** with scissors, no matter how old you are. Something that traumatic will stick with you.

[lisamort]

You are wrong. Think about it, a child forgets all the time, and a little influence and a mother can get a child to say anything. Don't be foolish. Mothers especailly are able to convince children of things. Why wouldn't a mother know for one year that it happened to her child. Why would a mother allow it to happen to her child. The child was 4 before they split up. Why now, why not then. I just don't believe it. What is the gain that the mother gets. that would be my top question.

[processor2]

This is part of Ethiopia's tribal customs that have been going on for centuries.

What gives the U.S. the right to tell others in the world how they should pracitce their customs.

Just more Euro-American centricism.

[apdepetris]

Lisamort, in a case like this I would think that a physical examination would determine if the girl had been subjected to a "circumcision" (or had her ******** removed as stated in the article). A case like this should be easier to prove than simple sexual abuse as there may not be any physical trauma depending on what kind of abuse supposedly occurred.

Bumbee0 , I have heard of this called "female circumcision" many times. I guess it's the best way they can describe it although I agree with you that in some cases that is really inadequate to describe what these poor girls are put through. It is really horrific to hear about. And to think there are now men out there that are complaining about being circumcised when they were babies because they had no choice in matter. I believe what they go through is rather mild compared to this.

[ourtomorrows]

Actually, it is not Euro-American centrism, there are thousands of native Ethiopians who are working hard, and have been for the last two decades, to end the practice. More and more Ethiopian women want to see it halted, but it has been more difficult to convince the males who run Ethiopia. The Ethiopian people themselves have for decades now, been trying to halt this.

[apdepetris]

"This is part of Ethiopia's tribal customs that have been going on for centuries.

What gives the U.S. the right to tell others in the world how they should pracitce their customs.

Just more Euro-American centricism."
Posted by processor2 at 04:31 PM : Nov 01, 2006

Just because this custom has been in practice for centuries doesn't make it right. And this guy was living in the US at the time - not Ethiopia.

[lisamort]

I know that she was circumcised. I am not saying that she wasn't. Remember the father that went and killed his neighbor because of what his daughter said and it came back to be false. Someone hurt the girl, that is a fact. I just don't see where it has to be this dad that claims he is innocent. What gain does the mother get? His money that she is now getting because he is in jail. Were they both there, it was a ceremony. I would still like to know why she didn't know for one year. A mother doesn't change diapers. Men are always quilty because they are men, I don't believe in every case that dad's a mean and evil. Sometimes the mother is. There are cases where the mothers abuse there kids to make it look like dad did it to get custody and child support. BEWARE!

[noni38]

Tribal custom? How very cruel and unfair. This is the United States, not Ethiopia, and clitoral excision is not the custom here. At my age I can still recall an event from when I was only 2 years old. The proof, however, is in the damage done to the little girl's body. Whoever was responsible, she has to live with it forever.

[me4prezz]

Processor2, women in other countries of the world are treated as no more than properties. This is a deliberate act, one of many, done to berate, belittle and demean a woman's value and sense of self. How can you say that this is another attempt of Americans trying to change the cultural values of Ethiopians? Because this is not a custom of religion or culture and this is even stated. This is a horrible thing to do and I am sure you would not speak so lightly were it your daughter they did this to.

[me4prezz]

Lisamort: Her testimony is irrevelant. Go to the hospital and pull the medical records and when you find the spot that says "excision of ******** and surrounding trauma", you will have your case. I agree that innocent people can be sent to prison. This is not one of those cases.

[sykosam-2009]

Sick and demented... Why would any parent who cared about their child do something like this? No matter if he goes to jail or not, he has significantly changed his daughter's future happiness. And for what? Because he's a sick and misogynistic @$$hole.

[squiz2]

Lisamort, the ******** is shielded beneath a 'hood'. So unless the mother was closely inspecting her daughter's ***, she may not have noticed that the little lump of tissue, hidden beneath the hood, was missing. Also, the mother found out when the daughter was three. The parents split up when the daughter was four, and the mother was finally successful last year in getting an anti-mutilation law passed. To me, it does not sound like the mother did this or could gain anything from it.

[nadeau4201]

Lets see her genitials were multilated and they just happen to practice that custom but the father is innocent maybe some mystery man came in and did it. Lisamort aka Lisamoron they probably examined her to make sure. He wouldn't be going to jail for 10 years without out some kind of physical proof. Sometimes people are actually guilty. I SEE DUMB PEOPLE

[daysha13189]

!!! How can a seven year old remeber when she was two? Has anyone considered that? Secondly if genital mutilation is illegal why do people still get their sons circumcised? Why aren't those doctors doing ten years in prison?!!!

[agnim]

In addition to cultural bigotry, this is much ado about nothing!

No one in the west calls genital mutilation the cutting the foreskin of kocks here in America.

We have some rabbis in THIS COUNTRY ritualistically cutting the kocks of baby Jewish boys, and then sucking on it.

If that Jewish practice is not the grossest and a most deviant and disgusting homosexual behavior to perform on a child, I don't know what is.

Yet the 'chosen people' are not even questioned for their deviance; but we hypocritically wail on the gentiles for performing a similar ritual circumcision? Tsk-tsk.

[neveradhimmi]

Cultural bigotry? Rabbis have been arrested and prosecuted for what you describe. So am I free to go to Saudi Arabia, get drunk, wear a miniskirt, and walk around in public without a male escort? The amswer is no--I would be imprisoned and physically punished. If you don't like the laws of this nation, then get the hell out of here and go back to the barbaric country you come from if you want to like a medieval moron. Sharia and all its ills will NEVER be accepted in the USA. And you better believe if you break the laws of this country you will be prosecuted no matter what your religious affiliation. You are free to believe what you want; you are not free to do what you want.

[neveradhimmi]

Cultural bigotry? Rabbis have been arrested and prosecuted for what you describe. So am I free to go to Saudi Arabia, get drunk, wear a miniskirt, and walk around in public without a male escort? The amswer is no--I would be imprisoned and physically punished. If you don't like the laws of this nation, then get the hell out of here and go back to the barbaric country you come from if you want to like a medieval moron. Sharia and all its ills will NEVER be accepted in the USA. And you better believe if you break the laws of this country you will be prosecuted no matter what your religious affiliation. You are free to believe what you want; you are not free to do what you want.

[agnim]

"Cultural bigotry? Rabbis have been arrested and prosecuted for what you describe."

NO THEY HAVE NOT been prosecuted!

Go do a search of the New York news papers. I wouldn't know where to find the link now.

Like the perverted churches of sodomy in THIS COUNTRY that have been seeing to the sodomizing children for generations, religious people in the west get away with unspeakable acts without anyone labeling them!

[processor2]

This is part of Ethiopia's tribal customs that have been going on for centuries.

What gives the U.S. the right to tell others in the world how they should pracitce their customs.

Just more Euro-American centricism.

[neveradhimmi]

Several things: what gives the US the right to tell other how they should practice their customs? Umm, let's see, maybe because the guy lives in Georgia? Nobody went to Ethiopia and arrested him and brought him here, that's what gives the US the right.

The Catholic church or the Branch Davidians, any religion that breaks our laws, do get prosecuted. Priest after priest has been put in jail, even their superiors who cover for them are sentenced too. They have been prosecuted, and if Orthodox Jewish rabbis haven't been prosecuted, they should be. Just because one person gets away with something, doesn't mean everyone should get away with similar crimes. Are you suggesting we ban all religions?

Neither one of you naturally are able to address my hypothetical question about how I would be treated in a Muslim country if I voluntarily flaunt their laws.

[neveradhimmi]

Let me also remind you that American slavery was practiced for centuries and was custom, that didn't make human slavery right. We used to believe the earth was flat too, so what is your point?

[agnim]

"Neither one of you naturally are able to address my hypothetical question about how I would be treated in a Muslim country if I voluntarily flaunt their laws."

Surely you are not implying that we act like maniac muslims do in their countries? LOL

The point is that ritualistic cutting of young genitalia is done IN THIS COUNTRY!

So we are behaving as usual like ignorant and arrogant hypocrites in these instances, and with the nonsense talk of 'mutilation'.

Why is AMERICAN CIRCUMCISIONS not called 'genital mutilation'?

I'll tell you why; America's racist and cultural bigotry, that's why!

I dare you or anyone to wail on the Jews for cutting young kocks and sucking on them, a most disgusting practice for those of us here in the west. Tsk-tsk

[nonnie_571]

Well there is a diffrents here daysha13189.When the boy is circumsised the doctors don't cut the *** off completly its just skin.In this matter of the little girl and many other girls and woman they cut off the ********.This is America shouldnt the child have a right to choose if she wants her ******** cut off. Just thought i would say that. Thank you.

[jt92202]

Any circumcision is wrong, Boys or Girls!!! Plain and simple, if an adult wants to mutilate themselves let them but they have no right to do it to children, religion, cultural or not!!

[neveradhimmi]

You are referring to a tiny minority of orthodox Jews, the rabbi in question was ordered by the Rockland County health commissioner to stop this practice. He should have been arreted. The vast majority of Jews in this country do not practice this, and the total majority of circumcisions in the US are performed by doctors in the hospital, not in an Atlanta apartment with a pair of household scissors. Don't confuse the issue. I am condemning the rabbi and the man in this particular case. But make no mistake, this is a Judeo-Christian nation that widely practices male circumcision. Whether this is right or not is a legitimate matter of debate. But if a US citizen circumcizes a male or female child in their home with a pair of household scissors, they will be arrested for aggravated battery on a child. People who withold medical treatment from their children because of some religious belief are sent to prison. And you still don't answer my question, what happens to me in a Muslim country if I break their laws? Are they practicing bigotry against me if I am arrested because they don't aknowledge my western customs?

[jt92202]

nonnie_571 "When the boy is circumsised the doctors don't cut the *** off completly its just skin."

Have you read up about circumsising a boy? Taking off the skin will numb the ***** and the pleasure will NOT be the same as a man with skin!! I did a lot of research on this subject when I was deciding what to do when my son was born. I decided it wasn't my decision unless it was medical need why change what you were born with!!

[snickers832]

The practice of circumcizing women is another attempt for men to control women by denying them sexual pleasure that she may otherwise experience. As far as religions, the older religions feared the female sexual organs because women are capable of having multiple or continual orgasms and men are not, usually. No man or custom, that mutilates women has a right to do so I don't care what the "custom" is. It's wrong, PERIOD and it's degrading to women.

[snickers832]

The practice of circumcizing women is another attempt for men to control women by denying them sexual pleasure that she may otherwise not experience. As far as religions, the older religions feared the female sexual organs because women are capable of having multiple or continual orgasms and men are not, usually. No man or custom, that mutilates women has a right to do so I don't care what the "custom" is. It's wrong, PERIOD and it's degrading to women.

[neveradhimmi]

Snickers, too true. There are plenty of Muslim countries where female genital mutilation is not practiced and is regarded with the horror that 'westerners' feel when confronted with the image of an adult cutting the genitalia of toddlers and young women, because this is not done to infant girls but usually girls older than two or three, without anesthetic mind you, or clean surgical instruments. Its all about removing the sexual pleasure of women to keep them docile and submissive, so they won't enjoy *** and they won't cheat, as women are nothing more than dogs in these countries. Its like when they cut off the foot of a runaway slave to keep them incapable of any autonomy. There is nothing in Islam to mandate this barbarism, and many mullahs oppose the practice.

[cantshutup]

omg! If you are a male and circumsized, it is possible to re-train any excess skin remaining to its natural state. Google it, it's true!

[kjgal]

In this little girl's defense, I am 37 years old and I have very vivid memories of when I was two. My family has confirmed these memories.
I don't know all of the details of the Jewish faith, but I have never heard of them "sucking" circumcised foreskins. Could you elaborate as much as this forum will allow you to? This absolutely sickens me! I would NEVER let anyone do such things to my daughter. I would kill whoever tried or die trying! These barbarians are going to have so much to answer for when they meet their, MY, maker!

[pakaal]

While the Jewish tradition of the practitioner sucking the *** after cutting the foreskin is really rare, it is a part of the orthodox tradition. But that part of it is almost never practiced.

Ritual mutilation should be limited to consenting adults, IMO. And I'm certainly happy that this case had its day in court - more people should take a stand against this backwards practice.

[agnim]

"And you still don't answer my question, what happens to me in a Muslim country if I break their laws?"

Your question has already been answered. It is moot! It is irrelevant!

The practice of circumcision goes way back.
Circumcision predates the insane islamic and judeo-christian ideologies/cultures.

And of course that man has to practice his ritualistic cutting on his daughter at home; since this biased and hypocritical society is only allowing judeo-christian cutting of kocks.

And it matters not how many Jewish sects are allowed to cut and suck tiny kocks.
That fact is it has been allowed in America!

By the way, the ONLY reason that the rabbis were cautioned against cutting and sucking the tiny diks was of concern that certain diseases may have been transmitted to a few children from the cutting and sucking on the tiny kocks.

There was otherwise NO outrage over the practice or any attempt to label it as 'genital mutilation'.

[agnim]

"The practice of circumcizing women is another attempt for men to control women by denying them sexual pleasure that she may otherwise not experience."

What nonsense you write, Snickers?
Female circumcisions are almost always done by females as part of their rites of passage.

To their credit, some of the alert females take it upon themselves to exercise some self-control.
We are unlikely to see them spreading without dignity their private parts all over the Internet porn sites.

[neveradhimmi]

Hey genius, keep posting your defense of genital mutilation, as you only demonstrate my points. You defend something because it 'goes way back.' You never answer my question, calling it a moot point, which it is not, you have not addressed it, because you know I'm right. You are defending 'cutting,' so just keep on posting. You need to go back to the Taliban, where women are beaten, beheaded, mutilated, because according to your logic (or lack thereof), you like this barbarism because it 'goes way back.' You delight in the the infliction of terror on women, you delight in the agony of this young baby, because 'it goes way back.' That must make it right! You have ignored the fact that I have stated repeatedly that I do not condone this practice anywhere. Mass deportation is on the way pal, and you'll be the first one on the boat. Apologists like you are ruining your religion. Don't live here if you cannot or will not abide by our laws. Nowhere does it say we have to accomodate your brutality against women. Tell me, why do you live here if you advocate sharia in America? Our standard of living perhpas, a chance to get an education and have a better life rather than crawling around in an uneducated, poverty-stricken, sick third world barrio? You are not welcome here. Its against the law in America to take a pair of sewing scissors and cut the flesh of babies. What part of that do you not understand?

[agnim]

"Tell me, why do you live here if you advocate sharia in America?"

"Advocate sharia in America"? You are laughable. Ha ha.

Are the Jews practicing your 'sharia in America' when they do their circumcision and even suck on young kocks in the process? LOL

Circumcision has nothing to do with your sharia. Circumcision is a far more ancient practice.

As you have bragged about your so-called judeo-christian tradition, you should know that cutting of children's genitalia have been going on in America and the west for the longest time by those who have copied Jewish practices.


The point I'm making is that it is just ignorance, hypocrisy and cultural bigotry why circumcision is done in judeo-christian culture, but is maligned and mislabeled when practice by others.


I have never witness any American or western outrage when rabbis cut little kocks and suck on them, a **** practice that is even more gross than merely cutting ***.

[squiz2]

"rabbis cut little kocks and suck on them, a **** practice"

You act as if they're giving little babies blow jobs. They're are sucking a bit of blood from the wound. It's medical, not sexual, moron. Are you that homophobic that you turn everything into a gay sexual encounter? Do you think when a doctor grabs your balls and asks you to cough that he's trying to fondle you? No moron, he's doing his job.

[agnim]

"You act as if they're giving little babies blow jobs. They're are sucking a bit of blood from the wound. It's medical, not sexual"

Medical my arse!

If anything, that deviant practice is worse than cutting cl!ts!
Yet we have never heard Americans getting bent out of shape over these romeo rabbis.

And you know what, I for one care little about these 'strange' cultural practices one way or another.

However, we need to be consistent to appear credible; otherwise we come across as ignorant cultural bigots because we unable to bend our stiff little minds around reasonable practices with which people have been quite comfortable for centuries.

Some cultures prefer that their women behave with more dignity.

Other cultures don't mind if their women spread out their privities like beasts on porn sites for all the world to see.