Britain Fights Female Genital Mutilation

Police Start Campaign To Stop Practice Mostly Involving Immigrants

(AP)  Female genital mutilation, commonly associated with parts of Africa and the Middle East, is becoming a growing problem in Britain despite authorities' efforts to stamp it out.

The Metropolitan Police, Britain's largest police force, hopes a campaign beginning Wednesday will highlight that the practice is a crime here.

To make their point, police are offering a 20,000-pound (US$40,000) reward for information leading to Britain's first prosecution for female genital mutilation, Detective Chief Superintendent Alastair Jeffrey said.

In Britain, the problem mostly involves first-generation immigrants from Africa and the Middle East.

Police say they do not have comprehensive statistics about the number of victims. But midwife Comfort Momoh, who specializes in treating them at London hospitals and clinics and who works with police, told the news conference she treats 400-500 victims every year.

Arranging or carrying out the procedure — in Britain or abroad — is a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison, but no one has been prosecuted since it was banned under British law in 2003, Jeffrey said. Police estimate up to 66,000 girls in Britain face the risk of genital mutilation.

"The timing of this campaign is for one good reason: so we can get in before the summer holidays, a time when young girls are taken abroad and subjected to genital mutilation," he told a news conference on Tuesday.

Mutilated infants, girls and women face irreversible lifelong health risks — both physically and mentally, according to UNICEF and other charity groups.

Authorities believe the number of genital mutilation cases peaks in the summer, because the extended holiday gives girls more time to recover — thereby making it easier for those responsible to cover up their actions.

Female genital mutilation usually involves the removal of the clitoris and other parts of female genitalia. Those who practice it say it tames a girl's sexual desire and maintains her honor.

It is practiced by Muslims and Christians alike, deeply rooted in the Nile Valley region and parts of sub-Saharan African, and is also done in Yemen and Oman. Through migration, the practice has spread to Western countries like Britain.

Between 100 million and 140 million women are believed to have been subjected to the practice in Africa and an additional 3 million girls face the threat of female genital mutilation every year, according to UNICEF.

Detective Inspector Carol Hamilton, who has been investigating the practice since 2004, said some immigrants in Britain may bring practitioners from their home country to mutilate several children because it is cheaper.

She said children not only suffer terrible physical injuries, but can also be left emotionally scarred.

Salimata Badji-Knight was mutilated when she was 4 in her native Senegal. Her parents had promised her a picnic, but instead she said she was attacked by women who had no medical training.

Now married and living in London, she fears she may not be able to have children because of the procedure. She hopes that by sharing her experiences she can prevent parents from subjecting their daughters to similar abuse.

"Why do they need to go and mutilate a young innocent person without her knowing what is going to happen, just for culture?" Badji-Knight said. "It does not add up for me."

Somali-born supermodel Waris Dirie survived a traditional form of the practice that kills hundreds of girls each year.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to present the "Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur" to her on Thursday for her work as a leading critic of female genital mutilation, which has seen her tour parts of Africa to speak out against the practice.

[igottoask]

We are a culture fraught with our own standards of what is right and acceptable. Many things are done in this country that are politically correct and acceptable (to some). We feign indignation at the injustice of some yet ignore the majority of atrocities done in the name of advancement and civilization. My life is simple my children are happy and loved. Are my standards askew? I teach unconditional love for all people.

[igottoask]

I'm sorry but I have to ask what does "thermiting your towers" mean. I am a Christian of many years and have studied the Bible and I have yet to discover this words usage in there. I am unfamiliar with the term. so I checked a dictionary and couldn't find it. By its possible origins I can assume that it may have something to do with great heat or fire but please help me out here.

[colonieny]

Lars: excellent posts.

Everyone, google pictures of such mutilations and stonings. I f you can handle the shock.

[lars008-2009]

name one fascist nazi terrorislam state that grants equal rights to non muslims???

[trueprogress]

Dan911- Are you nuts. One of the first acts of the Iranian take over from the Shah was to reinstate stoning of Women, as part of Honor killings. thousands died.... ( don't even think that there is a moral equivalency-- you dope.)
If you dishonor the family, you will be buried to your neck and then stones will be thrown at your defenselss face until you die. It is not just torture . it is mid evil, and EVIL.
Judeo Christian Societies are inherently superior. We don't mutilate our daughters or kill them for their hormone fluctuations. We are not afraid of our own skins, whackoffjobs.
(Don't give me any weak moral = arguments, so pitiful)

[michellem99-2009]

I was on one of the boards a man was upset a woman posted when he felt is was a man's board which it was not. Men this is a female issue but this not our board.I had never heard of this and I checked into it. I WAS SHOCKED. It is barbaric. It is the Men who rape and force themselves on the females. YES.Thet got no business violating there girl children for any reason. It is clearly backwards. I read what they do and it made me sick.You can read it. I read about the death of a girl they killed in the bbc online paaper. A pretty child at that. It must be stopped. It is not thegirls but the males that are the problem. The male drive. I am 52.

[zootallures2]

Genital mutilation is as much a part of Islam as thermiting your own towers is to Christianity or Judahism. You are all satanic idiots.

[lars008-2009]

NOW CAN WE KILL THEM???
If they can kill us, we can kill them

Qaeda warns of attacks 'worse than 9/11'
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070530102648.wuwa6k96&show_article=1

Hizbullah Deputy Sec-Gen Sheikh Naim Qassem: We Have Jurisprudent Permission to Carry Out 'Martyrdom' Operations, Fire Missiles on Israeli Civilians From Ayatollah Khomeini
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD154907

Switching Sides: Inside The Enemy Camp

But then in 2000, well before his arrest, something happened which would make Abas question everything he believed in: a fatwa, a religious edict, was issued by Osama bin Laden.

"It should be understood that killing Americans and Jews anywhere found are the highest act of worship and the highest form of good deeds in the eyes of Allah," Simon quotes bin Laden.

Abas and his fellow commanders were ordered to read the fatwa to their men and make sure they carried it out. The others obeyed, but Abas refused. It was his moment of truth. He firmly believed that jihad was to be fought only on the battlefield in defense of Islam; he had always been taught that the killing of civilians had nothing to do with holy war and that it was forbidden.

The fatwa justified killing non-Muslim civilians everywhere.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/04/60minutes/main2761108.shtml?source=RSSattr=60Minutes_2761108
American Al Qaeda Member Threatens Attack
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/29/terror/main2865282.shtml

[dan9111]

The concept that Islam is tougher on girls is ludicrous. Men are routinely the gender who is beheaded, tortured, and forced into murderous military service in the Islamic republics.

Men have been given a distant second-class treatment. All other things equal (money, etc), no FGC woman would trade places with a FGC man. The man is underprivileged in every way. The genital mutilation of males is not only more widespread, but proven to take more living tissue (15 square inches). The impact on girls who are cut, while indefensible, has been scientifically proven to not impact the ability to ***. Look it up. It is tactically effortless for the civilized world to protect American males from the commonplace genital terrorism called circumcision. Then we can all fight in unity for the African girls. Until then, it is total hypocrisy to battle for a Africans' private parts while letting many of them starve to death. They should practice the respect for human dignity that they preach.

[godofredo29]

And, let's fight male genital mutilation, too. Not just by prohibiting circumcision but also by making available the HPV vaccine to men, since it is the only known vaccine for penile cancer