i needed to link to this

absolutely NEEDED to.

there are NOT two sides to female genital mutilation. a rose steamin' pile o' shite by any other name..........

it's not culture and it's not ethnicity and it's not tradition. it's the FORCIBLE HOLDING DOWN OF VERY YOUNG GIRLS AND CUTTING THEIR GENITALS OFF SO THEY WILL NOT EXPERIENCE SEXUAL PLEASURE LATER IN LIFE. in most cases, it's not even done by a doctor. (if you're asking what i think of male circumcision, i think the same thing. it's brutal and savage)

why it's even being presented in any other form than that is fucking beyond me. a bull fight is spanish or mexican 'tradition, culture, or whatever'. to me it's STILL KILLING AN ANIMAL FOR THE GRATIFICATION OF SALIVATING CROWDS. as i said, a rose steamin' pile o' shite by any other name........

cutting off a young girls vaginal lips does NOT make them a woman. it does NOT welcome them into womanhood. it's barbaric and savage and fucked up. if as an adult a woman wishes to have that done to her, than so be it. it's then THEIR decision. when it's forced on a young girl, then it's OUR business and MUST BE STOPPED AT ALL COSTS.


Female Genital Mutilation Versus Female Circumcision
The amazing Michelle Goldberg has a great piece in the latest print issue of The American Prospect, but you can also read it online. Essentially, she's exploring the question, as the title suggests, of "Rights Versus Rites," when it comes to the much abhorred practice of "female genital mutilation" (by many Westerner feminists) and the much honored practice of "female circumcision" (by many African women). Same practice, vastly different contexts and values--as evidenced by the language itself. Goldberg writes:

At first glance, the two speakers seemed to symbolize the dichotomy between modernity and tradition, cosmopolitanism and cultural authenticity. Fuambai Ahmadu (pictured), the American-born daughter of a Sierra Leonean family, wore knee-high leather boots under a stylish rust-colored skirt. A postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, she looked younger than her 40 years. Beside her was Grace Mose, regal in a red African tunic, matching skirt, and head wrap. Her perfect English was deeply accented by her native Kenya, where she had grown up in an Abagusii village in the country's southwest region. It was easy to imagine her as a champion of the line of midwives who have made their living cutting girls since the beginning of recorded history, women who are now being jailed in some countries for practicing a trade that once brought them money and pride.

But it wasn't that simple. Ahmadu, not Mose, is the high-profile defender of female circumcision and the role it can play in inducting African girls into their societies. "My sitting here is a perfect example that female initiation can have a place in a global society," she insisted. "I don't see that initiation is somehow an impediment to girls' development."...Toward the end of the debate, a Senegalese woman, incensed by Ahmadu, stood up and said, "I really feel very frustrated seeing an African sister defending female genital mutilation.".........

no five year old or seven year old or twelve year old girl should EVER have to go through this ANYWHERE. in some cultures women are thought to be UNCLEAN unless fgm occurs. well lots of cultures think females are unclean PERIOD.

EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE INCLUDING FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION


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

By Amit R. Paley

Washington Post Foreign Service

TUZ KHURMATU, Iraq

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.........

she was five when this happened:

They pinned me to the ground, and I just cried and cried," said Shaker, who spoke barely above a whisper. "I was just so astonished. But now I realize that they want to prevent women from living their lives normally." Her mother, Shukria Ismaeel Jarjees, a 38-year-old housewife, said she was forced by her relatives and elderly women in the community to have her daughter circumcised. "I made a huge mistake, and now my daughter is always complaining of pain in her pelvis," Jarjees said. Her eyes began to fill with tears. "I now advise my daughters to never circumcise their children."

if you have a daughter or are an aunt or uncle

to a girl, or have friends who have girls, think about this:

Girls flee circumcision in Kenya
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.

Security

The girls in Kuria District are now in the care of the two churches and Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, a women's organisation. ...........

education is the KEY to stopping this (and almost everything else. EDUCATION)

fgm

from a different angle. of course ALL angle are bad ones



(found via feministing)

fgm

i've written about it before and will continue to do so until it is eradicated from the face of the earth (i'm NOT a fan of male circumcision either by the way. however, that is USUALLY done in a hospital. no, not always. however, MOST of the time it does NOT horribly mutilate and disfigure the person as does female genital mutilation)

asylum must be granted for these people. the ones who migrate to the us are few. we can open our doors to them. we must also help to educate other countries on the effects of this horror. it MUST stop

Area Immigrants With Wounds That Won't Heal

Mutilated Women Seek Asylum in U.S.

By Pamela Constable

Washington Post Staff Writer

The women's stories all begin with a searing childhood memory they cannot describe without weeping.

The stories stretch back to villages in North and West Africa, where tribal traditions include various rites to protect family honor. For generations, mothers there have passed on the practice of genital circumcision to their daughters, believing it will make them respectable and chaste for marriage.

The stories leap to present-day America, where foreign-born victims of forced circumcision have been allowed to apply for political asylum since a landmark immigration ruling in 1996, but where, in the past year, some immigration courts have been trying to narrow the grounds on which they can receive legal sanctuary.

Only a few hundred women have sought or won such asylum claims. A handful live quietly in the Washington area, working in hospitals and offices and beauty salons. All carry deep physical and mental wounds. Five agreed to be interviewed, but none was willing to be identified. No one at their jobs or in their neighborhoods knows their secret. In court documents, they are referred to as "A-T" or "H-M." Yet they live in fear that a distant, smothering culture can reach out and harm them again..........

this MUST stop

and it must stop now. look at this picture: Tears are wiped from the face of a 9-month-old following her circumcision.

look at that baby's eyes.........

Photo: Stephanie Sinclair

(for the record, i am NOT for male circumcisions either)

however, when it's done to girls and women, it is outright mutilation AND further - it absolutely eliminates ANY chance of 'pleasure' . that is unacceptable to me. for women to be treated this way. for women to do this to OTHER women. for ANYONE to do this to a woman.

A Cutting Tradition

By SARA CORBETT

When a girl is taken — usually by her mother — to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals. Sponsored by the Assalaam Foundation, an Islamic educational and social-services organization, circumcisions take place in a prayer center or an emptied-out elementary-school classroom where desks are pushed together and covered with sheets and a pillow to serve as makeshift beds. The procedure takes several minutes. There is little blood involved. Afterward, the girl’s genital area is swabbed with the antiseptic Betadine. She is then helped back into her underwear and returned to a waiting area, where she’s given a small, celebratory gift — some fruit or a donated piece of clothing — and offered a cup of milk for refreshment. She has now joined a quiet majority in Indonesia, where, according to a 2003 study by the Population Council, an international research group, 96 percent of families surveyed reported that their daughters had undergone some form of circumcision by the time they reached 14. .........

and here is some giant steamin' bullshite if i ever heard it:

...According to Lukman Hakim, the foundation’s chairman of social services, there are three “benefits” to circumcising girls.
“One, it will stabilize her libido,” he said through an interpreter. “Two, it will make a woman look more beautiful in the eyes of her husband. And three, it will balance her psychology.”.........