Fgm

[emmie]

its truly appalling, and these are the ones they know about, and only in the capital, so how many more across the country. how on earth can a parent allow this to happen to their child.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-26639542

[mikey4444]

Thanks emmie !

[hc4361]

How many of the ops are performed in the UK?

I know 2 young ladies that had it done when they were very young in Somalia.

[emmie]

no idea, but i suspect there would be, after all it's not hard to imagine that the parents can find a person to do it, if you can find them to abort a girl child, all you need is money. And if they take the child out the country, then the problem is the medical people here are having to pick up the pieces.

[hc4361]

Abortion is legal in the UK so that is no real comparison.
Any doctor found to have performed this OP in the UK will not only be struck off but end up in prison, too.

[emmie]

abortion on the grounds of gender selection isn't as far as i know, i am aware the woman can say she doesn't want the baby because of ill health, or any known excuse, if she knows the gender, but it does go on.

[emmie]

as explained it doesn't have to be a doctor.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/female-genital-mutilation/Pages/Introduction.aspx

[DaisyNonna]

Any parent allowing this to be done to their child should be locked up. Have already signed a petition. What more can we do? There must be something.

[LazyGun]

Short answer is that nobody knows how many are carried out in the UK. because we have precious little data to go on. Hospitals have not been obliged to document and report instances of FGM, although the practice has been illegal since 1980s so quite why it was not mandatory to document and record such cases before now I don't know.

The only figures we do have are based upon the returns from a small number of hospitals, mostly situated in London, and it is from these figures that the overall figures for the incidence to be extrapolated and guessed at.

I thought it interesting that, of the 4,000 or so cases recorded, only 8 were actually born in the UK; This seems to be very much a problem with new immigrant communities, although that perception might change as more figures come in ,and suggests that those offering to perform FGM are situated abroad for the most part, rather than being based in the UK.

As to medical professionals over here "getting their fingers out" and reporting more cases - they can only report the cases they see, and most often they present later, during pregnancy etc. I do not suppose GPs for instance, make a habit of inspecting the genitalia of young girls unless there is a pressing clinical need to do so; nor should we want them to.

As with all things, education remains the key factor in changing the cultural perception of FGM and rendering it obsolete ; Education within the communities and education of those girls at risk.

[DaisyNonna]

Education? Such as?

[sandyRoe]

Is it too outlandish to suggest that the only to end such barbarity here in the UK would be to mete out justice on an eye for an eye basic. FGM would soon stop if the parents of any child found to have suffered it had their noses loped off.

[LazyGun]

Education and educational efforts like this

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/kenya_35433.html

[emmie]

it should be highlighted in hospitals, in schools, doctors surgeries, posters on the dangers and illegality of this reprehensible practice, and talks given by those it has happened to, on the dangers, same as though do with drug and drink abuse. Of course it's difficult if they have it done overseas, but the fallout will come back to the UK, as those figures seem to show.

[LazyGun]

@Sandy - You aim to punish what you see as barbarism with state sanctioned barbarism? How does that help anyone?

[jomifl]

I have this surreal image of noses loping off into the sunset ...

[emmie]

sandyr, we should stop this barbarity with a blitz on the places i have suggested, and most importantly in schools,

[DaisyNonna]

No, sandy, genitals

[emmie]

sandy, might your comments be a little ironic?

[DaisyNonna]

Schools? What about the atrocities happening now and will continue to happen until the message gets through (if it does)?

[LazyGun]

@DN The only way that you address any such "atrocity" is through education, and that takes time. You can take steps to legislate, to report, to criminalise, but in cases like this they are not of themselves going to solve the problem.

Education is the key.

Do you think the mothers/aunts/older sisters that sanction and organise such practices are deliberately cruel to their daughters when they take them to have this procedure done?

[emmie]

that is why i said hospitals and doctors surgeries, not sure where else, junior schools are not necessarily going to like this kind of material, and doubt if little children would know what this is about, they could also target specific communities,