Female Genital Mutilation - Channel 4, Weds 6 Nov

[boxtops]

Following earlier threads on this topic (and prompted by the Burka thread at the moment), some of you may be interested to bookmark this programme, Channel 4, 1045pm on Wednesday (6th) - The Cruel Cut, documentary about a group of FGM survivors campaigning against the practice. They trailed it earlier today.

[emmie]

i knew about this a long time ago, and have watched any number of programmes, documentaries about this vile practice, will i watch another, don't know, because quite frankly will it tell me more about a subject i have read about, unlikely, as to the apologists for this truly horrible practice, i suggest if it were men having much of their bits lopped off, and don't equate circumcision as in any way similar, then it would have stopped years ago. The fact remains it goes on in many countries, and UK too, that you can't stop it, education in all schools, mosques about the practice and how it affects young girls, women, and make it graphic, some might actually get the message, not to mention make it a punishable crime, 5 years in jail for anyone who is a practitioner, and the parents who make their girls goes through this get a large fine. I would put them in jail, but who is going to care for the child. Of course if they cared for the girl they wouldn't make her go through it in the first place. If they take the girls out the country how would one know it had been done, that is the major drawback.

[andy-hughes]

I am pretty sure it was the one and only programme I watched about this vile practice that advised that the thinking behind a lot of its continuation is the fact that women who have gone through it as children think their own child should not 'escape' the same experience.

It sounds like twisted thinking,but I find it hard to get my head around the concept that this proceedure is exactly that - twisted thinking.

[emmie]

i have read a good deal about it in the past, and watched any number of programmes on it, it is skewed thinking, a practice that if used on white British, European girls would have the feminists up in Parliament screaming like banshees, and quite rightly so, however because it's not our cultural practice, it's gone largely under the radar. More info on it, more pamphlets, booklets in GP surgeries, hospitals and indeed most importantly in all educational establishments. Until these men and some of the women get the point that is a brutish, completely unnecessary procedure then it will continue, and blight the lives of these young girls, women. I will never understand the point one woman made, that she had had it done when a young girl, so her daughter will go though it too, even though she has been in pain even since it was done, skewed, barking mad more like

[ummmm]

I can't get my head round the mentality either.

[emmie]

read this, it's appalling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation

[emmie]

the first two paragraphs are enough, read the rest and you will be heading for a sink to be sick in.

[johnny37]

with regards to sending girls abroad it can be made an offence under uk law in the same way as sex tourisim against children. The parents would still be complicite in the offence. It is difficult to envisage changes soon in view of our muslim friends' reluctance to make a stand against anything they should be. It is difficult to say what I want but you know what I mean.

[FredPuli43]

Is this entirely a Muslim practice, that is believed by some to a religious obligation, or is it a cultural practice which happens to be found in predominantly Muslim countries?

[naomi24]

Fred, //Is this entirely a Muslim practice, that is believed by some to a religious obligation,//

Predominately, but not entirely. A few Christians who live in close proximity to some Islamic societies practice it – and since verses in the Hadith recommend it, yes, it is believed to be a religious obligation. The Christians who adopt it use a biblical verse to justify it, although personally I can’t see any justification at all for FGM there. I read it as referring to men.

//For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.// Matt. 19:12

It’s interesting to note that whilst it is outlawed in Egypt, it is estimated that around 70% of females there have been subjected to it – as have a high proportion of girls in other Islamic countries - and it is reported that the recently ousted Muslim Brotherhood had every intention of decriminalising it in Egypt.

[pusskin]

Thank you for posting this programme Boxtops.
Even though this sort of thing makes me feel very sick, I think we should all be aware of this very cruel practise.

[emmie]

being aware of it is one thing, being able to do anything about it is quite another. The police, social services, schools, should all be up to speed on this vile practice, they should, could be the ones to bring it to a halt, i don't know whether that is possible, but they should try. Otherwise women are consigned to a life of misery.