The Guardian on the FGM report itself.
Thousands of girls in danger of genital mutilation are being failed by the health and justice systems, a coalition of health professionals has warned in a report that recommends aggressive steps to eradicate the practice in the UK.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) should be treated the same as any other kind of child abuse and evidence of it must be reported to the police, according to the report.
Janet Fyle, a policy adviser of the Royal College of Midwives and one of the report’s authors, said that just as it was inconceivable that a health worker would not report evidence of child abuse to the police, it should be equally important to report evidence of FGM.
Imagine someone just carving up a little girl’s genitalia for the hell of it, then imagine FGM, then try to see what the difference is. There isn’t any.
The report clearly emphasises the importance of an individual’s safety over the respect for religious and racial sensibilities, a point welcomed by Shaista Gohir, the chairwoman of the Muslim Women’s Network.
“We need to be mindful of cultural and religious sensibilities but safeguarding the child from FGM has to be the priority. If a child is at risk it is better to protect them rather than religious and cultural feelings,” she said.
Cultural and religious sensibilities that require mutilating children are not worth having or respecting or treating deferentially.
140 million girls and women living with mutilated genitals and the demons who purge their own daughters from competition blame men for it.
But feminists don’t say anything about mothers who mutilate their children because they’re too busy advertising rape as a ‘prize’ to confused boys.
Hell is empty all the demons are here…breeding.
“Cultural and religious sensibilities that require mutilating children are not worth having or respecting or treating deferentially.”
Well said, OB
Hear! Hear!
@Johnny Vincent
Of course they blame men for it. And if women are conned by men they will do it, too. The whole point is men’s power and the submission of women, and after several thousand years it becomes the received wisdom. After only one day it becomes the received wisdom if people are frightened enough. And then it stays, for ever and ever. We’re talking about a tradition dating from the most primitive times. But the root of it is the power of men, the danger of acknowledging a woman’s libido, the fear of being attracted to a woman and losing one’s self-possession, the desire to trade on male desire and keep one’s merchandise unused, the fear that an object of desire will answer back and declare independence. Why deny girls an education? Why deny them sexual feelings? Why demand purity and beauty? Why demand an extraordinary level of submissiveness and moral goodness which men themselves are not expected to attain?
Perhaps the idea is castration. If castrating a man makes him more servile, then castrating a woman ought to do the same. Of course, it doesn’t work, as femininity is more fundamental than mere maleness. Femininity is essential humanity, and that’s what the male oppressors can’t endure. Always desiring women, always having to put up with their yea or nay, always having to hear their voices, their complaints, their jokes, their laughter, having to allow for their sheer independence of mind, always being expected to do things, always having to meet demands. As if other men didn’t make enough demands already. It’s just so unjust.
When you say that ” Cultural and religious sensibilities that require mutilating children are not worth having or respecting or treating deferentially”, are you including the genital mutilation of male children?
I certainly am. There’s a lot about that on this blog.
Thank you for your prompt and clear reply and for pointing me towards recent discussions on this blog which, as a recent reader, I’m afraid I’d overlooked.
A pleasure.