Does this happen to girls in england?

[Harleyman]

Some Harley Street doctors will perform FGM, for a substantial fee, I read this years ago when the whole issue first appeared on the feminist agenda, so don't know if I'll be able to find a link or if this is still current. There was a huge furore as at one time when Ken Livingstone (when he was MP for Brent) was advocating the use of clinics for FGM where it could be performed under sterile (and therefore safer) conditions.

 

Otherwise, in this country from what I gather, 'cutters' are flown in from abroad or female community elders will do it.

 

That's outrageous. As for Ken Livingstone nothing he woud do would surprise me

[patty1142]

There's plenty of posts on here which already address that. To reiterate, she is basically not considered to be 'marriageable' as she will be unable to prove her hitherto chaste state and is also deemed to be unclean.

 

and so to prevent this from happening means the child becomes an outcast?

[Harleyman]

There's plenty of posts on here which already address that. To reiterate, she is basically not considered to be 'marriageable' as she will be unable to prove her hitherto chaste state and is also deemed to be unclean.

 

That should be a blessing for the girl. She's British not African anyway and if one day she decides to marry doesn't have to marry into her kind. She has choices and freedoms

[boyfriday]

and so to prevent this from happening means the child becomes an outcast?

 

Which is why it's so important to change that view so this abuse is eradicated.

[boyfriday]

That should be a blessing for the girl. She's British not African anyway and if one day she decides to marry doesn't have to marry into her kind. She has choices and freedoms

 

That's a good point and whilst there won't be too many who will marry outside of their communities, hopefully the male members will become more enlightened as well as the females.

[Suffragette1]

and so to prevent this from happening means the child becomes an outcast?

 

That's a very reductionist view, but essentially yes. There needs to be significant shift in attitude from the males in these communities too and anecdotal evidence would suggest that the present generation do not wholeheartedly embrace this tradition, but one should never underestimate the power of social and cultural pressures.

 

Women and men need to have other options available to them, rather than just marrying someone from within their own culture.

[patty1142]

That's a very reductionist view, but essentially yes. There needs to be significant shift in attitude from the males in these communities too and anecdotal evidence would suggest that the present generation do not wholeheartedly embrace this tradition, but one should never underestimate the power of social and cultural pressures.

 

Women and men need to have other options available to them, rather than just marrying someone from within their own culture.

 

and how is that done when anyone who trys is called racist?

[boyfriday]

and how is that done when anyone who trys is called racist?

 

Are they? So what if they are? You'd think the police/social workers were well used to harsh language from all quarters.

[nerd]

The only long term effective measure of stopping this sort of thing is by the education and enpowerment of girls. They, and their mothers, need see that marriage and motherhood is not their only possible future.

If the girls are educated alongside boys to the same standards and given equal career opportunities to earn a good living and support themselves, then a whole lot of new choices will be open to them.

At the moment girls in these societies are really only bred to service the men. They are very much second-class citizens. They are brought up to believe that unless they marry they will have no future (and this is probably true of many at the moment). An unmarried woman is an outcast and a burden to her family.

Their mothers know that it is imperative that their daughters get a husband to support them and they will do whatever it takes to secure a marriage.

If the men desire a servile, obedient, circumcised wife - well that's what their daughters must be. They think they are doing the right thing by their daughters - cruel to be kind etc.

Of course the men are reluctant to change this status quo. It's all in their favour. It's in their interests to keep the women servile, faithful, dependent on them. They seem terribly afraid of women getting any power at all.

I am sure that this is why, in so many of these countries, girls are denied an education and women are denied any job outside the home and even forbidden to drive. They want to keep the women at their mercy and wholly dependent on their whims.

It's a vicious circle.

Of course there are some enlightened men in these cultures but they are supressed if they are found out. Wasn't one young man recently sentenced to death for merely downloading an article on women's rights from the Internet?

Genital mutilation is only one facet of the general dark picture of man's inhumanity to women in some cultures and until that wider picture is addressed such barbarities will always go on.

In the meantime, for the protection of girls, the laws against it must be tightened up and rigorously enforced.

 

In some countries this is undoubtably the case, however I am not sure how applocable this is the to the situation we are seeing in this country. Surely the period of compulsory education from 4-16 is teaching these kids otherwise, through both the taught education and through social interaction with kids and adults from other backgrounds? I accept that the perpatrators of this are not the kids themselves (yet) but I would hope that more and more the kids themselves will see that this is wrong.

 

Also, the men need educating as much as the women about the wrongs of this practice of FGM

[Suffragette1]

In some countries this is undoubtably the case, however I am not sure how applocable this is the to the situation we are seeing in this country. Surely the period of compulsory education from 4-16 is teaching these kids otherwise, through both the taught education and through social interaction with kids and adults from other backgrounds? I accept that the perpatrators of this are not the kids themselves (yet) but I would hope that more and more the kids themselves will see that this is wrong.

 

Also, the men need educating as much as the women about the wrongs of this practice of FGM

Absolutely. Once the post-16 compulsory educational requirement comes into effect then that will have an even greater impact.