Posted on 03/18/2013 3:10:00 PM PDT by markomalley
The ancient, brutal practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), once considered primarily a problem of the developing world, is a growing threat to girls and women in the United States, according to a new report.
The United States has longstanding laws against the practice of FGM on U.S. soil and in January, passed a federal law against sending young women outside the country for so-called "vacation cutting". However, girls living in America increasingly are at risk of the procedure both at home and abroad, according to research by Sanctuary for Families.
The New York City-based non-profit organisation, which specialises in gender-based violence, said up to 200,000 girls and women in the United States are at risk of FGM and that the number is growing.
"People in the United States think that FGM only happens to people outside of the United States, but in all actuality, people here all over the country have been through FGM," said Jaha, 23, formerly from Gambia and now a survivor and advocate against FGM.
"Kids that were born in this country are taken back home every summer and undergo this procedure," she was quoted as saying in the report.
The study cited analysis of data from the 2000 census that found between 1990 and 2000 the number of girls and women in the United States at risk of the procedure - which involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia - increased by 35 percent.
SADNESS, EMPTINESS
Most prevalent in immigrant African and Middle Eastern communities, FGM generally originates in the belief by some cultures that it preserves a girl's virginity before marriage and discourages her from promiscuity after she is wed. In many communities, a girl is deemed unfit for marriage if she has not undergone FGM.
The report said FGM has been performed in the United States by health care providers who support FGM or do not want to question families' cultural practices.
Whether performed covertly on U.S. soil or in ceremonies held in ancestral homelands during school vacations, the procedure often is done by traditional practitioners using crude implements, such as razor blades and broken glass. They often operate in unsanitary conditions, far from medical facilities, without anaesthesia, antiseptics or antibiotics.
The physical and psychological effects can be devastating and even fatal. FGM can cause severe pain during sexual intercourse, haemorrhage, shock, complications in childbirth and fistula. It can also lead to depression and anxiety.
"FGM has affected me emotionally throughout my entire life. Those terrible moments stay with me and I just cannot forget them," a 53-year-old woman named Nafissatou, originally from Guinea, told researchers.
"When I went to the hospital to give birth to my children, my experience with FGM was what I remembered most. Every time I shower, I think about it. There is a sadness and emptiness I fell every day because of what FGM took from me," she said.
LACK OF PROSECUTIONS
The United Nations last December called for a global ban on FGM, but, as with laws in the United States, implementation is extremely difficult and, to date, prosecutions have been rare.
The United States has had a law against FGM since 1996 and 20 states have passed their own statutes. But, according to the report, as of 2012, there have been no prosecutions under federal law, and only one criminal case has been brought forward under a state statute.
One problem is that families in the United States, even those who oppose FGM for their daughters, often find themselves under severe pressure from their extended families to subject girls to the procedure.
Another obstacle is a lack of reporting of FGM either by victims, girls at risk or their families. Part of the reason may be due to ignorance of the law, the report found.
"However, reasons for underreporting likely also include reluctance on the part of the girl or her family to come forward, precisely because they know and fear the legal penalties for doing so," it said.
"Many girls fear that innocent family members, especially their mothers, will be considered complicit in their familys efforts to force them to undergo FGM, or worry that if they report their relatives, they will be arrested, prosecuted, and possibly deported," it added.
The report makes a number of recommendations on ways to prevent FGM in the United States.
Key among them:
--Outreach and education to immigrant communities about the legal, physical and psychological consequences of FGM.
--Encouraging community and religious leaders to educate their communities about the harm and illegality of FGM
--Guidelines and training to assist front-line professions, such as law enforcement agents, teachers and health care workers to identify and protect girls at risk.
--Robust enforcement of laws prohibiting FGM, not only on U.S. soil but in the case of girls sent abroad for the procedure.
“3rd world invasion. Decivilizing of America by media and schools, is anyone surprised?”
You are so right.
If a non-Muslim white parent had done something like that to her child, you can be sure that child services would have the kid in foster care and the parent in jail by the end of the day.
The penalty for any third world Muslim male bastard involved in this should be to loose his _________.
I have a cure for anyone that promotes or conducts this hideous procedure ... TT
I guess I picked a good time to start my goat ranch.
There is more to this procedure than can be described in civil discussion. Let’s say that they modify a girl’s sexual privates to approximate sex with a boy. With these degenerates, sex with boys is the ultimate. I suspect Zer0, as a boy, found out the Muslim’s fondness for boys when he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia from ages six to ten.
Then death penalty plus dismemberment.
“Remember, children: all cultures are equal... (/sarc...in case I need to say it) “
A lot of Americans died raising the native savages up to civilization and now we’re IMPORTING MORE SAVAGES! Yeah, THAT’s progress!
The first three words of the article, the ancient practice, are inaccurate. It is a modern practice. And now that modern practice has apparently come to the US.
Anyone found to have done this to a young girl should be castrated.
“Everyone who supports and seems to love moozlums needs to have their genitalia mutilated. It would only be fair and supportive. “
Well, you’ll have to start with a bunch of republicans! CPAC and the ACU are full of them and they don’t allow any criticism of their beloved radical Muslims!
Needed CPAC Insurgency: Oust Keene, Khan, Norquist ..
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2011/01/cpac-scandal-david-keene-embroiled-in-embezzlement-of-400000-in-donor-funds.html
Tube-tiers and Vas-snippers do it too, except that they maim their internal, rather than external, sex organs.
All the trannies do it, and they are considered "courageous," cultural heroes, bellwethers of the Brave New Genderworld.
Start to aggressively prosecuted people who do this to their children and make sure to take the kids, all the kids, not just the mutilated, horribly abused girls, and give them to Christian families.
FGM - lose all of your kids
"Many girls fear that innocent family members, especially their mothers, will be considered complicit in their familys efforts to force them to undergo FGM, or worry that if they report their relatives, they will be arrested, prosecuted, and possibly deported," it added.
What was not said was that if the young girl resists, it may be considered dishonoring the family and more radical members may assault or even perform an "honor killing" of the girl.
>>But the Muslims aren’t the only ones that do it.
>>Tube-tiers and Vas-snippers do it too, except that they maim their internal, rather than external, sex organs.
>>All the trannies do it, and they are considered “courageous,” cultural heroes, bellwethers of the Brave New Genderworld.
The tube-tiers, etc do it to themselves. The muzzies do it to children. That’s a world of difference.
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