Posted on 08/09/2005 9:42:45 AM PDT by Crackingham
Set on an arid plain southeast of Kirkuk, Hasira looks like a place forsaken by time. Sheep amble past mud-brick houses and the odd sickly palm tree shades children's games. There is no electricity. Yet along with 39 other villages in this region that Iraq's Kurds have named Germian (meaning hot place), Hasira and its people have become noted for presenting the first statistical evidence in Iraq of the existence of female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), as critics call it.
"We knew Germian was one of the areas most affected by the practice," says Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, director of a German nongovernmental organization called WADI, which has been based in Iraq for more than a decade. Of the 1,554 women and girls over 10 years old interviewed by WADI's local medical team, 907, or more than 60 percent, said they had undergone the operation.
The practice is known to exist throughout the Middle East, particularly in northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, and Iraq. There is also circumstantial evidence to suggest it is present in Syria, western Iran, and southern Turkey.
But while this practice was suspected in the region, there was never any solid proof that the procedure was so prevalent. When WADI presented the results of its survey in Vienna this spring, Mr. Osten-Sacken recalls, various Iraqi groups accused the group of being an agent of the Israelis. Even the Iraqi Kurdish authorities, who have backed efforts to combat FGM since the late 1990s, were rattled.
While urban Kurds are generally laxer in religious practice and more Western-looking than most Iraqis - they're the major opponents of sharia for Iraq's new constitution, for instance - many rural pockets cling to ancient traditions.
"The [Kurdish] Ministry of Human Rights hauled us in for questioning," remembers Assi Frooz Aziz, coordinator of WADI's Germian medical team. "They accused us of publicizing the country's secrets."
But it's not just obstructionism that has held up awareness of the phenomenon. Unlike in parts of Africa, where FGM is practiced relatively openly, in the Middle East it is veiled in secrecy.
"You can't just walk into a village and ask people if they circumcise their daughters or not," says Germian social worker Hero Umar. "These people only talked because we've been bringing them medical help for over a year."
Women in Hasira and the surrounding villages are reluctant to talk about the practice. After long negotiation, Trifa Rashid Abdulkerim agrees to answer some questions. A farmer's wife from the village of Milkhasim, she says she learned circumcision techniques from her neighbor and took over when she stopped. "June is the best time of the year," she says, "and the best age for patients is anywhere between 3 and 8."
I'M GOING TO BE ILL.
Bush's fault.
I would say, "We must get to the bottom of this!" ....but, I'm still ill.
I just read this to my wife, she is turning green.
It's just pure evil. Period.
Butchers!
Again, the silence from the feminists is deafening, as it was during the Lewinski scandal. Political correctness just keeps colliding with reality. Ain't it fun?
And we have men dying to free these idiots?
I wonder how Jane Fonda would react to this practice.
Well, now we know that it's not just an African practice, but an Islam one. You all do know that it is very widespread in Africa. And there has been at least one woman in the USA (FL, I think) who spent some time in jail because she "circumsized" her daughter (yes, she was from Africa). This is one of the most incompatible aspects of primitive cultures that can not be allowed to infest our Western society. It needs to end.
Savages.
Is FGM a purely cultural practice, or is it based in some way on the Religion of Death?
I was just going to say, here's a cause for the feminazi's to get behind!
ping
Of course, the widespread practice here in the USA, MGM, male genital mutilation is a good thing, and will get no press whatsoever.
I was ok about this subject, agreeing that what a woman in the Middle East experienced was barbaric, while we, here, were civilized.
Until I learned that 60 percent of all sexual nerve endings in a man's member is embedded in the foreskin itself. I've been dismayed to learn that far than just 'skin' is removed...
But, wait, this is an FGM post, and so, I'll respond to that: the feminist nazis here in the USA have been silent on this all along, just like when they were silent while Bill Clinton was hammering away on all the chicks.
This story will basically just vanish, and will see Bill soon again on TV like a grinning Jack in the Box....
I teach Islam and other world religions. FGM is not in the Koran or the other associated writings. People should remember that Mohammed only reformed Bedouin religion. He did not invent Ramadan, Mecca, or even Allah. He made his tribal god, Allah, the one god.
In one town in this state there is a Moslem community. FGM has been practiced on the women, according to my source, a nurse at the hospital. She was completely repulsed by it.
In general Blacks take offense at Islam being subjected to criticism. One Black woman defended FGM in class.
From all that I have heard and read, FGM (at various levels) is widely practiced in Islam. The reasoning is probably to keep women from having urges. Some removed the clitoris. Others remove all external genitalia. Any crude instrument is fine. Women perform the mutilation; however, refusing is a rejection of fatherly authority.
I should hope not. I hope they're dying to keep America safe from Muslim Terror. Freeing these idiots is only a collateral result. Or at least that's all it should be.
I almost posted something much worse, but knew it would be deleted.
It's akin to chopping off a man's weewee.
The article is very unclear about what is being done. It states "existence of female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM),"
It is one or the other. If it is circumcision that is removing the foreskin or prepuce from the clitoris, akin to removing the foreskin from the penis. Not removing the clitoris.
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