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 would be surprised. It is part of the culture.
Read 1001 Arabian Nights, medieval tales of the culture. They have some strange notions. FGM is not in Arabian Nights, but a high point in preparing for a romantic engagement was removal of pubic hair (male and female).
Homosexuality is treated lightly in Arabian Nights. It does not come up often, but it is accepted. Christians and Jews get very bad treatment in AN. They are monsters, beasts, demonic, worthy to be humiliated and killed.
OK. Thanks. I will look into that further.
I insist that the presentations on women in Islam include FGM and the wide variance in how women are treated.
Yes, there has been some FGM in America in the past.
Allah was the name of the moon god of Mohammed's clan. Islam is still represented by a moon.
She said women favor it. I had one group that was almost brain-dead. They also thought (as a group) that Christianity and Islam were almost the same religion.
Unfortunately, Islam influences a lot of world religion texts, so people get a distorted view of the religion. Many Islamic sites are definitely for hash-eaters. They present the role of Islamic women as heavenly.
That's a good link for propaganda about FGM.
Thanks.
"Butchers!"
I was going to say 'animals', but animals aren't that cruel to each other. Sub-human, perhaps
Please see what Richard Pipes (not the Islamists' favorite scholar) has to say about the origin and meaning of the word "Allah."
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2714
Because male circumcision is hugely less destructive than most of the practices euphemized as "female circumcision?"
To use the analogy of a haircut, male circumcision is taking a little off the top, female circumcision in many versions is more like taking off the scalp.
Also because whatever we Americans do is by definition right and proper, by definition, and those weird practices of furriners are just disgusting.
Yikes. Blech. Ugh. Turning WAAAAAY green. OUUUUUUUCH. Awful. What a horrible practice. Count me OUT. Those poor women.
Could you cite some references, please? That is the very first time I've everheard that.
I don't know how much you've read about this. It sounds as though you need to read more.
Wow - that author sounds as though she specializes in "womyns' studies".
Ms. Paige is full of **** in her reasons why circumcision of males became common in America. My understanding is that it didn't pick up steam until after WWI, well after the mania against sex and masturbation had begun to subside. It is interesting that she appears to avoid the obvious technique of fully charting the incidence of circumcision in newborns over time, probably because it wouldn't support her conclusions.
From what I've read on the subject, there is no apparent logical reason why circumcision became so popular among Americans during the 20th century.
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