Posted on 07/31/2008 9:48:56 AM PDT by Stoat
Kids as young as four have had their genitals sewn up because parents believe it will protect their virginity until marriage.
The practice is popular in many African countries but banned in the UK. Scotland Yard believes that 6,500 girls in London are at risk.
Ages of victims rescued range from a few days old to 16.
The total saved by the Met’s Project Azure is up ELEVEN-FOLD on 2007.
Police received tip-offs that they were due to be sent abroad or have grisly ops in backstreet clinics.
The mutilation is usually carried out when girls are between four and six. The horrific procedure is done without consent and sometimes with no anaesthetic.
During the summer holidays, girls are duped out of Britain to attend “a special ceremony”.
Anyone caught arranging female genital mutilation here faces a maximum 14-year prison term. Two million girls around the world suffer the ordeal each year.
One victim – Hoda, 30, of London – was mutilated in Somalia when she was six.
She told The Sun: “Parents have it done as they want their daughters to stay virgins until they are married. But I will live with the pain for the rest of my life.”
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “This is child abuse in one of its most severe forms.”
Crime writer Ruth Rendell today joins Project Azure to highlight the issue.
Anyone who believes a child may be in danger should call Project Azure’s hotline on 020 7161 2888.
year ago.
But senior officers said it has been impossible to put anyone in the dock despite new legislation outlawing those who undertake the procedure and arrange it.
Det Supt Caroline Bates, of the Met's child abuse investigation command, said: "We have been unable to prosecute anybody.
"We have had a considerable increase in the number of pieces of information about particular children.
"The awareness raising has been good and we have had intelligence and some operations where we have followed up with surveillance, but we have been unable to identify anybody that we can hold criminally responsible.
"Some of that comes down to the fact that we can't age the injuries. The child had been mutilated, but we can't confirm if it was prior or post the legislation."
The Metropolitan Police set up Project Azure to tackle the growing problem of female genital mutilation.
It is feared up to 6,500 girls in London are at risk of to the tradition that can be traced back to many African nations.
Metropolitan Police Service - Specialist Crime Directorate
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One naturally wonders how prevalent this barbarity is here in the United States....with the large number of African immigrants, it has to be significant here as well.
notice how the RELIGION of these barbarians is not mentioned???? O, I wonder what it could be.....
I suppose Lefties would consider this social progress? These barbarians cannot be assimilated. Sooner or later there will be a showdown of cultures.
Indeed. And when the Left endlessly criticizes Christian missionaries for "destroying the great, proud and ancient culture of Africa" , I assume that they are also objecting to this sort of barbarity being stopped. If not, why not? We are always told about how much incredible wisdom African tribal culture can teach us, if we would only stop our imperialist onslaught and listen to the tribal elders......
Celebrate Diversity!
How many prosecutions over male circumcision?
As I read stories like this I understand the old violent stories in the Old Testament more and more.
When I first read them, as a child, I couldn’t understand why God could command the Israelites to wipe out whole cultures. But now I look at the invasion of barbaristic actions we suffer now with our compassionate ways, and I start to have some understanding of just how good cultures can be totally destroyed and corrupted because they were too “compassionate” - or selfish.
I guess I’m just too Politically incorrect to even be talking about good and bad cultures.
Hum...Islam?
South Africa Boy dies at circumcision school
South Africa Eastern Cape circumcision death toll rises to 22
I see occasional stories on this happening in Africa, but I haven't seen similar stories from the UK or the USA. I would imagine that it's similarly prevalent among African immigrants.
“Diversity is our strength. All cultures are equal.”
/barf
In the US and UK it’s simple and inexpensive to get a boy circumsized properly by a medical professional, mainly because it doesn’t involve sewing the kid’s wotsit to his rear entrance. No ethical doctor would perform a female circumsision.
Would an African immigrant, steeped in tribal ritual as well as Islam view a “Western circumcision” as addressing whatever traditions or rituals are intended? Or would this be regarded as “blasphemous” and unacceptable to someone who is accustomed to and expects a ritualistic barbarity?
Historically, the more decadent, undisciplined, narcissistic culture is conquered by the more disciplined culture with defined moral values (whatever those values might be).
This doesn't look good for us.
“Sooner or later there will be a showdown of cultures”.
Let me guess who will wave the white flag first..
Not only entire cultures, but all of their beasts as well.
Makes you wonder what the beasts did - or what was done to them.
That's not (PC) true! Christianity, as we all know, is to be shunned and forcibly removed from public view!
I've heard of this as being available in the UK, but there have been a lot of problems with it being effective because the father invariably complains that the daughter is just making up stories and is a runaway. In order for the rescue to be effective, there needs to be some evidence for the law to be able to step in, and in these cases quite often the only evidence comes far too late in the form of the dead girl's body
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