Cutting the rose - Somalia's the place.

Somaliland now center for illegal female cutting.

Hargeisa, the peaceful capital of the self-proclaimed state of Somaliland, has become a new centre for the Somali Diaspora wanting to perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on their daughters. Most live in countries where FGM is strictly forbidden, including when this is done abroad.

A team from the Norwegian public broadcaster 'NRK' last week visited Hargeisa, where it easily found practitioners of the outlawed practice of FGM (also referred to as "female circumcision" or "female cutting"), which is widely condemned as strongly harmful to women and girls, also by many Muslim religious leaders.

The Somalilander women performing FGM did so privately or in open cooperation with public health facilities in Hargeisa, where most worked as midwifes. Among Somalis, female genital mutilation is very widespread and the UN estimates that 98 percent of women in Somaliland and Somalia have been subjected to the harmful practice.

In most countries where the large Somali Diaspora is represented, however, FGM is strictly outlawed. Research nevertheless shows that a majority of Somali parents living abroad ignore the laws of their host country and continue exposing their daughters to this culturally based practice.

And as southern Somalia remains an unsafe destination, peaceful Somaliland has emerged a safe haven for Somalis wanting to visit friends and family. Or wanting to stick to traditions.

The 'NRK' team met with ten FGM practitioners in Hargeisa saying they had performed the cut on at least 185 Somali girls living in Norway. The practitioners further confirmed that Norway-based parents were popular clients as they paid "well", typically euro 20 each girl. European summer holidays were seen as the top season for these women performing FGM.

Based on these data, it is estimated that thousands of young girls are brought to Hargeisa each year from Europe alone to undergo the mutilation. Somali women rights organisations all over Europe and North America have for years tried to address this practice, knowing that each summer holiday, hundreds of young girls are taken to Hargeisa for just this reason.

In Norway, this revelation caused a public outcry and fuelled the debate about how to better enforce national legislation outlawing FGM. Politicians have proposed anything from information campaigns targeting Somalis in Norway, to obliging medics to report cases they come over to the police and introducing obligatory health tests for girls returning from summer holidays in Somalia.

While Somali parents living abroad can be taken to court for child abuse after having taken their daughters to Somaliland to undergo FGM, the Hargeisa practitioners operate in full legality. Attempts to outlaw FGM in Somaliland have so far failed.

Update: Conviction in Genital Mutilation Case

Man Convicted in Daughter' Circumcision
Khalid Adem could be sentenced up to 40 years for his conviction of aggregated battery and cruelty to children charges.
Wednesday, November 1, 2006

A jury in Atlanta found a man guilty for what human rights activists call the genital mutilation of his daughter. Khalid Adem could be sentenced up to 40 years for his conviction of aggregated battery and cruelty to children charges, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Wednesday.
Adem, 31, cried after the verdict was read, the newspaper reported. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

Authorities say Adem, 31, circumcised his daughter in 2001 when the girl was 2; the mother reported it in 2003, the Journal-Constitution said. Health and human rights activists call the procedure female genital mutilation.

During the trial, Adem claimed his ex-wife and the maternal grandmother circumcised the girl, now 7, the Journal-Constitution said.

More info here and here and here.

Genital Mutilation...Where there's a will there's a way.

Parents fly in African village elders to circumcise their young daughters

HUNDREDS of young girls in Britain are suffering genital mutilation at the hands of women paid to come to Britain by their families. African immigrants are clubbing together to pay for practitioners to fly to Britain and circumcise their daughters in highly secretive rituals.

There ought to be a law... Well, there is - but...

In Britain, female circumcision — or female genital mutilation (FGM) — is illegal, and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment. The penalty has, however, failed to halt the practice, with thousands of young girls taken abroad each year for that purpose. There has never been a prosecution, although it has been an offence since 1985 with the introduction of the FGM Act. Since 2003, taking a child to another country to have it done has also been an offence.

This makes the goofy movie they showed you in sixth grade seem kind of lightweight doesn't it?

Detective Inspector Carol Hamilton, an expert in the field, said: “One primary school child was overheard telling her friends that she was going to be taken to her home country and there would be a party, a ceremony, because she was becoming a woman. Police and social services visited the girl’s home. They said they were not stopping the family from going away, but wanted the parents to know that FGM was against the law, that their daughter would be monitored on her return, and they could be arrested if she had had it done. “This particular family didn’t know that it was against the law and took the advice fully on board — many people still think it’s OK if you go abroad.”

Okay, that's the problem right there. Hey fools - it's never 'OK' - got it? And here's why:

The procedure is highly dangerous and leaves many of its victims with health problems throughout their lives. Infections and cysts are commonplace, as are complications during childbirth, endangering both mother and baby. Women who have suffered genital mutilation are twice as likely to die in childbirth and three times as likely to give birth to a stillborn child.

Sheesh. The silence of our "feminist" sisters is deafening on this issue. Why am I not surprised? Oh, that's right. I forgot, they are too busy killing unborn babies and hating George Bush.

Bonus points: Have you noticed how Mavis Leno has shut up about the women of Afghanistan since George Bush got in office and the Coalition of the Willing went to town on the Taliban? Same goes for Christiane Amanpour - I guess she is too busy chatting up the insurgents for video clips of our soldiers being killed to work on stuff like this.

Speaking of snipers, go here to support our American Snipers instead of the enemy's.

Cheers - Dinah

Genital Mutilation ... Of a 2 Year Old ... in Atlanta

Sickening.

Note to Khalid: You're not in Ethiopia anymore. You're in America.

Monday, activists from all over the world will be focused on a Gwinnett County courtroom as Khalid Adem, accused of cruelty to a child and aggravated battery for allegedly circumcising his daughter, goes on trial. Adem, 30, was charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children more than three years ago and, if convicted, could face 40 years in prison. He was born in Ethiopia, where circumcision is a common procedure for young girls.

This part of the story makes no sense to me. What mother wouldn't discover this horror for two years?

Police say Adem circumcised his daughter with scissors in his Duluth apartment, while someone else held the girl's legs. Authorities said the circumcision occurred sometime in 2001 but the mother didn't discover it until two years later. The mother told police she learned about it while arguing with Adem about female circumcision. The mother told police that she told Adem she didn't want that to happen to their daughter, but Adem implied the circumcision had already occurred.

Daddy dearest has an answer for that:

Adem has said through his defense attorney W. Mark Hill that he was innocent. Hill said the allegations stem from a bitter divorce and custody battle the couple was going through at the time. Hill has said the family of the girl's mother, Fortunate Adem, also is from Africa and could have performed the circumcision.

But he still might get a break because:

In 2003, there was no state law in Georgia that addressed female circumcision. That's why Adem was charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children. After her ex-husband's arrest, Fortunate Adem worked with Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) to get a law passed outlawing female circumcision. The law was enacted in May 2005. If Khalid Adem had been arrested after the new law was in place, he could have faced an additional 20 years for the genital mutilation charge.

The victim is now 7 years old. It is unknown whether she will testify at the trial.

FYI: According to FORWARD (the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Developement): It is estimated that approximately 138 million African women have undergone FGM worldwide and each year, a further 2 million girls are estimated to be at risk of the practice. Most of them live in African countries, a few in the Middle East and Asian countries, and increasingly in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada.

Kenya's Rape Problem

From al-Reuters, so consider the source.

Kenya passes laws to fight "epidemic of rape"

Kenya has passed new laws intended to stem the country's "epidemic of rape" and other sexual offences but women's rights groups expressed outrage on Thursday saying protections for married women were dropped. One woman is raped every 30 seconds in Kenya, according to the government, and the local media regularly run stories of fathers violating small daughters, sometimes leaving them dead.

There's more left to do.

"The fact that Kenya finally has a law consolidating all the sexual offences is a huge step to eradicate the epidemic of rape in this country," MP Njoki Ndung'u told Reuters.

But some women's activists said the essence of the bill was diluted after amendments were passed deleting clauses that criminalised marital rape and outlawed forced circumcision of adult women.

"It is not what we bargained for. We were not happy with the removal of female circumcision and marital rape from the bill," Jane Onyango, chair of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, told Reuters.

Calling all women of NOW - we know you don't give a rip about the poor women in the Middle East but do you think you could find it in your liberal hearts to do something here? Maybe?