463 cases of female genital mutilation are identified in English hospitals every month. (The Sunday Times)
Despite the fact that it is illegal, it has been estimated that over 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the UK each year, and that 66,000 women in the UK are living with the consequences of it, although the true extent of the practice is unknown.
The procedure is usually carried out on young girls between infancy and the age of 15, most commonly before puberty starts. It is traditionally carried out by a woman with no medical training. Anaesthetics and antiseptic treatments are not used, and knives, scissors, scalpels, pieces of glass or razor blades are typically used. Girls may have to be forcibly restrained.
Disgust dissuades me from discussing the various methods of female genital mutilation, but the National Health Service states that it interferes with the natural functions of girls’ and women’s bodies. The pain is severe. It is likely to produce shock, bleeding, infections, including tetanus and gangrene, as well as blood-borne viruses such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C, along with other effects, such, yes, death. One can imagine the terrible, lifelong psychological effects of this traumatic experience.
This is an excellent example of the failure to integrate. And it is carried out by women! It is ancient tribal nonsense masquerading as some sort of religious tradition, a brutal physical assault on innocent young women. As such it should be punished with a long prison sentence. In addition, the passports of the parents responsible should be confiscated, frequent visits to premodern homelands only encouraging the practice. Enough of the pussy-footing political correctness that “tolerates” such cruelty.
In a verdict hailed by liberal campaigners as “a monumental victory for women and girls in Egypt”, an Egyptian court has convicted a doctor for carrying out a clitoridectomy on a 13-year-old girl that resulted in her death. Raslan Fadl was acquitted in November of charges relating to the death of Suhair al-Bata’a, but an appeal court in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura has now sentenced him to two years in jail for manslaughter and a further three months for carrying out female genital mutilation. FGM was banned in Egypt six years ago, but remains widespread: this is the first case that has resulted in a conviction.