FGM affects females in every local authority in England and Wales - study

[niyad]

(the graph at the link below is truly depressing)

FGM affects females in every local authority in England and Wales - study

Highest prevalence of women and girls affected by genital mutilation is in London, according to research which will increase pressure to tackle the issue

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Delegates at the first Girl Summit in the UK which addressed FGM.


Women and girls affected by female genital mutilation can be found in every local authority in England and Wales, with the highest number living in London, according to a major study which will place pressure on all councils to tackle the issue.

An estimated 137,000 women and girls are affected by FGM, with the highest rate of prevalence found in Southwark, according to the study by City University London and Equality Now.

In the south London borough, 4.7% of women are affected by FGM, while 10.4% of girls were born to mothers who had been subjected to the practice. In the London borough of Brent, 3.89% of women had suffered from FGM. The rate across England and Wales is 0.48%.

London as a whole had the highest prevalence rates by far, with 21 women per 1,000 affected by FGM. All of the 10 highest prevalence rates were located in local authorities within the capital, according to the study, which was funded by Trust for London and the Home Office.

Outside London, Manchester, Slough, Bristol, Leicester and Birmingham had high prevalence rates, ranging from 12 to 16 per 1,000, while other authorities, including Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Coventry, Sheffield, Reading, Thurrock, Northampton and Oxford had rates of more than seven per 1,000. Many, mainly rural, areas had prevalences well below one per 1,000, but cases were found in all local authorities in England and Wales.

. . . .

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/21/fgm-affects-females-in-every-local-authority-in-england-and-wales-study

[Warpy]

1. It's still rare in the US, unheard of in a few areas

but that's only because so many fewer people from the regions emigrate to the US.

Yes. I've seen it. Yes, it is horrible.

The first man who starts yammering about circumcision as an equal physical insult can drop dead. Twice. There is no comparison between the two.

[niyad]

2. could always ask them if we can show them the difference, on their own bodies.

Procedures

(I suppose we could try to point out that male circumcision is not about controlling and destroying male sexuality, but I doubt that they would understand that)

Female genital mutilation is classified into four major types.

Clitoridectomy: partial or total removal of the clitoris (a small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals) and, in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris).
Excision: partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora (the labia are "the lips" that surround the vagina).
Infibulation: narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the inner, or outer, labia, with or without removal of the clitoris.
Other: all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area.


Circumcision is the surgical removal of the skin covering the tip of the penis. Circumcision is fairly common for newborn boys in certain parts of the world, including the United States. Circumcision after the newborn period is possible, but it's a more complex procedure.

[Syzygy321]

5. Are you sure?

I delivered a baby for a dignified, reserved, mutilated woman in Tennessee. It was her fifth child; her fifth straight daughter. After telling her how special and great it was to have one more daughter, I steered the conversation to FGM. "You know, you shouldn't make them have the cutting. It's dangerous, and it's against the law. You'll go to prison."

She answered in a rush, like she had had this conversation with other doctors and wanted to brush past it. "Yes, I know, it is illegal here.". But there was something shifty about the way she said it.

That was 15 years ago. Those five girls: where are they now? And what's left of them?

I don't take care of children - but if I did, I would damn well check the genitalia of every girl and I would damn well report every parent whose child was mutilated. And I would damn well want them sentenced just as harshly as a stranger who kidnaps a girl and pins her down and hacks off her ladyparts and sews her vagina shut and ties her legs together for a week.

We wouldn't let this happen to little white all-American girls; why the fuck should it happen to little brown/black all-American girls? "Cultural relativism"?? Fuck that.

Yes, it IS a problem here...unless we stop it.

[Warpy]

7. It's a rare problem here, which is what I said. Yes, I've seen it in Boston

I haven't seen it here in NM but that's because this isn't a port of entry and it's not a popular destination for a lot of immigrants.

And you bet your ass if I got euchered into working in peds and saw it in a girl child, I'd be on the blower to CPS immediately.

However, what they do is go home to see the family and that's when the girls get cut.

[Syzygy321]

8. Yes! But if they know that they will be caught

when the girls are examined by American doctors, and that prison awaits, that should be a big deterrent in England and here and elsewhere. But doctors need to be upstanding, and penalties need to be merciless to send the message.

A friend does midwifery in CA. She has seen plenty of it in immigrants.

Bizarrely, I once saw an elderly white non-immigrant Tennessee woman who had been clitoridectmized. Apparently it was once a medical procedure done in the US. She was a bit demented and I couldn't figure out the history. Ugh.

[Glorfindel]

3. SURELY it's illegal in civilized countries

Can the perpetrators not be punished? How horrible, how horrible.

[niyad]

4. it is illegal, but, sadly, the authorities are either unable, or unwilling, to deal with it.

[Syzygy321]

6. Pediatricians should report it.

And parents should go to effing prison for an effing long time, to teach other parents that HELL NO you can't do that to your daughters in the civilized west.

However I am afraid that Egyptian and Somali etc parents look for "sympathetic" doctors of their own background who will sign off on vaccinations and not question parental decisions. And that even unsympathetic Western doctors hate to break up families by sending mom and dad to prison for the terrible child mutilation they have committed.

So there is one level of protection for girls who are ethnically all-American...and a much laxer "multicultural, tolerant" law for American kids who are not *quite* as American as the rest.