UN set to ban Female Genital Mutilation

[Type Username Here]

LONDON (TrustLaw) - At seven years old, Khady Koita’s childhood was torn apart when she was pinned down and attacked by two women wielding a razor blade. The violence inflicted on her that day would change her life forever.

On Monday, Koita, a leading figure in the campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM), will join other high-profile activists at the United Nations to drum up support for a global ban on a practice forced on millions of children every year.

“FGM is horrific, brutal, degrading and indefensible,” said Koita, who was born in Senegal and now lives in Brussels. “My big hope is that one day no girl will have to go through what I have been through.”

The move to stamp out FGM – which is widely practised in Africa and pockets of the Middle East and Asia – is being driven by African member states of the United Nations, led by Burkina Faso.

They are now applying the finishing touches to a draft resolution banning FGM to be presented to the U.N. General Assembly in early October. It is expected to be adopted in December.

An estimated 140 million girls and women have undergone FGM, which can cause serious physical and emotional damage. Campaigners liken the psychological effects of FGM to those of rape.

“It is important that women like me who have suffered so much from this humiliation … and who have the privilege to be able to shout our rage, that we do so for those who can’t,” said Koita, founder of campaign group La Palabre.

In Africa, FGM is practised in 28 countries from Senegal in the west to Somalia in the east. Other places it is found include Yemen, Iraqi Kurdistan and Indonesia.

Many believe it preserves a girl’s virginity and see it is an important rite of passage and prerequisite for marriage. Parents say it is done out of love because it purifies the girl and brings her status.

FGM ranges from the partial or total removal of the clitoris to the most extreme form called infibulation, in which all external genitalia are cut off and the vaginal opening is stitched closed.

It is usually arranged by the women in the family and performed by traditional cutters who use anything from scissors to broken glass and tin can lids.

FGM can cause haemorrhaging, shock, chronic pain, recurrent urinary tract infections, cysts, menstrual problems and infertility. It increases the risk of labour complications and newborn deaths.

The procedure itself can prove fatal. “About 6,000 to 8,000 girls are mutilated every day,” Koita said. “No one knows how many die.”

Recent research in northern Iraq also suggests girls who undergo FGM are more prone to mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

“STOP CUTTING YOUR CHILDREN”

Although 17 of the African countries where FGM is found have made it illegal, the laws are often poorly enforced. Others like Mali, Liberia, Somalia and Sudan have no law.

Koita believes a resolution will help activists “put governments up against the wall”.

“It will be an extraordinary tool for people to get the laws that exist implemented, and it will also help people who don’t yet have laws in their country,” she said.

The resolution will not be enforceable but the fact it has been initiated by African countries will add a lot of weight, according to veteran rights campaigner Emma Bonino, who will address a high level meeting at the United Nations on Monday attended by activists and government ministers.

“I’m not saying it’s the miracle solution. I’m simply saying that at the end we will have a legal tool clearly saying what is right and what is wrong,” said Bonino, vice president of the Italian Senate and founder of rights group No Peace Without Justice.

“It will be particularly important in countries like Mali, which still don’t have a law because (activists) will be in some way protected in saying that this is not one individual’s bizarre idea; it’s the international community which is saying, ‘Stop cutting your children’.”

FGM is found among Islamic and Christian communities, although it predates both faiths. It is also practised by followers of indigenous beliefs. Although FGM is often believed to be a religious requirement, it is not mentioned in the Koran or any other religious text.

Efua Dorkenoo, head of the FGM campaign at rights group Equality Now, said a major barrier to tackling the scourge was the enormous influence of conservative religious leaders in countries like Mali, Gambia and Egypt, who advocate the practice.

Dorkenoo said another problem on the west coast of Africa were the powerful women’s secret societies in countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone, which support FGM.

CONTINUED IN SOURCE.

UN set to ban female genital cutting - TrustLaw

 

[Type Username Here]

Like the ban is going to stop anyone from doing it.

Still, its important to bring this issue to the forefront, no matter where it happens. Our young males and females are being brutally cut for ceremonies and tradition. This has no place in the modern world.

 

[acri1]

Even though I don't have kids, I just can't fathom how somebody could do something like that to a little girl. Disgusting.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

hopefully males get the same treatment

#progress

 

[Type Username Here]

Even though I don't have kids, I just can't fathom how somebody could do something like that to a little girl. Disgusting.

You can do a lot of things when you chuck it to tradition.

The Aztecs would kill newborn infants to appease the sun
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Spartans would leave newborns who they deemed weak or sick to die.

 

[thekingsmen]

That's nice but where is Rape in their agenda...Europeans been raping Africa for years...they won't talk about that.

 

[Type Username Here]

That's nice but where is Rape in their agenda...Europeans been raping Africa for years...they won't talk about that.

Friend, this is about grown adults cutting the labias and clitori of little girls. Save your valid concerns for another thread.

This issue is beyond Africa, it is happening around the world in small pockets.

This is deplorable, I don't care what race, country, continent, religion (or non-religion) is doing this shyt.

 

[thekingsmen]

Friend, this is about grown adults cutting the labias and clitori of little girls. Save your valid concerns for another thread.

This issue is beyond Africa, it is happening around the world in small pockets.

This is deplorable, I don't care what race, country, continent, religion (or non-religion) is doing this shyt.

Rape is everywhere as well...not just in Africa.

 

[Mowgli]

Like the ban is going to stop anyone from doing it.

Still, its important to bring this issue to the forefront, no matter where it happens. Our young males and females are being brutally cut for ceremonies and tradition. This has no place in the modern world.

Just gonna be a pretext to invade countries that mutilate genitals. UN liberating the world one nation at a time.

"We'll save your genitals in exchange for your resources"

 

[Type Username Here]

Rape is everywhere as well...not just in Africa.

Yes, rape is deplorable. People are mighty aware that rape exists and is prevalent throughout the world. FGM not so much.

Same with Rabbis cutting little boys, infecting them and performing oral sex on them.

shyt is disgusting.

 

[Type Username Here]

Just gonna be a pretext to invade countries that mutilate genitals. UN liberating the world one nation at a time.

"We'll save your genitals in exchange for your resources"

I don't understand how you could joke about something like this.

In some cases, they are taking these little girls, without anesthesia, and slicing them with shards of glass.

I can't find the humor in that.

 

[Mowgli]

I don't understand how you could joke about something like this.

In some cases, they are taking these little girls, without anesthesia, and slicing them with shards of glass.

I can't find the humor in that.

I think you need to take a step into the darkness and see things, from a demonic perspective so you can enligthen your bruhs.

When a cac is coming to liberate you you should be afraid, very afraid.

 

[Type Username Here]

I think you need to take a step into the darkness and see things, from a demonic perspective so you can enligthen your bruhs.

Mowgli, what the fukk does this even mean? It's incoherent. Not dissing you but I don't understand your point.

 

[Mowgli]

Mowgli, what the fukk does this even mean? It's incoherent. Not dissing you but I don't understand your point.

Meaning a white man will take a righteous cause and use it to do something demonic.

 

[Type Username Here]

Meaning a white man will take a righteous cause and use it to do something demonic.

So you are saying that mutilating these girls is a righteous cause?