Check out this map and look at Egypt: 91 percent of all females in Egypt are mutilated.
Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population has banned all forms of female genital mutilation since 2007. The ministry’s order declared it is ‘prohibited for any doctors, nurses, or any other person to carry out any cut of, flattening or modification of any natural part of the female reproductive system’. Islamic authorities in the nation also stressed that Islam opposes female genital mutilation. The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Ali Gomaa, said that it is “Prohibited, prohibited, prohibited.” Egypt passed a law banning FGM. The June 2007 Ministry ban eliminated a loophole that allowed girls to undergo the procedure for health reasons. There had previously been provisions under the Penal Code involving “wounding” and “intentional infliction of harm leading to death”, as well as a ministerial decree prohibiting FGM. In December 1997, the Court of Cassation (Egypt’s highest appeals court) upheld a government banning of the practice providing that those who did not comply would be subjected to criminal and administrative punishments. According to a survey in the year 2000, a study found that 97% of the country’s population still practiced FGM; a 2005 study found that over 95% of Egyptian women have undergone some form of FGM.
This is the same Egypt to which the U.S. supplies military funding of $1.3 billion annually. And here you have me say it like Donald Trump would say it:
Hi Norbert.
I realise that at least ONE point you are making here, is that the U.S. taxpayer ought not be funding societies with views & practises which (hopefully) most Americans would abhor.
Nevertheless, your post sent my thinking off in a different…yet related…direction….(partly because of its coincidental timing with another article I read just yesterday….see below)…namely the notion of “modern” “Western” labiaplasty & vaginaplasty.
Many here view the latter as F.G.M. by another name. For those interested….google “Female Genital Mutilation is Alive in Australia….it’s just called Labiaplasty”. ( Guardian Australia August 26, 2015 )…..obviously, I’m.a little “behind” in my reading–!!! (given the article date…& my only reading it yesterday)
Obviously, those who undergo labiaplasty here, in the U.K. & U.S., are older than many “women” (girls…they’re CHILDREN–!!!) who have F.G.M. thrust upon them. Accordingly, “informed consent” occurs.
And yet, the writer of the abovementioned (Guardian Australia) article persists in her argument that labiaplasty, despite this difference, still constitutes F.G.M.
Her argument (at least in part) is that (often very young) women are being pressured into labiaplasty…by the “norm” as seen in porn. She also argues that (negative) “partner critique” of young women’s genitalia is “driving” the pretty rampant increase in labiaplasty surgery requests.
The writer asserts that decisions made under such “duress”, amount (almost) to similar societal pressures to comform, (at least in each INDIVIDUAL situation) as those which bring about the horrid outcomes which you (Norbert) outline in…say…Egypt.
Obviously, none of this in ANY way, equates to the nonsense line….”we do it, so can they”–!!!
To the contrary–WHEREVER ppl are pressured into conformity…ESPECIALLY conformity involving unecessary SURGERY (which often…even in the case of labisplasty…ALWAYS in the case of so-called “subincision”…has HORRIFIC effects—!!)….we need to examine closely (as you…or Trump..say) WHAT THE HELL WE ARE DOING–!!!
One other “observation”…..(no wonder I get so far “behind” in my reading–!! )…..”whilst here”…I took “a little detour” (the special online kind…which can see HOURS vanish-without trace-!!!)…& read your book review of Hitchen’s “God is Not Great”….which then led me to the one on Sam Harris’ “The End of Faith”.
Loved them both–!! Thankyou.
I commend same to any here who…like myself…may have missed them when Norbert first posted them.
Cheers….Ray.
Wow, Ray, so much information here. First I had no idea that the concept of labiaplasty actually is a thing. My point was mostly about religion-driven assault, physical assault, on girls as an institutional practice – that we condone.
Also hearing about my book reviews making a difference in Australia is rewarding indeed. Thanks Ray.