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Coming to America: FGM
I couldn’t bring myself to spell out the initials in the title: Female Genital Mutilation. In fact, I nearly didn’t write the post, the topic is so abhorrent. But given the facts, and the manner in which this crime has been reported, I felt compelled to write about it.
Just over one week ago, Jumana Nagarwala was jailed in Detroit for practicing female genital mutilation on two, seven-year old girls. Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco said, “The Department of Justice is committed to stopping female genital mutilation in this country, and will use the full power of the law to ensure that no girls suffer such physical and emotional abuse.”
Nagarwala was a 44-year old emergency room physician working at Henry Ford Health System. In protesting her arrest, her attorney, Sharon Thompson, explained the following: “Nagarwala never performed female genital mutilation … The doctor merely wiped off a portion of the mucous membrane from the girls’ clitoris. A small amount was placed on a gauze pad and given to the family for burial. This is part of the culture,” Thompson told the magistrate.
Nagarwala is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra from India, a community that is based locally out of the Anjuman-e-Najmi mosque on Orchard Lake Road in Farmington Hills. It’s the only Dawoodi Bohra mosque in Michigan. At this writing, no one confirmed that her attorney’s description of the procedures she performed was accurate. At a hearing on Monday, she was held without bond while awaiting trial.
In my research I discovered that FGM is practiced by 29 African countries and also ethnic groups in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. The Female Genital Mutilation website provides this chart:
Unicef provides the following data from 2016:
According to the data, girls 14 and younger represent 44 million of those who have been cut, with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age in Gambia at 56 per cent, Mauritania 54 per cent and Indonesia where around half of girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice. Countries with the highest prevalence among girls and women aged 15 to 49 are Somalia 98 per cent, Guinea 97 per cent and Djibouti 93 per cent.
In most of the countries the majority of girls were cut before reaching their fifth birthdays.
The global figure in the FGM statistical report includes nearly 70 million more girls and women than estimated in 2014.This is due to population growth in some countries and nationally representative data collected by the Government of Indonesia. As more data on the extent of FGM become available the estimate of the total number of girls and women who have undergone the practice increases.
In researching the data regarding the countries that immigrate to the US, I found the following information from Pew Research:
If you compare this chart to the previous chart, you can see that although some countries that immigrate to the US practice FGM with only a small portion of their children, it still occurs, and the numbers in those countries are increasing.
I feel obligated to point out a number of factors that counter such a devastating picture: we don’t know precisely which Muslims are actively practicing FGM in their countries of origin because complete data is hard to collect; we don’t know how many of the immigrants will maintain FGM practices if they immigrate to this country, given its illegality; we don’t know how many Muslim doctors will practice the procedure for the same reasons. There is simply a great deal we don’t know.
Regarding this topic, M. Zuhdi Jasser, at the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, reported on the crime and demanded a full investigation.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, originally from Somali, made the following points on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News:
People don’t like talking about the genitals of little girls, but we do have to describe what happens. The clitoris of the little girl is removed, and the labis is sewed shut. This is done to kill the sexual libido… and ensure virginity. Some people say they have religious reasons — it is because of Islam. Some say it is because of cultural reasons. Or a mixture of that. That can never be an excuse to harm girls in that way.
After checking the internet every day for the past week, I have only seen Dr. Jasser and Hirsi Ali speak out publicly against this travesty in Detroit.
Nagarwala’s mosque and the Muslim community in general, to my knowledge, have been silent.
Published in Culture
I looked at selected parts of the video, Zafar. The two women interviewed had two different procedures; one had FGM at the age of six, and it has been devastating to her. (She was from Somalia.) The second was from Sierra Leone, and went back to that country at 21 and had a less difficult procedure; she had it voluntarily as a rite of passage for women. I think the second woman, according to the legal criteria I suggested above, would have the right to do it. But it’s strictly cultural, and to do something even this drastic to one’s body to essentially “fit in” makes no sense to me. If she was a virgin when she had it done, she has no way of knowing of her sexual experience is “normal.” I think it is all very tragic.
I’m not riding any horse. I feel sorry for the kids, their parents are barbarians who took them to a butcher who should lose her license and go to jail.
My concern is to keep it out of the US. Period.
If they come here, our rules.
Too late, I very much fear–hope I’m wrong.
I think it’s nuts, but wrt the issue it really is children must be protected according to social norms and adults can do what they please. So I agree with you. But as with so many of these things we tend to speak about, but much less often with, and that is a pity.
I found the woman from Sierra Leone really interesting – she grew up in the US and was sexually active before she had the procedure (which sounded incredibly painful) and after. Which I had not thought was possible – perhaps it’s a chance thing?
It’s justI want to ask an unpleasant but important question. Why is it desirable to have a wife that has a harder time to achieve orgasm?
I completely understand that Ricochet is a decent and upstanding place on the internet (maybe the only decent and upstanding place on the internet) but this tradition quite possibly started because people (it may have been an African women that started this [shudder]) felt weird about the sexual stimulation that a clitoris could give.
Possibly Coc non-compliant descriptions of sexuality below.
One of the pre-Christian (and pre-Islamic) worries about women were their dreams. Women had dreams where they imagined orgasms or possibly they had orgasms in their sleep. I recall a lovely Russian lady saying that she had orgasms in her sleep. This was interpreted as having sex with spirits who were scary and horrible.
So are two hundred million horribly mutilated because of sex dreams? Why does Shafi Islam say that FGM is good and why do Christians do it? Is it all superstitious nonsense? Is there a desire for purity that can be achieved through some other way. Is it a pain ritual? Tattoos in Africa and in Polynesia were about toughening you up to endure pain. Exactly what is the point of this practice?
We haven’t addressed this very well yet. Why do people do this?
I always thought they didn’t want women to enjoy sex so they’d have no reason to stray and humiliate the husband. I don’t think they care if the woman has an orgasm or not. Women are just things to be used by men. And if you ask me, these men take such great measures to make sure the women don’t stray because they fear comparison. They’re so beneath contempt I can’t even express it.
That was my assumption as well.
Such barbarous savagery should not be permitted to exist within our borders.
Disagree with that part. Prior to the modern invention of the paternity test, the only way for a man to be 100% certain that he was the father of his wife’s children was to be 100% certain she was not cheating on him.
So much of human history, behavior, and culture is driven by that simple fact of life.
That is exactly right. The entire institution of marriage is for this sole purpose: for the man to be certain that his progeny were really his. It’s all about passing on ypur property and/or your title. Period. Which is why same sex weddings make no sense. (BTW, if anything like SSM had ever existed, there would be relics of it in our common law tradition.)Also why heterosexuals are remaining unmarried in droves. Female sexuality no longer needs a man’s protection; women have rights at law. And men, as you point out, can now determine paternity after the fact, so no longer need to take precautions to ensure reproductive fidelity.
Susan, and anyone else interested. Yestrerday there was this article by William Kilpatrick on Crises, a Catholic magazine on just this subject, and I think it gets to the heart of the differences between Islam and Judeo-Christian attitudes. It quotes ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali on her upbringing.
The article is focused on the differences between the religions, and the current delusions in Catholic leadership on what islam actually entails. You can substitute any Christian or Jewish demnomination and you would have the same intent.
The article tries to go beyond the terrorism which we are all focused on. Kilpatrick quotes Ali’s concern.
Moral of the story is, in addition to the terror threat Islam is not compatible with western values.
AND they fear comparison haha! But you’re right. I think I read somewhere that this was one reason the ancient Egyptians’ throne passed down through the maternal line, which ensured they knew whose child was assuming the throne. Mama’s baby, Papa’s maybe.
Nope, instead you hear that Western Culture is inferior to other cultures.
As I have written previously, African Christians and African traditionalists (spirit worshipping pagans) also practice FGM. Ethiopia and Eritrea are majority Christian countries were a majority of girls have FGM done to them. Ayan Hirsi Ali is originally from Somalia which is almost entirely Muslim and it has the highest rate of FGM in the world but Somalia is also the most violent tribal culture in the world.
There is an indeed an intellectual class of leftists that believe this and would justify FGM and all non-white non-western barbarity (I talked to them in college.) I believe that any democrat that didn’t go to college can’t stand this nonsense.
I don’t know why but white westerns could be judged if they did evil stuff but non-white non-westerners couldn’t. You were supposed to detest America because it was founded on slavery but you couldn’t judge Native-American, African or Arab institutions that perpetuated slavery. It was an attempt to be non-judgmental that was extremely racist. White westerners could be good or evil everybody else was just a thing.
To repeat myself, I doubt that any democrat that didn’t go to college could stomach such nonsense.
I always like to tell those types to look up the etymology of the word “slave”. (hint: It comes from the word “slav”, as in “slavic countries”, which are not exactly known for their African-ness.)
A friend of mine married a leftist from Madison, WI. In the early 90s, in conversation he brought up a Shinto custom called the Phallus Festival, where they have a parade with giant phalluses rolling through the streets, and all kinds of souvenirs including phallus lollipops in the mouths of school children. He proudly defended it. I just wonder at what point some of these people might defend their own culture.
Thanks for mentioning her again, Manny. Hirsi Ali has been through quite a lot in her life; if any of you haven’t read her books, I highly recommend her work. She has first-hand information on the terrible price Islamic women have to pay to live in a traditional Islamic society.
Well, then I would say those Christians are not suitable for immigration.
I’m fine with the penis festival because that means you can take a class trip to a Renaissance art gallery and the loudest and stupidest boys won’t laugh that boobies. Seriously, desensitization to nudity lets you look at art. I happen to like art.
But putting phalluses into children’s mouths?
Boys have outies and girl have innies. That’s how things work. I don’t think penis pops imply oral sex. What I like about the girl on the log is that she is looks mildly amused but a little tired. There isn’t any weird energy to any of these pictures. Just penises.
I’ve lived in Japan and still can’t get over that.
Wow! We oughta get ’em together with the ladies who dressed as giant twats in our country this Spring!
That is not a log! And my point is that in our culture, it’s wildly inappropriate to expose children to anatomically correct penises. What I was saying is that the leftwinger was bending over backward to defend a practice that he was not raised to find acceptable, and he seemed to be doing it for shock value. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t brought up to say “It’s only penises” when we’re talking about little girls.
I don’t think feminists are allowed to like penises.
I believe they make exceptions only if they strap on.
[yawn]
I’ve been gone for one day, and look what this thread has turned into! Jeesh!
Honestly, we could use some levity.