FGM is Occurring Right Now, to a Young Girl, Down the Street from You
Sometimes it is hidden away in a local basement by someone untrained in medicine, other times it is done in a sterile medical clinic by a trained doctor, like what happened recently with Dr. Nagawala of Michigan. Recently, Dr. Nagawala was caught mutilating hundreds of little girls in a medical clinic, at night, where no one could hear the screams, and got off SCOT-FREE (1st Email)!
They could prove the cutting happened with visual scars on the little girls genitals, and they STILL let her walk!
Vacation Cutting
There is even a term for it. FGM is happening to little girls who go on vacation. Imagine being told you are going back home to see all your aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents.
A moment of excitement in a child’s life, only to suffer the most horrendous pain and torture of genital mutilation at the hands of the people who are supposed to love and protect her! Then on the way home, they tell the little girls that they will be severely punished if they tell anyone.
Whether we hide our heads in the sand or not, Female Genital Mutilation is happening to US citizens. Without a coordinated, educational outreach FGM will only increase as FGM cultures continue to grow within and migrate to the US, especially since the only case ever prosecuted was recently thrown out of court.
The WHO estimates, currently over 513,000 little girls currently living in the US are in danger of FGM. Do you really think it is not happening down the road from you?
Because this is happening so close to home, we must educate ourselves on this issue. In this email we will discuss the different classifications of FGM. Our 4th email will concern the cultural reasons FGM occurs and still persists. In our 5th email we discuss proven and effective strategies to eradicate FGM from the face of this planet and in fact, protect all children from harmful, unnecessary, painful genital cutting.
We have the opportunity to protect these girls and break harmful cultural practices, but will we? What if we do nothing? What if YOU do nothing?
Will it be her parents fault? Her parents do not understand this like we do. Sometimes all that is needed is a little education and love. So many of these girls can be protected if we start to raise awareness of the harms of genital cutting.
Now is the time to do something, here, in America. Let’s educate our neighbors and help them to break harmful cultural cycles!
If mothers and fathers learn the truth, that this is harmful, we can help them break these cycles! Contrary to Western myths most parents do not do this to harm their children, or to control their sexuality, even if that is what is happening. We must understand WHY they are doing it in order to help them end it, which is why you have to read the next email and why we need to educate OURSELVES and others!
Lets learn about the Different Types of FGM:
While it can be argued that there is more damage caused by more extreme forms of FGM, it must be recognized that even the ritual nick to drawl blood is a crime against all humanity and must be opposed by all people of good conscious.
We are talking about puncturing the genitals of small children, who depend on adults and must be protected from religious, cultural or pseudo-medical harm in order for society to be healthy. As was mentioned in our previous article, the worse scar of FGM is in the mind of the victim, even if they don’t recognize the harm, which makes it even worse.
The World Health Organization or WHO recognizes four types of FGM. Different societies do different forms of FGM and it may help to have prior knowledge of the various types of FGM and where they are common when dealing with migrant populations.
Type I FGM is cutting of the clitoral hood and/or the external clitoris. It is important to understand that Type I consists of two distinct forms of FGM. Type IA is removal of the clitoral hood or hoodectomy. Type IB is removal of the external part of the clitoris. Since Type IB is removal of the external clitoris it could be considered more harmful then Type IIA and maybe even Type IIB.
FGM Type II also has two sub categories. FGM Type IIA is complete or partial removal of the labia minora. FGM Type IIB is partial or complete removal of the labia majora and minora.
The third, FGM Type III, estimated at 10-15% of FGM cases is a horrific form of genital mutilation known as infibulation or sewing shut the severed sides of the labia to create a small vaginal opening.
Type III is often the most traumatic with the worst long term effects as tearing might be necessary for sexual penetration or giving birth. Often mutilated woman are forced to be resewn after being ripped apart during child birth or even from intercourse. This is called reinfibulation and is a horrific experience for these girls and can have dramatically damaging effects including death and miscarriage.
Type IV includes all other forms of FGM including the ritual nick, cauterization, cutting the vagina (gishiri cutting), or chemical burns.
Currently there are over 200 million victims of FGM living in the world today. While FGM is far more common in certain cultures, FGM occurs in all areas of the earth and even occurred in the US in the past. More recently in an embarrassing blunder the American Academy of Pediatrics was considering allowing ritual cutting without amputation until backlash from rational, clear headed people shut them down.
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS… “I am a white American, non-Muslim woman who was circumcised as a toddler by the same pediatrician that circumcised my brothers and at the same hospital at which I was born. I have no clitoral hood and only a V shaped scar and the tiniest bit of inner labia they were kind enough to leave behind.” ~Anonymous
America’s forgotten history of female circumcision
https://sites.google.com/site/completebaby/female
AAP Retracts Controversial Policy on Female Genital Cutting
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/722840
Group backs ritual ‘nick’ an female circumcision option
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/health/policy/07cuts.html?referer=http://m.facebook.com
Fact Sheet by WHO on FGM
https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation
Recent Posts
- America’s Cultural Biases Are Fueling A Female Genital Mutilation Crisis in America, RIGHT NOW! April 17, 2021
- In Order to Eradicate FGM, We Must First Understand It March 23, 2021
- New Research at Harvard Shows Psychological Harms of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Last a Lifetime March 15, 2021
- Doctor Mutilates Close to One Hundred Little Girl’s Genitals in the USA Gets Off Scot-Free, Feminists Quiet January 30, 2021
- GUARANTEED SYSTEM TO END AMERICAN MEDICALIZED CHILD GENITAL CUTTING December 2, 2020
- CockFight.org Shares the Good News! November 20, 2020
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America’s Cultural Biases Are Fueling A Female Genital Mutilation Crisis in America, RIGHT NOW!
AMERICA’S CULTURAL BIASES ARE FUELING A FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION CRISIs IN AMERICA, RIGHT NOW! While mounds of resources and money have been invested worldwide to
In Order to Eradicate FGM, We Must First Understand It
FGM is Occurring Right Now, to a Young Girl, Down the Street from You Sometimes it is hidden away in a local basement by someone
New Research at Harvard Shows Psychological Harms of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Last a Lifetime
Children have a right to be free from harmful cultural practices that can negatively influence their life. We may placate ourselves by claiming that a
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There’s a lot wrong with this as it is almost all taken from the Western female genital cutting narrative much of which originates from anti FGM activists who are not a reliable source. The whole categorisation system is deliberately misleading. The 10-15% infibulation figure is not correct just as infibulation always being the most invasive type is untrue. There is no real evidence that there is significant cutting of girls in minority ethnic communities in the West. Generally speaking the cutting of boys is more severe than that of girls.
I don’t think you added much beyond expressing your emotional overreaction and lack of ‘fore’sight (hahaha) into the psychology behind this entire campaign. Everything you said I understand and would agree with but you obviously missed much of the wording which was inclusive, not exclusive of all children. This reads NOTHING like a pro MGM, anti FGM article as there are some obvious wording differences. This is purposely similar to FGM articles because I’m purposely trying to get people to take what they understand about FGM and connect it over the time of a whole campaign into MGM>
I even tried to clarify some of what I agree is purposely confusing about the FGM classifications by mentioning how external clitoris removal, Type Ib, could be considered more harmful than labia minora (IIa) or even labia majora (IIb) removal. According to my research, the most severe form: a combination of Type Ia + Ib + IIa + IIb + III is only about 10-15% of FGM cases. If that is incorrect and you have evidence of such, why just blurt it out rather than actually include your resources, so I could gain some value from your statement? Do you want to help or hear yourself type?
The point of this article is to bring people towards a more comprehensive understanding of all CGM by guiding them through their already developed understanding of FGM. Basic psychology. We are associating them TOGETHER by exposing the FACT that MGM can be and in fact and most often is worse than MOST FGM and that BOTH create psychological as well as physical and sexual harm. If you read the next two emails you will see how they expose the fact that our own hypocrisy and self lies are the reason we are unable to protect women from genital cutting. If a person hates men and wants them harmed but loves woman more than their hate of men they would fight against MGM just because it is the only way to end FGM.
Stick around, or don’t. See the bigger picture, or don’t. If you want to contribute, add something rather than just your emotions which I get are well-placed. I hate this as much as you do.
BTW
There WAS FGM in America. That’s a fact and I provided examples and links to those examples. Did I say it was significant? No. You are emotional. Think logically. This isn’t about winning schoolyard cool points or boosting your ego.
This is about using all the tools we can to end child genital cutting. We are using psychology, combined with efficient and effective outreach to reach the main goals we all share.
If you want to provide criticism, which I’m actually asking for, make it constructive.
First off I’ve just seen your reply now but perhaps that’s just as well.
Ok, sorry you feel I was being emotional and overreacting, maybe we should just agree to going after the ball? You say you would agree with me if I hadn’t missed much of the wording which was inclusive, my points were matters of fact and you begin with stating that in order to eradicate FGM, we must first understand it so we both agree that the facts must be established, correct?
I’ll go through them:
1) Your sources are taken at face value from the anti FGM campaign.
2) Anti FGM activists are not reliable sources.
3) The categorisation system is deliberately misleading.
4) Your 10-15% claim is not correct – (by an order of magnitude at least)
5) Infibulation is not always the most severe type.
6) There is no real evidence of ritual cutting of girls in the West.
7) Generally the cutting of boys is more severe.
1) The illustrations of FGM are from anti FGM sources correct?
2) Anti FGM activists often make wild claims about mortality rates, prevalence in Western countries, the severity of the cutting and emphasise extreme infibulation.
“50% of women giving birth in Somaliland die due to #FGM and lack of health care” – Nimko Ali https://twitter.com/NimkoAli/status/1187971640795291648
“200 million women already had fgm. In uk we already have 170,000 women and girls that live with fgm” Hibo Wardere 12:10 https://vimeo.com/351052467
“200 million women and girls walk on earth with unimaginable pain and horror” – Hibo Wardere https://twitter.com/HiboWardere/status/1309800714248630272
“basically in Somalis and that region of the horn type III which is the most invasive is the most common and that’s the same in Egypt and everywhere else” – Nimko Ali https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu_no9KGyI8&t=2350s
3) The categorisation is made to give the impression of stages leading up to the most extreme infibulation whereas in fact a type I with complete amputation of the clitoral glans is far more severe than a single stitch infibulation with minimal or no cutting as with the “husband stitch” or a traditional type practiced in some parts of Africa with a single stitch to bury the clitoral glans.
4) This claim usually comes from anti FGM activists WHO reports of 85% of FGM being type I and II leaving the rest type III and “forgetting” type IV! In addition a report from cherrypicked African countries with women admitted to regional hospitals where 10% were infibulated. In the very same report figures for global prevalence are given as 200 million and infibulated cases as 8 million: https://web.archive.org/web/20210503234722/https://www.who.int/teams/sexual-and-reproductive-health-and-research/key-areas-of-work/female-genital-mutilation/prevalence-of-female-genital-mutilation
5) See 3) Here are a couple of examples of type III infibulation, a traditional African type with slight cutting and fusing leading to a skin bridge burying the clitoral glans, and a modern Western type of genital piercing:
(I’d like to have included photos here but it doesn’t seem possible.)
6) There are very few prosecutions and no deaths with the exception of France a couple of generations ago.
“if certain types of FGM have were being done at the rates that we were perhaps led to expect we would be seeing cases coming through with infection or bleeding they would be ending up in front of health care professionals and then being referred to us and that just hasn’t happened”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eGGneWL6j4
7) The typical male cutting is the amputation of the foreskin with an apositioning of the skin of the sulcus and the penile shaft skin with stitching or clamping leaving a severe disfigurement with a permanent circumferential scar emphasised by the different pigmentation on the adjoining skin tissue and a constantly exposed glans. The typical female genital cutting is a superfiicial injury to the clitoral glans or hood leaving no permanent discernable scar or disfigurement. Male genital cutting is most similar to infibulation where there is amputation in addition to sewing or clamping. Adults who have the option to freely choose genital cutting are overwhelmingly women.
I’m so sorry. I just saw your response. I’ve been so busy I’ve been really neglecting my website. I’m trying to change it and update it and saw your reply.
I agree the classification is purposely misleading. I agree that FGM Type 1B can be worse than FGM Type 3 and definitely worse that FGM Type 2B. I did mention this. We can debate these things all day, but at the end of the day, what needs to be changed in this article?
As our goal is the ball, what would you specifically change about this article to make it better for influencing our target audience? Being mirco technically correct I don’t think is the our goal. In fact I don’t want to diminish the feelings of people towards FGM I want to transfer those feelings to MGM.
We did do FGM in Midwest America. It might not have been common like MGM but we did have it so there is evidence. In fact, there is an article about American FGM written by a mutilated American woman. I looked for it but couldn’t find it. I’ll try again later.
I ‘m surprised you haven’t heard of this as you are obviously educated about this. There were even medical devices in America invented for this specific purpose.
So from what I understand you are saying is that the harms of FGM has been exaggerated while MGM has been trivialized.
That’s our society. The goal of this series to to influence that issue exactly. Again I don’t want to diminish the opinions of people in America towards FGM. I don’t want them to think, Oh Type 2A isn’t that bad.
I want them to think, if this is so horrible, so is THIS.
I do appreciate your insight and this is exactly why I posted this as I want feedback.
I don’t think my goal here is to reclassify FGM types. My goal is to get people to understand that MGM is as just as horrific and stupid and cowardly as MOST FGM.
Even if FGM rection in America is exagerated, I don’t want to deminish those feelings, I want to transfer them.
Also you mention that the worst form of FGM estimated at 10-15%. You mentioned this is overestimated?
Do you have any information on why you think it’s overestimated?