Parents disown girls for evading ‘the cut’

[nalnn]

Source: Daily Nation (Kenya)

The International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation was marked on Sunday, but in Mt Elgon District there was little to celebrate.

Many girls have been forced to cut short their studies and married off at a tender age while some of them are still in hiding, disowned by their parents after running away to avoid undergoing the rite.

In December, more than 100 girls targeted to face the knife in region were rescued by Maendeleo ya Wanawake officials.

The girls from Kamuneru Location - some as young as nine - had been threatened with death if they tried to escape.

Read more: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Parents%20disown%20girls%20for%20evading%20the%20cut/-/1056/1102708/-/kdcr7jz/-/index.html

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Threatened with death for not choosing to be mutilated. :(

[rfranklin]

1. Get 'em before they can run...

That's what they do to boys in our country.

[blackspade]

2. If you are referring

to circumcision, they are totally unrelated.
Conflating the two lessens the brutality of an act that is meant to prevent a woman from taking pleasure from sex.

[social_critic]

6. Genital mutilation of boys is a primitive senseless act

I think both acts are brutal. Lucky for me, I wasn't born in the US (born in Cuba), so I escaped the butcher's knife.

I've always found it really strange to see Americans whining about African mutilation practices, when they do it all the time to their males.

When my son was born in the US, the stupid American doctor insisted it had to be done, so I threatened to sue him and have him castrated if he touched the kid. Eventually he gave up. The US can be a really really primitive country sometimes.

And yes, I know the yada yada about health and so on. That's baloney. The argument is exactly the same as having your teeth pulled out to avoid cavities. Genital mutilation is just a primitive senseless act carried out by ignoramuses.

[cali]

11. gee, my son was born in "primitive" vermont. He's not circumcised

but to compare genital mutilation of girls with circumcision is disgusting and dog shit sick. And sorry, but science contradicts your bull crap.

[pipi_k]

12. The only way the two could be comparable...

would be if the boy's penis were completely severed, which we all know it is not.


You can't equate taking a piece of foreskin, leaving the rest of the male organ intact, with complete and total destruction/removal of the outer female organs.

[originalpckelly]

21. No, only the glans (head/tip)

That's what's removed during FGM. The clitoris is not just the glans, it's actually a penis that doesn't go through the process of virilization. It's got corpus covernosa just like the penis. You should check this out here for more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glans_clitoris

If you look at it, the damn thing looks like a small penis that's kind of been split open and sent around either side of the vulva.

It's very interesting that in female to male transitions, it's possible to give the transgendered individual in question testosterone, and it will cause the entire clitoris to grow. A surgery can then be performed to create a small penis, one that's not capable of penetration, but many other sex acts. A urethral meatus can be created in the glans and it will resemble a penis in that regard too. Highly interesting stuff.

Basically all men started off looking like women at a very early point in our development.

[pipi_k]

32. Only the tip? No.

I've seen photos where the entire vulva was removed. There is absolutely nothing left.

Plus, in some cases, the vagina is sewn shut with only a small opening left for menstrual fluid to exit.

[originalpckelly]

20. Because as we know, the glans penis is removed during circumcision.

That's what you're saying. The glans clitoris and glans penis are homologous tissues, in that they are derived from the same exact tissue. In females, the tissue is actually more sensitive than in males.

The analogous procedure to male circumcision in a female would be removal of the clitoral hood. There are some women who actually choose to have that done. Knock off the nonsense.

Now, whether or not it (male circumcision) should be done, that's different. But do NOT falsely suggest that male circumcision is at all like female genital cutting where the actual glans clitoris is removed.

[Cid_B]

8. Pick your words more carefully...

You may see a massive difference in degree but they are related in some way...

[blackspade]

16. Not sure what you mean by picking words carefully

But you are right in a way, there is a massive difference between the two.
However, they are not related by design or intent.

[w8liftinglady]

34. Gee whiz.I had my first son mutilated.

Does that make me an evil parent?It was just a common thing.His father was circumsized,had no problems in the sex and ejaculation department.
my other two sons are not circumsized.
Will I be forgiven?

[vim876]

3. Not the same.

I don't think male circumcision is good, but to suggest it's equivalent to FGM is a joke. I understand you want attention for your cause, but please find a way that doesn't cheapen someone else's suffering.

[Deep13]

4. Agreed. Neither is good, but one is much, much worse.

If successful, it is a horrible, permanent and painful mutilation. Otherwise, it leads to infection and other infirmities. No person giving a moment's thought to the practice can conclude that it is anything but a brutal and reprehensible form of battery designed to reduce women to chattel. If self-loathing adult women want to damage themselves in this way, let 'em, but leave the kids alone.

[cali]

9. it positively disgusts me that anyone can compare the genital mutilation

of girls with circumcision.

[Occulus]

13. It positively disgusts ME that anyone can *dismiss* the concerns of men over the practice

of circumcision by bringing up FGM and then telling us how good we US men have it, which happens each and every time a thread surfaces on DU that relates to circumcision of men without mentioning FGM.

As YOU sit there, totally intact, while I and many other men aren't and wish we were.

Stay classy, cali.

[cali]

18. I'm not dismissing the concerns of men. I'm saying that the comparison is obviously

odious to any person with a fucking brain. One causes all kinds of serious physical problems and represents the prevalent (in much of the world) culture of women as chattel. Fucking duh.

have fun on the cheesy sleazy cross you're nailing yourself too. And whine away about the devastation you've suffered from being circumcised. Compare yourself to the women who've been mutilated .

[redwitch]

17. Totally agree.nt

[cali]

19. ignorance or self-absorbed gormlessness.

[Deep13]

22. They'd be similar if circumcision cut off the head of the penis...

...and not just the skin around it. But even then, FMG often goes further than that. It is a horrible, risky, cruel and wholely unnecessary practice.

[Le Taz Hot]

5. Goddess, this just makes me sick.

Just a reminder that too much of the world still consider women as chattel INCLUDING most Christian religions (i.e., we're too stupid to determine our own reproductive choices).

[nalnn]

7. hmmm

Sure beats getting clipped though. Pick your poison I suppose. Sad...

[Le Taz Hot]

10. That's the point.

We shouldn't have to pick. We're sentient human beings capable of self determination.

[nalnn]

14. I gotta wonder though.

When 6billion plus so-called sentient beings live together as we do, it seems sometimes that the only possible result is suffering. See the context of the OP. Self-determination is a two-edged sword and the determination by the "parents" in the story above is that their children, especially their own daughters should suffer torture.

[Le Taz Hot]

15. It falls under the category of

"inalienable rights" in this country. Granted, our Constitution has been badly beaten and battered in the last several years but it doesn't change the fact that since we are born sovereign we have no need to be made sovereign.

[alp227]

23. How about disowning religion? n/t

[cali]

24. female genital mutilation is far more rooted in culture than religion

[alp227]

26. then i say patriarchy n/t

[Deep13]

28. Then why don't they stop?

I have to think even if it is expressed as culture (which includes religion) there is some supposedly holy purpose behind it.

[Deep13]

27. Bingo! nt

[Scout]

25. thanks for trying, but as usual (first post even, this time!) FGM

cannot be discussed without talking about the boys....

:(

[Warren DeMontague]

29. Where are the people defending it as a "practice that deserves cultural respect"?

Funny, there's a small group here who wants to outlaw everything from happy meals to IHOP pancakes, but has a temper tantrum whenever FGM is criticized.

[Deep13]

30. This is a major humanitarian cause of our time.

What slavery was to the 19th century, FGM is to the 21st. If they were cutting off hands or castrating boys, there would be an intense international outcry. But because of puritanical attitudes about female sexuality, the world mostly turns a blind eye. This practice is cruel, agonizing, disabling and dangerous. It simply must be stopped.

[nalnn]

31. I dunno

They are cutting off hands. See Somalia yesterday in the news. Seems some people are becoming hardhearted, distracted or just don't care anymore.

[pipi_k]

33. But the hands...

being cut off in Somalia...

They're being cut off because the people were accused thieves. Criminals.

Not that I agree with the penalty. I don't.

But it's not like those hands are being cut off because of the gender of the owner of them.

What crime did those young women commit other than the "crime" of being born female?

:sarcasm:

[w8liftinglady]

35. there appear to be several cultures who believe in this practice..

What is the way to change their minds?Should it come from the religious leaders the parents are trying so hard to please?