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Monday, October 30, 2006
Genital mutilation: What’s your cultural tolerance limit?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A collision of cultures has put the spotlight on Duluth.
Khalid Adem, 31, was accused of using scissors to circumcise in 2001 his then 2-year-old daughter at the family’s Duluth apartment.
A jury found him guilty today. (Nov. 1) He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years probation.
In Adem’s country of origin, Ethiopia, female genital cutting is practiced. Here in America it is a heinous crime.
The outcome of Adem’s trial may become a landmark case for health and human rights activists who have fought against female genital mutilation.
The practice of female genital mutilation is widespread throughout much of Africa, the Middle East and western and southern Asia, according to news reports.
UNICEF estimates that throughout the African continent between 100 to 130 million girls and women have had their genitals cut.
In one UNICEF article about female genital cutting an Ethiopian mother spoke about the upcoming circumcision of her 8-year-old daughter:
“We know about the health risks, but this is our tradition,” she said. “Without it, she won’t be married. We believe it is a kind of cleaning.”
Moreover, the older women who are paid to perform female genital cuttings often rely on their earnings to support themselves and their families, the article said.
Strong cultural and economic ties make female genital cutting difficult to eliminate.
Often female genital cutting is done without sterile instruments or anesthesia so the risks from shock and infection are great. The long-term consequences can be loss of self-esteem, an adverse impact on one’s sexual development and sexuality, and life long pain and sensitivity because of the procedure.
Last week the New York Times reported about Adama Bah, an 18-year-old Muslim woman who came to this country from Guinea with her parents when she was two years old.
At 16 her childhood visa expired and Bah, who was reared in New York City, was to be extradited to Guinea for not having proper documents to continue living in the United States.
Bah will ask the immigration court that will hear her March 1 trial to grant her asylum on the grounds that she will be forced to endure a painful and unwanted female circumcision if she is forced to return to Guinea.
Health educators in countries where female genital mutilation is performed have made some inroads in reducing the practice but there is still much work to be done before it will be abolished.
I hope that in my lifetime the custom of female genital cutting will be eradicated worldwide. It is a cruel cultural tradition that is destroying the lives of countless girls and women.
I struggle to be respectful and open to the ideas and traditions of different immigrant communities in America, but female sexual mutilation is one area where I draw the line with cross-cultural acceptance and tolerance.
I hope that immigrants from those countries where female circumcision is performed will quickly and fully assimilate to the American values and laws that forbid the practice.
Where is your line in the sand for cross-cultural tolerance?
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