New figures suggest that the number of women and girls who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) may be up to 70m higher than estimated last year. A recent Unicef report said that up to 200m procedures have been carried out in 30 countries around the world.
Somalia has the highest rate, with 98 per cent of women experiencing some form of circumcision. Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia accounted for half of the 200m victims worldwide, but it is clear that FGM is a global issue, and not just a problem in Africa.
Of the 200m estimated victims, about 44m were 14 or younger when they underwent the procedure, the majority being circumcised before the age of five. Although the rate at which FGM is carried out has declined significantly in some countries over recent years, population growth means the overall number of victims is still on the rise. FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985, but 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are thought to be at risk of being circumcised, either within the UK or – more commonly – after being taken to their family’s country of origin for the procedure. (Newsweek)
It appears that a total of 2,421 instances alone were reported from April to September last year in the UK alone, and according to Sky News, there still has not been a successful prosecution. This is a barbaric assault on helpless little children, anathema to Epicureans and all civilised people, an age-old, so-called “cultural” matter that is hard to stamp out. I suspect it was dreamt up by pre-historic men with skewed ideas on the rights of women and sexuality. It has no place in any civilised society.
I know Epicureans aren’t supposed to be militant atheists or anti theists, but let me make my case. Only religion as an institution could make people do something as horrific as FGM. Doubtless the theists will retort by rightly pointing out that secular people have done horrific things. But the secular do not engage in barbaric practises like FGM. The horrors of the secular world tend to be far more conventional, at least relatively speaking. There is no non religious reason for FGM the way there is with murder or other evils. To whose benefit is FGM? What is it for? To the secular mind, it makes no sense at all.
Now there may be some Christians reading this, who will point out that FGM is a predominantly Muslim phenomenon, so it’s wrong to lump all religions together. To an extent, this is undeniably true. But it’s the belief in the supernatural that serves as the justification for FGM, just as it was the belief in the supernatural that justified the Crusades or to an extent, European colonialism.
There may also be some progressives reading this, who will think it wrong for me to use FGM as a means of attacking Islam. To them, I would say that I hold out a hope of the Islamic world becoming more tolerant and liberal than it is now, without mass deconversion. But for now, I believe that the relativley secular Western world has values that are superior to much of the Islamic world. And if that makes me a bigot or racist, then so be it.
You are no bigot! And I agree with you.
When you think of it , wearing the chadoor and covering yourself up completely started because men liked a pale skin. So keep out of the sun. It was then taken up and made part of the religion. Women walk behind their husbands in Arabia because life was dangerous and the man went first. It thenbecame part of the culture, regardless of danger. A lot of religion is superstition or ancient pracrice, the reason for which is lost in the mists of time. Doesn’t stopnutters killing for it, though.