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Revisiting Reza Aslan’s response to Bill Maher about female genital mutilation
21.10.2014. After Reza Aslan called FGM an African Problem, Stop FGM Middle East contacted PunditFact to set things straight. Here is their clarification:
“Hannah Wettig, who manages the Stop FGM Middle East campaign for Germany-based nonprofit WADI and Hivos, pushes back on the notion of FGM as an “African problem” and criticized UNICEF’s reliance on national survey data. For one, she said, Middle Eastern women may be more reluctant to admit they have been through the procedure, as it’s more secretive than the public rite of passage in some African countries. In addition to Iraq and Yemen, Wettig said it happens in Asian countries that include Oman, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Maldives and the Philippines.”
A Kurdish girl’s story of Female genital mutilation FGM in Iraqi Kurdistan
October 18, 2014. SLÊMANÎ, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— As we all know from news reports from the region, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan have been facing great threats and hardships for many years and are currently on the frontline of the fight against ISIS (also known as the Islamic State). However there is another, covert threat facing Kurdish women, many of whom undergo female genital mutilation (FGM).
This summer 28 Too Many volunteer, Nigeen Akram, returned to Iraqi Kurdistan determined to learn more about this secretive practice and how it affects the lives of Kurdish women. In this blog she tells the powerful story of one of these women and we share it on Blog Action Day 2014 to highlight this secretive practice and support those fighting to end FGM in Kurdistan. (more…)
Elimination of FGM in one generation possible – After 9 years campaigning 70% oppose practice in Iraqi Kurdistan
15.9,2014. By Stop FGM Middle East. Only ten years ago, female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iraq was a non-topic. Outside Iraq hardly anybody had heard of it, in the country itself it was well hidden within communities. Nine years ago, WADI started a comprehensive campaign against the practice in the Kurdish region of Iraq with unprecendented success. Today, the vast majority of people know of the harmful effects of FGM and want the practice to stop as a new study shows. Mutilation rates have dropped significantly in this very short time period. This gives hope that FGM can be eradicated in the Middle East and Asia within one generation if campaigns are launched. (more…)
Iraq Business-News: First-Ever Survey of FGM in Northern Iraq
9.9.2014. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) High Council of Women’s Affairs (HCWA) together with UNICEF, Heartland Alliance International, and Wadi, and in collaboration with UN Women and UNFPA, released this week results of a first-ever ‘knowledge, attitudes and practices’ (KAP) survey on the root causes of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KR-I) and convened a conference to share vital information and recommendations to fully eliminate the practice from the region. (more…)
Popular Saudi Sheikh Alarefe warns of the way FGM is done
6.8.2014. By Stop FGM Middle East.
Responding to a question by a caller on his Youtube program, the Saudi Sheikh Mohammad Al Arefe warned of female genital mutilation saying: “Today it’s chaos, women who do it are not experts and they ruin the girls’ vagina and impact her adult life… if we need to do it, it should be done by a doctor or else it shouldn’t be done at all (…)”. He also distanced himself from the strict Shafa’i interpretation which sees FGM as a must and he questioned the strength of the Hadith which calls FGM a good deed: “because it has been proven that it is not a good deed, and it was a habit done by Arabs pre Islam.” (more…)
Tackling FGM in Iran: Education about FGM during life skill classes for housewives
5.8.2014. By Osman Mahmoudi
The Hamraz Consulting Center, Training Provider in Javanrood is offering classes for housewives to teach them life skills. During these classes Mahmoudi Osman manager of the center talked about physical, psychological and sexual symptoms of FGM. Increased knowledge and awareness about actions such as circumcision is helpful and beneficial in preventing FGM. These training programs were conducted during Ramadan month in the City Javanrood on more than 1,300 housewives attending in life skills training courses. Course instructor was Mahmoudi Osman, PhD student of the Family Counseling, and director of Consulting Center of Hamraz. (more…)
New report: Female Genital Mutilation and Child Marriage in Iran
By Stop FGM Mideast, 30.07.2014
For the first time ever Iranian activists published a report based on interviews and data collections proving that Female Genital Mutilation is much more widespread in Iran than previously assumed. According to interviews done in several provinces in Northern Iran far more than 50% of females in these regions are mutiliated:
India: Ban this barbarous practice!
29.7.2014. Hindu Businessline. By RASHEEDA BHAGAT
Why condemn the ISIS alone? India’s prosperous Dawoodi Bohra community also practises female genital mutilation
FGM in Iraq: The hoax of a hoax?
29.7.1014. By Stop FGM Middle East
Last week a statement by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was circulating in Arab Social media calling female genital mutilation sunnah (the right path in Islam) and called on all Muslim women to have it done. A number of Western media outlets and international organizations reported this fatwa (religious ruling) thereby warning of its consequences for women and girls in the areas occupied by IS in Iraq and Syria.
A few days later this fatwa was unveiled as a hoax by several journalists with Spiegel online taking the lead. But was it really unveiled as a hoax? Most reasons brought forward are based on flawed information and misconceptions about the nature of fatwas. (more…)
Don’t leave girls under FGM threat by ISIS alone!
24.7.2014. By Stop FGM Middle East
The self-proclaimed Khalif Abubakr Baghdadi has ordered the genital mutilation of all women and girls in the area occupied by his Al Qaida-inspired organization “Islamic State in Iraq and Sham” (ISIS). The statement by ISIS says that “to protect the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, and in the fear that sin and vice propagate between men and women in our Islamic society, our lord and prince of the faithful Abu Bakr al Baghdadi has decided that in all regions of the Islamic State women must be sewn”.
According to the local UN representatitive, all girls and women between 11 are 46 in the area are now under threat of being forced to cut their clitoris facing severe health consequences and the loss of sexual happiness for life.