This campaign to collect information on FGM in the Middle East and Asia and support campaigns has been halted due to lack of funding. For updates on our projects in Iraq and Iran check our website wadi-online.org. For news on FGM in Asia check our facebook page.
Home » Press Review (Page 7)
The Guardian, by Patrick Kingsley, 21.5.2014.
A doctor is to stand trial in Egypt on charges of female genital mutilation on Thursday, the first case of its kind in a country where FGM is illegal but widely accepted.
Activists warned this week that the landmark case was just one small step towards eradicating the practice, as villagers openly promised to uphold the tradition and a local police chief said it was near-impossible to stamp out.
Raslan Fadl, a doctor in a Nile delta village, is accused of killing 13-year-old schoolgirl Sohair al-Bata’a in a botched FGM operation last June. Sohair’s father, Mohamed al-Bata’a, will also be charged with complicity in her death.
19.5.2014.
Does Female Circumcision happen in Singapore?
Yes. In Singapore’s Muslim community, female circumcision involves nicking the prepuce, the skin covering the clitoris. It is markedly different from the more severe forms of genital mutilation. The procedure is usually done on babies or prepubescent children. Circumcisions in Singapore are done by female doctors at a handful of Muslim clinics. Anesthesia is generally not used.
London Evening Standard, by Anna Davis, 14. 5. 2014.
A spokesman for the Orchid Project, which campaigns against cutting girls, said it is not illegal in the United Arab Emirates but the ministry of health prohibits it in state hospitals and clinics. It is not believed there are any laws prohibiting it in Singapore.
Julia Lalla-Maharajh, chief executive and founder of Orchid Project, said: “When female genital cutting is done by medical practitioners it carries the risk of the practice being seen as more ‘acceptable’, however the outcomes for the girl are still the same — she still is cut, still might have horrendous complications and her rights will still have been violated.
“Unfortunately, the medicalisation of the practice is on the rise and it must be stemmed.”
DNA, India, by Anam Rizvi, 11.5.2014.
The documentary A Pinch of Skin, an attempt to lift silence on this stifled memory, brings together voices of women who suffered the practice. Like millions of other little girls, this one too is being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) with a view to suppressing her sexual urges later on in life. The painful process leaves an indelible mark on mind and body and the reasons given are many. […]
“I knew nothing until I got to the place where it was to happen. I was told nothing. My mother then told me that they would scrape off a bit of skin. She said nothing would happen. I was very scared,” says Aarefa Johari, a writer at Scroll.in. A member of the Dawoodi Bohra community, Aarefa has chosen not to follow religious practices. “I’ve heard of a few cases where a small lunch party is organised for the girl where her friends are invited after the event,” she says.[…] (more…)
Gatestone Institut, by Irfan Al-Alawi, 7.5.2014.
Although FGM is associated often with Islam, it is found commonly in non-Muslim areas of Africa and among immigrants to the West from that region. Muslims should take the initiative in opposing FGM; campaigns against this violation of women’s rights are underway already in several Muslim lands. (more…)
The Guardian, by Suad Abu-Dayyeh, 6.5.2014.
Yemen is poised to vote on a comprehensive Child Rights Act over the coming months, which would ban child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). […]
As a report by Equality Now points out, child marriage does not take place in a vacuum but is rather part of a cycle of abuse and discrimination that often includes sexual violence and FGM.
With this is mind, articles in the Child Rights Act that propose banning FGM – which affects 23% of Yemen’s female population – as well as other forms of violence against children, including child labour, are to be welcomed.
4.4.2014. by Passant Darwish, Ahram Online. For organisations working to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM) in Egypt, a court’s decision this month to refer the father and doctor of a 13-year-old girl who died from an FGM is seen as a ray of light in three years of political turmoil.
The unrest since Egypt’s 2011 revolution has overshadowed some of the country’s social problems – one of which is FGM.
Vivian Fouad, head of the capacity building and communications department at the country’s National Population Council (NPC), which leads the anti-FGM campaign in Egypt – says that the topic of FGM has been “marginalised” since the 2011 uprising, along with other social issues.
(more…)
5.4.2014. On Force Change, a plattform for petitions, a new petition was posted asking the Un secretary general Ban Ki-Moon to stop female genital mutilation in Indonesia. You can sign the petition here.
31.3.2014. Terre des Femmes and Watch Indonesia!have send an additional submission to the United Nations Comitee on the Rights of the Child, 66th Session, in which they call for a ban on female genital mutilation in Indonesia.
In their statement they describe how medicalization leads to an increase of FGM: “Many hospitals offer FGM as part of “birth packages” including health checks, ear piercing and vaccinations. Ironically, this practice would not be considered as a human rights violation since it has a legal basis. The promotion of ‘healthy’ FGM in Indonesia has become so popular that even girls from the greater Pacific region are at risk of being cut in Indonesia.”
read full statement
28.3.2014. The Ahmadiyya community is joining the struggle against female genital mutilation (FGM). Already on March 7th the Ahmadiyya Times published a fierce condemnation of FGM by Qasim Rashid calling FGM and act of terrorism. Now Farooq Aftab, a spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth writes on Your Middle East: “Not in Islam’s name, not in my name.”
Farooq Aftab‘s article: