British Officials Uncover Hundreds of New Cases of Female Genital Mutilation in the UK by Phyllis Chesler Breitbart October 17, 2014 http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/1373/british-officials-uncover-hundreds-of-new-cases Print Send RSS Share: Be the first of your friends to like this. The British National Health Service-- in a first-of-its-kind, just released study-- has documented 467 "newly identified cases" of girls and women who had been genitally mutilated. Half live in London.  Previously, 1, 279 such girls and women were known to be receiving post-mutilation treatment. However, estimates suggest that up to "170,000 women and girls living in the UK may have undergone FGM." This is simply not acceptable. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is not at all like male circumcision. Not only is the capacity for sexual pleasure destroyed, complications are routine and include bleeding, painful urination, cysts, dangerous and recurrent bladder and urinary tract infections, the growth of scar tissue that make marital intercourse a nightmare and that turns childbirth into an experience of danger and torture. It increases the likelihood of newborn deaths. In addition, some girls and women develop fistulas and become incontinent. They are doomed to defecate and urinate without control. Absent effective surgery, this is a life-long condition which leads to the woman being shunned by her family. And then there is a life-long post-traumatic stress disorder that normally accompanies the experience of having been forced into such suffering, usually by your mother or grandmother, and at the hands of a female specialist. This is a grim picture indeed. But matters are far worse in non-Western countries.  Earlier this year, the World Health Organization estimated that 125 million women have been genitally mutilated. They confirmed that this hellish procedure renders absolutely no health benefit and, on the contrary, harms its victims beyond measure and violates their human rights. As we know, the practice is common in 29 countries: in the Arab Muslim Middle East and in parts of Muslim, Christian, and animist Africa. According to UNICEF, "91% of married Egyptian women between 15-49 have been subjected to FGM." » CONTINUE READING Related Topics:  Gender, Islamic Gender & Religious Apartheid

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