IwantbustyKim
11-11-2015, 02:38 PM
Why would anyone allow such a barbaric practice to continue? Removing a woman's right to pleasure herself just shows how backward and uncivilized that practice stems from.
Female genital mutilation: the cruellest cut
http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/k/h/r/z/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gkfxfs.png/1445725606149.jpg
Fatu Sillah clearly recalls the day her childhood ended. She was six years old when her mother's friends invited her to a party with girls from her village near Freetown in Sierra Leone.
"When I got there I saw other girls sitting on the ground crying and I remember the overwhelming smell of a traditional African medicine used to heal wounds. I was taken into the backroom, stripped naked and held down on the ground by six women. I saw the cutter with a small, sharp knife. She said: 'It will be quick and it won't hurt that much.' "
This was not the case. "As she cut away at my genitals, the pain was excruciating," Sillah says. "There was blood everywhere. I cried uncontrollably and screamed as the woman poured alcohol over my wounds."
Sillah could barely move afterwards. "For six months I struggled to even walk. Afraid to urinate, I taught myself to hold on so I could avoid the pain of peeing. I would go only once a day at the most, and as a result for years I have suffered from urinary tract infections."
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On Monday Fatu, now 26 and a university student, will talk about her experience at a Family Violence Has No Boundaries conference hosted by the University of Melbourne. The Sydney woman's message to anyone considering breaking the law to impose female genital mutilation (FGM) on their daughter is clear: "It still affects me as an adult and I wouldn't want my worst enemy to go through the pain and suffering it has caused me and many other girls."
Sillah is one of a number of African-Australian women who are speaking out against FGM, also known as female genital cutting (FGC), in the hope that they can stamp out the practice.
"The World Health Organisation estimates more than 125 million girls have suffered FGM. What you need to know is that this is not just happening in Africa and the Middle East but right here in Australia," she says.
Another FGM survivor who insists the practice persists in Australia is young Adelaide mother Khadija Gbla. Since Gbla spoke at TEDx Canberra last October, her courageous, often funny presentation – where she reveals what it is like to live in "clitoris-centric" Australia – has attracted more than one million views on YouTube.
Gbla was told in Australia that her FGM injuries incurred as a child in Sierra Leone meant she couldn't have children. But she did become pregnant and this makes her eight-month-old son all the more precious.
Hamdi Said.
Hamdi Said. Photo: Eddie Jim
Gbla was so devastated by her FGM experience that she co-founded No FGM Australia with Melbourne woman Paula Ferrari. The pair describe themselves as "clitoral warriors", running an organisation that aims to protect girls from FGM and support survivors.
In their work, the two women have had to call the Child Protection Service to stop FGM being performed on girls, some of whom had just been born.
"It is secret, so difficult to detect. We know from overseas data that girls born to mothers who are survivors of FGM are at very high risk of being subjected to FGM," says Gbla.
The incidence of FGM in Australia has been difficult to quantify as, unlike in Britain and France, little data has been collected. What is known is that 20 years ago, with the arrival of the first refugees from countries where FGM is practised, a concerted effort was made to prevent it through education programs and later by making it illegal, with mandatory reporting. As a result, in New South Wales performing FGM could lead to 21 years in prison; in Victoria a "cutter" could face 15 years.
Though most African, Middle Eastern or South-east Asian parents have abandoned the practice for their daughters in Australia, many people interviewed for this article say it stubbornly persists within parts of some communities here and has been driven underground because it is illegal. They say there needs to be more education for recent arrivals.
The findings of a new study of 800 Australian paediatricians confirms that FGM is still being performed in Australia. The survey, by Professor Elizabeth Elliott and her colleagues at the University of Sydney's Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit, found that more than half of respondents believed FGM was being performed on Australian children.
Yet, though most paediatricians were aware of its complications, few asked about or examined patients for FGM.
Ten per cent of those surveyed had seen at least one case of FGM in a girl aged 18 or younger during their career, including 16 paediatricians seeing FGM in the past five years. Professor Elliott says the study reveals that FGM is occurring, yet there is a "dearth of knowledge" among medical professionals. The researchers also reviewed the Australian and international research, which confirmed widespread medical ignorance of the practice.
Legal authorities have taken action. In an ongoing case in the New South Wales Supreme Court, an elderly woman has pleaded not guilty to the alleged genital mutilation of two girls in separate procedures in Sydney and Wollongong. The girls' mother is accused of organising the procedure. A high-ranking member of the Dawoodi Bohra Shia Muslim community has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory after the fact.
Fatu Sillah estimates about half of her friends from Muslim backgrounds have undergone FGM. "No one will talk about it. Everyone is scared because they know the consequences. I know of someone who wanted it for her daughter. There is talk of a Somalian cutter who will do it. It is happening."
She has heard of families taking girls to towns such as Wollongong to have the procedure done, mostly at around five years old so it won't be known outside the family.
Some say FGM persists because it is a religious practice. But Sheikh Isse Musse, a spiritual leader in Melbourne's Horn of Africa community, says FGM is not sanctioned by the Koran.
"There are a few sayings from the Prophet, but those have been found to be lacking in strength. Even if some people take these sayings to be credible, we explain what damage FGM does. According to the principles of Islam, if anything has a damage or harm to the person, it is excluded."
Melbourne community leader Mariam Issa worries that when people hear of the difficulties she and others have faced, they will judge rather than be supportive. In her book The Resilient Life, this dynamic mother of five talks frankly about her FGM experience. Some family members were horrified, but her niece insisted she include it to help others.
"Our community is very secretive. People don't want to hang their dirty laundry outside. They don't want to talk about it because they believe 'no one will respect my point of view'."
But Issa urges young women to step forward. "Don't be shy – have a voice about injustice," she says.
Female genital mutilation: the cruellest cut
http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/k/h/r/z/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gkfxfs.png/1445725606149.jpg
Fatu Sillah clearly recalls the day her childhood ended. She was six years old when her mother's friends invited her to a party with girls from her village near Freetown in Sierra Leone.
"When I got there I saw other girls sitting on the ground crying and I remember the overwhelming smell of a traditional African medicine used to heal wounds. I was taken into the backroom, stripped naked and held down on the ground by six women. I saw the cutter with a small, sharp knife. She said: 'It will be quick and it won't hurt that much.' "
This was not the case. "As she cut away at my genitals, the pain was excruciating," Sillah says. "There was blood everywhere. I cried uncontrollably and screamed as the woman poured alcohol over my wounds."
Sillah could barely move afterwards. "For six months I struggled to even walk. Afraid to urinate, I taught myself to hold on so I could avoid the pain of peeing. I would go only once a day at the most, and as a result for years I have suffered from urinary tract infections."
Advertisement
On Monday Fatu, now 26 and a university student, will talk about her experience at a Family Violence Has No Boundaries conference hosted by the University of Melbourne. The Sydney woman's message to anyone considering breaking the law to impose female genital mutilation (FGM) on their daughter is clear: "It still affects me as an adult and I wouldn't want my worst enemy to go through the pain and suffering it has caused me and many other girls."
Sillah is one of a number of African-Australian women who are speaking out against FGM, also known as female genital cutting (FGC), in the hope that they can stamp out the practice.
"The World Health Organisation estimates more than 125 million girls have suffered FGM. What you need to know is that this is not just happening in Africa and the Middle East but right here in Australia," she says.
Another FGM survivor who insists the practice persists in Australia is young Adelaide mother Khadija Gbla. Since Gbla spoke at TEDx Canberra last October, her courageous, often funny presentation – where she reveals what it is like to live in "clitoris-centric" Australia – has attracted more than one million views on YouTube.
Gbla was told in Australia that her FGM injuries incurred as a child in Sierra Leone meant she couldn't have children. But she did become pregnant and this makes her eight-month-old son all the more precious.
Hamdi Said.
Hamdi Said. Photo: Eddie Jim
Gbla was so devastated by her FGM experience that she co-founded No FGM Australia with Melbourne woman Paula Ferrari. The pair describe themselves as "clitoral warriors", running an organisation that aims to protect girls from FGM and support survivors.
In their work, the two women have had to call the Child Protection Service to stop FGM being performed on girls, some of whom had just been born.
"It is secret, so difficult to detect. We know from overseas data that girls born to mothers who are survivors of FGM are at very high risk of being subjected to FGM," says Gbla.
The incidence of FGM in Australia has been difficult to quantify as, unlike in Britain and France, little data has been collected. What is known is that 20 years ago, with the arrival of the first refugees from countries where FGM is practised, a concerted effort was made to prevent it through education programs and later by making it illegal, with mandatory reporting. As a result, in New South Wales performing FGM could lead to 21 years in prison; in Victoria a "cutter" could face 15 years.
Though most African, Middle Eastern or South-east Asian parents have abandoned the practice for their daughters in Australia, many people interviewed for this article say it stubbornly persists within parts of some communities here and has been driven underground because it is illegal. They say there needs to be more education for recent arrivals.
The findings of a new study of 800 Australian paediatricians confirms that FGM is still being performed in Australia. The survey, by Professor Elizabeth Elliott and her colleagues at the University of Sydney's Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit, found that more than half of respondents believed FGM was being performed on Australian children.
Yet, though most paediatricians were aware of its complications, few asked about or examined patients for FGM.
Ten per cent of those surveyed had seen at least one case of FGM in a girl aged 18 or younger during their career, including 16 paediatricians seeing FGM in the past five years. Professor Elliott says the study reveals that FGM is occurring, yet there is a "dearth of knowledge" among medical professionals. The researchers also reviewed the Australian and international research, which confirmed widespread medical ignorance of the practice.
Legal authorities have taken action. In an ongoing case in the New South Wales Supreme Court, an elderly woman has pleaded not guilty to the alleged genital mutilation of two girls in separate procedures in Sydney and Wollongong. The girls' mother is accused of organising the procedure. A high-ranking member of the Dawoodi Bohra Shia Muslim community has pleaded not guilty to being an accessory after the fact.
Fatu Sillah estimates about half of her friends from Muslim backgrounds have undergone FGM. "No one will talk about it. Everyone is scared because they know the consequences. I know of someone who wanted it for her daughter. There is talk of a Somalian cutter who will do it. It is happening."
She has heard of families taking girls to towns such as Wollongong to have the procedure done, mostly at around five years old so it won't be known outside the family.
Some say FGM persists because it is a religious practice. But Sheikh Isse Musse, a spiritual leader in Melbourne's Horn of Africa community, says FGM is not sanctioned by the Koran.
"There are a few sayings from the Prophet, but those have been found to be lacking in strength. Even if some people take these sayings to be credible, we explain what damage FGM does. According to the principles of Islam, if anything has a damage or harm to the person, it is excluded."
Melbourne community leader Mariam Issa worries that when people hear of the difficulties she and others have faced, they will judge rather than be supportive. In her book The Resilient Life, this dynamic mother of five talks frankly about her FGM experience. Some family members were horrified, but her niece insisted she include it to help others.
"Our community is very secretive. People don't want to hang their dirty laundry outside. They don't want to talk about it because they believe 'no one will respect my point of view'."
But Issa urges young women to step forward. "Don't be shy – have a voice about injustice," she says.