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The following article on infibulation's recently ran this year in the Observer Newspaper in England.
The Observer 5 October 1997 United Kingdom
THE MEN WHO WILL MUTILATE GIRLS FOR MONEY
Female circumcision is still taking place here. Heather Mills reports
FOR 50 pounds a Manchester GP, Abdul Baten Jalal Ahmed, will agree to mutilate a young girl..
In the name of Allah and under the guise of tradition, he is one of many men and women In this country who are prepared to break the law and 'circumcise' children as young as eight.
The euphemism is 'cutting the rose'. The practice is genital mutilation which can range from 'Sunna', removing the head of the clitoris, to 'infibulation', the excision of the clitoris and removal of all the external sex organs. The girls are then stitched and left only a tiny hole for urination and menstruation.
It serves no medical purpose and can lead to haemorrhage, infection, severe gynaecological and birth complications, septicaemia and even death.
Dr Ahmed, who qualified In Calcutta and has practised in Britain since the early Sixties, says he does 'the circumcision and the stitch'.
Small comfort that another man, Hoji Abdul, who comes from the Yemen and lives in Sheffield, draws the line at Sunna. He is a steelworker with no medical training.
His sliding scale of charges depends on the place in which he 'operates' - from 40 pounds per child in Manchester to 45 in Liverpool and 70 in London.
However, thanks to the courage of one Somali mother living In the South of England - and now risking revenge and exile from the traditionalists in her community the activities of these men are now likely to cease.
Amina (not her real name) was herself genitally mutilated when she was seven and is still suffering the physical and mental trauma. She went under cover for Channel 4's Black Bag to expose those who were responsible.
Her documentary' includes a harrowing sequence filmed abroad of an eight-year- old girl screaming in pain as she is held down and cut by women of her community, with no anaesthetic.
Pretending she was seeking circumcision for her daughter and for daughters of friends, Amina secretly filmed Dr Ahmed and Mr Abdul agreeing to carry out the deed. 'OK, come at four o'clock and 50 for each girl,' says Dr Ahmed, agreeing to do two that day.
'Get six, seven, eight girls and get In touch with me. I come down to Manchester,' says the steelworker. 'Keep this secret In your heart. Do not tell nobody you are coming.'
Of course he demands secrecy. The practice was outlawed In this country in 1985 by the Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act. It carries a prison sentence of up to live years. Nevertheless, the British Medical Association estimates that 3,000 to 4,000 young girls are 'circumcised' in Britain every year.
Forward, a Department of Health-funded campaign and 'education group, estimates that up to 15,000 girls are at risk of mutilation in Britain. Their families come from communities in Africa, the Middle East and South-East Asia where female genital mutilation is endemic. In Somalia, the Sudan and Djibouti more than 80 per cent of girls are subjected to infibulation, the most extreme mutilation.
Although many cite religious motivations, Islamic scholars deny it is demanded by the Koran the practice predates Islam. The more accepted belief is that it is still demanded in male-dominated cultures to preserve female chastity and, supposedly, heighten male pleasure.
Until the Thirties, removal of the clitoris was carried out in this and other European countries as a 'cure' for 'oversexed' or 'neurotic' women.
Despite evidence that the practice is widespread In Britain, there have been no prosecutions. In 1993 a Harley Street doctor was struck off for performing female circumcision knowing it was illegal.
One obstacle to the law is the reluctance of victims to come forward for fear of being ostracised. In the documentary, Somali women themselves mutilated say they are prepared to take their children abroad and risk arrest or their return in order to maintain the tradition.
Amina told the Observer that the 'torture' she suffered had prompted her to fight for its abolition. 'I do not have the words to describe the pain I suffered. It was like a fire. I was held down by seven or eight women and an old woman came in. She had an old rusty razor blade, the room was quite dark arid she could hardly see. She just cut me up I was screaming, it was so horrible, so awful ...I was so frightened.'
Amina suffered full infibulation. Her wound was 'stitched' with long thorns. Her legs were tied together for several days so she could not move and open the wound Passing water was agony When she married, she had to be cut open to allow Inter course and when she had a child she had to be cut again.
Her dossier is to go to the police and, in the case of Dr Ahmed, to the General Medical Council.
Black Bag's 'Cutting the Rose' is on Channel 4 at 8pm or Tuesday
The observer can be contacted at:
The Editor
The Observer
119 Farringdon Road
London
EC1R 3ER
e-mail:- editor@observer.co.uk
