(not satire)
Around 20,000 children are estimated to be at serious risk of physical torture in the UK – some as young as 4 years old.
The kids are often held down by several adults and have bits of their tiny bodies cut off without any anaesthetic. Some of them will even die from the trauma.
Obviously this torture is illegal – however there has not been even one prosecution of the perpetrators in the UK. Not one.
How can that be?
The sad fact is that if I had included in the headline the letters FGM – Female Genital Mutilation – I suspect a lot of people reading this post now wouldn’t have bothered.
Why is this horrific crime so easy to ignore? Is it because the children in question are girls? Often from ethnic minorities? Or are some people worried about upsetting ‘cultural sensitivities’?
Well, this isn’t about cultural sensitivities. It’s about the torture of little kids.
And it’s about time we saw some of the perpetrators being prosecuted.
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Here’s a petition to the Metropolitan Police urging them to make this issue a priority.
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Please feel free to comment. You don’t need to register.
Pride's Purge 
Because the state is colluding in the abuse & torture, http://www.ukcolumn.org/articles/Children
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Reblogged this on Alan's Blog.
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I agree this should stop, as a matter of urgent priority. Can you explain the figure of 20,000? How is this estimated?
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eayore – It’s an estimation – the true figures are unknown and could be even higher. Figures are from NHS Choices: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/female-genital-mutilation/Pages/Introduction.aspx
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Pingback: Children are being tortured in the UK. So why i...
tom the UK government have been killing the sick and disabled by various means knowing that they will die if we keep the pressure on them
they certainly aren’t in private going to give a damn about foreign kids getting hurt
the Tory government the royal family have always put themselves first second and third and always have done and always will do this goes for all types all Tory governments worldwide bar none
the worlds people if to to survive in the future will need to wise up on the way they vote or the deaths of many groups of people will be catastrophic
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Here in Leicester there are hand written posters in newsagent/local stores advertising – circumcision !! This also needs investigating Urgently
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Reblogged this on Johnsono ne'Blog'as.
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It’s not just girls. Boys are also being held down by several adults and having bits of their tiny bodies cut off, and often without any anaesthetic.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2011/dec/06/1
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Pingback: Children are being tortured in the UK. So why is no-one being prosecuted? | Street Democracy - where it should reach
Reblogged this on THE SIEGE OF BRITAIN and commented:
THIS HAS TO STOP! TORTURE IS TORTURE FULL STOP! IF WE WON’T THEN WHO WILL? WHO’S WITH ME?
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BECAUSE CORRUPTION,IS SO ENTRENCHED,INTO BRITISH POLITICS,AND BRITISH POLICING,NOTHING WILL GET DONE,THE ULTRA-RIGHT-WING–EXTREMIST PRESS,AND THE BBC,ONLY REPORT,CONSERVATIVE,CONDEM PROPAGANDA,EVEN THE ATTORNEY GENERAL,AND CROWN-PROSECUTION,SERVICE,ARE SERIOUSLY,EMBROILED IN CORRUPTION,I COULD GIVE EXAMPLES,THE BRITISH GOVERNING SYSTEM,IS VERY SEVERLY FLAWED,,
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we do need a royal commission on crimes against children.
the law does not correctly identify the crime, what has been stolen?
the child is the crime scene, the child obviously needs to be moved away from the abuser, but often the victim, has no sense of being abused, the abuse is normalised.
the child (which includes adults abused in childhood), needs long term therapeutic sanctuary, so that the child can be assisted in unpacking, their blocked rage voice, to express their feelings of intense rage, so that the anxieties caused by child abuse evaporate and the toxic TAR (trapped anger and rage) is fully vented, no healing can take place unless, TAR is released..
dr alice miller, who notes the deep denial in different cultures of child abuse, calls the crime “soul murder”… convicting the criminals that commit these heinous crimes is only one part of the solution, the main part is helping the child heal, and recover from their trauma. virtually no true healing sanctuaries exist in the uk…others who can help in this matter are dr bob johnson, and dr dorothy rowe…
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Veronica Kenning’s #BedroomTax Protest- From Her Deathbed
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wu8rmoeq8a8wr4v/MVtEChIW3W#lh:null-Veronica%20Kenning_1.wmv
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nick
we face such viscous crimes against humanity, atm,
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Reblogged this on Vox Political and commented:
Here’s something that has made my skin crawl ever since I first heard about it when I was a teenager, almost 30 years ago.
It is incredible that this is still taking place, in the UK, with hardly a murmur of protest at it.
There’s a petition at the bottom of this post. Let’s have a few more signatures on it by the end of the day, eh?
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I totally agree – whatever anyone does for their religion should not involve any children. Any mutilation should be left until the child becomes an adult and then chooses what to do! No-one has the right to hurt, abuse or choose any religion and it’s “beliefs” and “mutilation” just because they believe a certain God!
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I’ve reblogged it on Jays Journal and have also commented on it!
This type of abuse for any God is wrong and the parents who allow this to be done should never be allowed to have any more! They should also be sterilized! These are not civilised “human beings” nor ever will be.
Unfortunately, the police are told to look after the immigrants and let them do what they want. It’s against our laws to do this yet the get away with it and nothing is done! If we did this to our children then we would end up in prison and our children would be taken away from us forever!
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forced sterilization! that is also abuse…
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Along with this, The Government needs to stop the practice of “Thighing” which is seen as OK in many many homes in the UK. IT IS NOT OK!
Both of the practices here are abuse of girls in the worst way.. Young Girls, who have no one to protect them..
And this is happening in the UK.
Its atrocious.
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Pingback: Children are being tortured in the UK. So why is no-one being prosecuted? | Jay's Journal
This speaks for itself. So where are the people who are supposed to be defending these girls? Embroiled in arguments about ‘respect’ and being cowed by a highly vocal minority. We have to stand up for the rights of these children to remain safe within our society and condemn such barbarity outright. This has to stop and it has to stop NOW!
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karin
see alice miller open letter to tony blair et al, on no smack, violence never cures violence, it only ever causes more violence…all violence against children is evil…
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I remember watching this on TV a long time ago and still nothing has been done about it. This is Britain and its time they lived by British rules, we would not condone this upon our own children so why do we condone this on the ethic minority. Why do we have to worry about ethic sensitivities when this is what we call child abuse in Britain, time this was stopped and these people were prosecuted under our laws. Also time these people were educated about such cultures. It is barbaric and belongs in the dark ages.
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I was medically circumcised as a baby. It was quite normal then, no torture, nothing like what these children go through, but even so I’ve felt violated all my life. Just thought I’d mention it.
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this is a practice that has been going on for eons of time among the Muslims (where girls are concerned… including killing them if they are too poor to raise a dowry when they are old enough to marry…which can be any age from around 11/12 years old.). it is no more a religious thing than one of us British, Christians etc being sterilised just so we cant have more kids. not for any medical reason., it is done because they believe that 1. it stops the girl being promiscuous and keeps her pure before she is married off to whoever bids for her. be the man young or old. and then 2. gives that man more pleasure apparently, but has been known on numerous occasions to kill the girl because of the terrific pain it causes her. ..remember, a new bride is often a pre teen.
it is barbaric and yes it should be stopped. and not just here in Britain. but wherever it takes place.
The Jews circumcise boys for religious and hygiene reasons, simply because they interpret their religious teachings / book as saying it was done in Biblical times. i was not aware that THAT practice was done without anaesthetic however. though i did know the female one was.
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I would like to respond to Ralph T.’s petition for the Met. Police to do something about FGM. Ralph – I hope you’re reading this and you can join the discussion.
Like so many people, I find the idea of FGM horrific, but it’s very easy to shout a Daily Mail style “Lock them up!” reaction without first thinking about whether that will actually help. I’ll try to explain what I mean:
Almost all FGM carried out by very close female relatives. The vast majority had exactly the same thing done to them, so they KNOW what it’s like, and yet they STILL do it. Unless we think generations and millions of women around the world simply enjoy torturing little girls, or they’re being forced to do it by men, then the only rational conclusion is that they think it’s the right thing to do. Why??? Nobody, including Ralph, seems to be interested in that question.
Punishing people who don’t think they’ve done anything wrong doesn’t work, and it never has throughout history. Why should it work for this problem now?
I think a far better approach is an amnesty. If both victims and perpetrators feel able to come forward and talk about it then we might be able to make some progress. Victims are very unlikely to want to send their own parents to jail, so if jail is the only possible outcome then they are NEVER going to talk to police, doctors or social services.
I think the crude judicial solution proposed by Ralph T. and so many others is fundamentally misguided, and it can only make the problem worse.
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I was raising this issue 32 years ago at Uni. It had been going on for many many years then. Tradition/Culture/Religion given as the reason and purpose. It IS not only physical mutilation, it is theft of sensation of a healthy full intimacy these girls will never know. It is mind bogglingly destructive to the psyche – it is horrendous.
Unlike circumcision which is still abhorrent and needs to be punishable by jail time, female circumcision destroys the sex organs completely. In some cultures it is carried out so the girl will not ‘stray’ and also so sex will be enhanced for the male. No consideration is given to the disfigurement and trauma – as when these girls have babies, they are torn. Their genitalia becomes so deformed as well due to scar tissue build-up. But that’s okay, the male will have a good time once she has been sewn up again.
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Addendum: I should have put ‘medically’ in inverted commas, since there was – in fact – no medical reason to mutilate me, and none at all that I was ever told about. It wasn’t painful (so far as I remember!), it wasn’t dangerous (the op only used to go – horribly – wrong once in a while) and while it has affected my sexual enjoyment, that probable outcome was regarded by some shit of a doctor as an advantage…
By the way, circumcision of baby boys is generally carried out withOUT anaesthesia – on the most sensitive part of his body.
All of which, far from distracting me from the massively greater horror of FGM, actually makes me infinitely more appalled by it – and marginally more qualified to rage at it.
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Reblogged this on thepositivevoice.
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We are being sidetracked yet again. For a start, calling what happens to girls ‘circumcision’ is probably one of the most disgusting misnomers of all time. There can be absolutely no comparison between this particular barbarity and the circumcision of a male.
These girls are genitally mutilated, in an operation specifically deisgned to remove all sexual appetite and one that makes giving birth even more difficult. In effect, the operation on a female desexes her as an individual, and turns her into an object for the pleasure of a man. Take away a person’s sexuality and you take away their humanity. That is not circumcision. That is sexual slavery. If saying so makes one an Islamophobe in the eyes of some, then so be it. But someone, some time has to stand on their hind legs and say, in the name of humanity, that this is wrong.
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… but WHY do so many people, including countless women who have suffered the same mutilation themselves, apparently think it’s NOT wrong?
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Finkfurst, in China foot binding was practiced for centuries. It involved breaking young girls’ toes and folding them back under the foot, binding them tightly. This was done because it was considered beautiful to have tiny feet and girls who didn’t would find it difficult to find a marriage partner. A ban was attempted but this practice was done by women to the girls as they firmly believed the girl would never find a husband otherwise. The Christian missionaries worked with the Chinese Government to help eradicate the practice, but there were accusations within the communities of cultural imperialism by the British and of a failure to understand the significance and importance of the tradition. It took time, understanding and persistence to change the thinking behind the practice.
However foul a practice is and however brutal and repressive its origins might be if it is widespread in a society and is used as an identifier of self worth or as a calculation of value on the ‘marriage market’ then that is what needs to be challenged. We have laws already which criminalise actual bodily harm. And we have Child Protection laws. We need to implement them. But if people are prosecuted for perpetuating an abhorrent tradition without serious education within the culture to change the beliefs that lie behind this then more and more young girls will be shipped out of the country for these mutilations, which increases their risk even further.
And you can avoid any accusation of Islamaphobia by making sure you understand that this is a cultural tradition, not a religious one. It is practiced mostly in African countries, including North Africa, and in the countries where it is found it happens in the Christian sections of the population as well as the Muslim ones.
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Hi Deborah – Foot binding was exactly the example I was thinking about too. I agree with much of what you say, though I’m not sure you’re right about predominance within Islam, though the practice probably predates it. I’m not afraid of being accused of Islamophobia, but the government and police are terrified of it! However, the main point I want to make is that you don’t say what we should DO about it. Do you, like Ralph T, think we should send all the people who are involved with mutilating girls to prison?
Ralph – It would be good if you would join the discussion…..
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Finkfurst, I didn’t say it was predominant in Islam I said it was cultural not religious. It was Lesley Ann saying ‘if it makes you seem an Islamaphobe, so be it’ that made me add that comment in.
I think dealing with it is difficult, not so much because of cultural toe-stepping but because crimes within families and against children are notoriously difficult to monitor. Look at the extremes we have at the moment within Children and Families Social Services, with some departments accused of removing children ‘for nothing’ and other children dying because nobody joined up the information properly. And I do think that this issue lies properly within the remit of C&F social workers. Children born into families where the practice is endemic should probably be on the at risk register. There would need to be an active engagement with community leaders (often Church or Mosque) to help identify children at risk. It would have to be publicly acknowledged as an unacceptable practice.
That would be my starting point. What do you think?
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I think that all people who conduct child abuse should be prosecuted under the law. This IS the law. It’s the police’s job to detect these crimes and arrest those responsible. As to whether abusers are sent to prison, this is a job for the judiciary as a due process of the law. Any civilised society should be judged as to how they protect the most vulnerable and by this standard the UK is failing badly. This is my last word on the subject, this petition is not about me. This petition is about young girls being mutilated and the criminal justice system abjectly failing in its responsibility towards protecting them.
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We don’t need any more commissions that will take years to “report”, cost millions and then be buried because it offends a particular group. It needs the law of the UK, European and UN laws to be enforced NOW.
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Reblogged this on Ned Hamson Second Line View of the News.
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Deborah – Actually I meant that FGM almost certainly IS predominant within Islam, and I’m not afraid to say so. The national correlation is quite clear.
I fully agree with you the way forward is through education, not police action and punishment. I think FGM (and male circumcision) should be discussed as part of the national curriculum in ALL schools (no exceptions). We must also make it possible for victims to discuss their problems without fear that their relatives will be sent to jail. Much can be done, emotionally, surgically and culturally, to help these victims, and we should NOT be inhibiting them from asking for help.
It’s unfortunate that the person who initiated this petition to enforce criminalisation of FGM can only give one simplistic “last word” and seems unwilling to have an ongoing discussion. Ralph – I will ask you one question… Is this really just a simple failure of the criminal justice system?
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colin
as far as i’m aware child abuse is against the law, but little is done to enforce the law, and when it is, it does not recognise, what the crime actually is, it is a crime against the emotional integrity of the human mind, and causes massive damage to human culture…the legal system makes this suffering much worse, because it simply does not acknowledge what is going on, the victims needs for recovery should be paramount, they are not..
punishing the abuser in the way that law currently does, does little to help anyone, the abuser also needs to be cured…psychosis is 100% curable…effectively the abuser and the victim are locked up…
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/24/child-poverty-camila-batmanghelidjh-london-kids-company-david-cameron_n_1448979.html
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I’m absolutely with Finkfurst on this. Am I repelled by the practice of FGM? Yes, of course I am. My whole body physically reacts. Do I want this practice to stop, not just in this country but world wide? Yes without equivocation. Do I think that prosecuting the parents of these children for child abuse will achieve that end? No, I do not. Read what Finkfurst posted earlier. It is spot on the problem. Then read the history of foot binding and understand that to achieve effective outcomes the same lengthy procedure has to be followed. Then think about overburdendonkey’s equally serious point about how to support the children, young and adult women who have to live with this mutilation because it has already been done to them.
Sign the petition if you just have a desire to ‘do something’ regardless of outcome. Go to Council meetings, write to your MP, ask what resources are being made available to educate and inform local communities who may be involved in this practice about the need to eradicate it. And ask what specific support services are available to the girls affected. If there are none ask why not. That would be effective action, in my opinion.
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ps colin
it is harmful for the child to rationalize their abuse, as it is done in court proceedings, this simply freezes the childs emotional response to the abuse..healing without feeling and expressing the full emotional impact of the abuse is not possible, one must express their frozen terrors…
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deborah..
see dr bob johnson, “emotional support centres”, where people could freely go to be cured, from emotional injuries…see his story of work in parkhurst prison, then you will see what can be provably achieved…100% cure…
http://www.truthtrustconsent.com/
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overburdenddonkey – 100% cure for FGM just by paying €20 to Dr Bob Johnson???? I’m sorry Mr Donkey, but to put it simply…. you are either a complete nutter or a complete charlatan.
Tom – I think you must now exclude overburdenddonkey for selling services on this discussion forum.
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Ralph – I will ask you one question… Is this really just a simple failure of the criminal justice system?
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Finkfurst, if Islam has become the predominant religion in countries which practice FGM that doesn’t make FGM an Islamic practice. It does, however, mean that Islam can certainly be held responsible for not trying to stamp the practice out and even assimilating it in those countries and it should clearly be held accountable. I’m an atheist and don’t care whose religion I offend (other than that I’m a nice, well brought up person who was taught to be polite…). I live in Southwark, the most Christian Borough in the country, I believe. This is because of the African churches which abound here.
Under the auspices of some of these churches ‘bad’ children are tortured in the name of exorcism to free them of their evil spirit which is making them disobedient. Some die. These are the same African cultures where Islamic families are mutilating their girls in the name of ‘purity’ and to cleanse them of evil sexual thoughts. So we are talking about cultures where repressive attitudes towards women and children are systemic and concepts such as ‘obedience’ and ‘purity’ are highly prized. These attitudes, by the way, are not to be found in the ‘Five Pillars of Islam’. Although the stuff about witches and evil spirits and the obedience of women is most definitely in the Bible. Just saying…
Just over 100 years ago you’d have found a great deal of sympathy for those attitudes in this country. As an example in Victorian England some women were forced to undergo hysterectomies without anaesthetic to cure their ‘hysteria’ or to purge them of the madness of syphilis. Most died from internal haemorrhage. And we know that poor children suffered terribly from starvation, beatings, neglect and sexual abuse. And children from all classes were beaten ‘for their own good’ and to make them obedient.
What do I think the solution is? Firstly to make clear that it is an unacceptable practice. I think liberal views should be far from washy washy. I think they should be muscular and robust in standing up to abuse. That means education and information without equivocation. Personally I would ban all (all) faith schools so that it is not possible to have enclaves in which children can be isolated from outside influence. That would be a start… Once you have clearly educated the perpetrators of FGM in the rule of law in this country then you can rightly prosecute those who break the law and the practice will die out.
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obviously often the many physical injuries caused by child abuse cannot be cured, but the emotional injuries caused by it can be cured…the emotional support centre he run in the IoW, was completely free of charge, as is the majority of his work…did i also advertise “kids company”…perhaps if you were to read his full story you would see things differently than you currently do, but somehow i doubt it..
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Deborah – We seem to be almost wholly in agreement, so I’m not sure what else to say to you. I would also ban all faith schools if I could. Religion is a matter of personal belief, not indoctrination of children.
It’s sad that Ralph T. initiated this petition, but he doesn’t have the integrity to talk about what he meant.
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deborah
i agree religious indoctrination is evil, no one should tell another what to believe, the main thing imo in the constant personal evolution towards an aspirational goal of emotional maturity, we are (should be, ought to be) free to discover our own inspirations, where ever this inspiration comes from..and that no other has a right to violently/forcefully, tell us what is for our own good…
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It’s a pleasure to have discussed this with you FinkFurst. I agree with you about Ralph. When someone feels a law needs heavy implementation or that extra laws should be brought in where there are, in fact, perfectly adequate laws already then I feel they ought to be prepared to examine the reasons behind it with more than ‘because this is a terrible crime’. They may be right, but that doesn’t mean that others won’t want to raised valid questions that deserve consideration.
I hope you have a pleasant day.
P.s. the one thing I would have investigated by the police with a view to a prosecution being brought was the post above which reported signs in shop windows advertising circumcision. I mean prosecuting the people who put the signs in the windows, not the person who posted!
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Thanks for your comment Deborah, but unfortunately I have a horrible under-floor insulation job to do now, so it’s not going to be a nice day! Still… it will save fuel, so that’s good.
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Ralph – Perhaps I’ve been a little harsh. I’m sure your heart is in the right place, but I really think you need to stop to think carefully and rationally, and above all TALK about the issues, long and hard, until nothing remains unresolved. Saying “This is my last word on the subject” is a wholly negative concept, especially when it was only your first statement! Obviously it’s true for you to say “this petition is not about me”, but saying it suggests that maybe you thought it was?
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I’m otherwise pretty much in tune with your statement about personal evolution, but I didn’t (and don’t) use the word ‘evil’, except occasionally to describe Ian Duncan Smith (!!).
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Fink, I do not relish the sound of my own voice. You obviously do not have this problem and have a very needy ego that constantly demands attention. I for one have already heard far too much from you.
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“Fink, I do not relish the sound of my own voice” Nice one!!!! …and there was I thinking you didn’t have a sense of humour!
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deborah
yes, the word evil was mine, would the word bad be ok?
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Ralph – I will ask you one question (again)… Is this really just a failure of the criminal justice system?
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Hahahahaha! Ralph T Has Spoken! Appreciate his words and Be Silent all Ye gossipers!
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the criminal justice system needs to be changed, this is a long term prospect, now is the time to do what we can in the short term, to help prevent child abuse from happening. i urge everyone to sign the petition …
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Mike, nice to see this issue highlighted. I doubt the Police will take action, too sensitive an issue, but consider it signed. I had first-hand experience of this, when working in the London Ambulance Service. Here is a blog post about it, a true story!
Regards, Pete.http://beetleypete.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/ambulance-stories-22/
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Hi Pete – That’s a truly distressing story. You seem to be a man who deals with difficult reality every day. What would you guess is the reason the woman didn’t go to the police, doctor or social services after her vagina was forcibly stitched up?
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Can I ask, seriously, why everyone keeps saying ‘nothing will be done, it is too serious an issue’? Are people actually claiming that in this country certain groups of people are considered untouchable and out of the reach of the law regardless of their crimes? Are you further suggesting that under British law a public prosecutor would not prosecute, a judge would disallow a prosecution or a jury would not convict on the grounds that the crime was culturally or religiously defensible?
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Sorry, that should have said ‘sensitive’ not ‘serious’.
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This was a long time ago, early 1980’s. the girl would have been brought from the Horn of Africa to marry an older man, and just swept along with the culture, I expect. There would be no organised police where she came from, and she would speak no English. Also, at that time, there were little or no cultural support groups dealing with such issues.
I did deal with that difficult reality you mention, but I am now fortunately retired, and living a quiet life in Norfolk. There are 40 odd stories on the blog, about my days in the Ambulance Service. Thanks for your interest. Pete.
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Pete
Sadly, it sounds like things have not changed so very much since then. I don’t think simply blaming the police will help many FGM victims, and I wish Ralph T would engage in a serious discussion about that.
I hope you’re enjoying your well-earned retirement. I would also like to retire to a nice place near some water sometime….. preferably tomorrow!
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Deborah, having worked for the Met Police for eleven years, I can tell you from experience, that they do shy away from any issue that is seen as a religious, or cultural ‘hot potato’. However, you are right to say that the CPS can decide to prosecute. They do need help though. They need witnesses, and a victim who is willing to make statements, and give evidence, even by video link if necessary. It is a long process before it ever reaches a jury. Most of these mutilations are carried out in Africa, despite what the article says, and even those doing it here, are hard to pin down for identification. These communities have a tendency to close ranks against the authorities, and though this may be understandable, it makes the job of prosecution even harder.
So, that is why I say that it is unlikely to be followed up with any degree of enthusiasm, regrettable as that may be.
Regards to you, Pete.
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Ralph T – I find it very strange that you went to all the trouble to start a petition about something which you (presumably) feel strongly about… and then you seem bizarrely disinterested in even trying to discuss the subject. Will you respond to this, even if it’s just to tell me to **** off and leave you alone?
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Karin, I thought that I had been around, but I had to look up thighing ! What a crock, paedophilia in any other society. Well done for highlighting this issue. Regards, Pete.
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Thank you for your considerate explanation, Pete. You have confirmed what I thought to be the case, that most of these mutilations happen in Africa. And your explanation of the difficulties of successfully prosecuting seem obvious now you’ve spelled it out. I hadn’t even thought about it from that perspective. I know that rape victims have a horrible time giving evidence. How much more so for a young child who has been mutilated and may not even understand what has happened to her, apart from the pain? And undoubtedly who has been told it is ‘for her own good’. You say the communities close ranks. But all communities do, don’t they? Every time there’s a news story of a serial rapist, paedophile gang, child abductor or murderer everyone says ‘someone must have known what was going on’, but families, friends, work colleagues, neighbours turn a blind eye. And in an immigrant community where you know that your practices are frowned on, criticised or deemed illegal by your host country those ranks will close even tighter. This is no excuse for failure to protect, but I think that protection might be better served from a different angle than prosecution.
Very best wishes to you,
Deborah
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Thanks Deborah. As you rightfully comment, all communities do close ranks, irrespective of origin. However, the reality is, that the closest ‘ranks’ are those of the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Arabic communities, closely followed by those of some African countries. Despite genuine attempts to involve them in our society, and the justice process, with officers of the same ethnic origin often assigned to act as liaison, they still distrust all systems, often based on their experiences back home. They tend to rely on the elders of their own society, religious and community leaders generally. However, as we have tragically been made aware, this is not always beneficial. It is not our fault though, and we should not blame ourselves for the shortcomings in other cultures. Best wishes to you, Pete.
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Reblogged this on HUMAN RIGHTS & THE SIEGE OF BRITAIN POLITICAL JOURNAL.
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There is a lot of comment here on crime & punishment, the need for help for victims and the cultural /religious issues.. A few have mentioned the health issues. FGM victims will encounter the medical profession at some time. Most need extra support during child birth, which can be fatal. The campaign should go to the Royal Colleges and profession associations of medical professionals to raise the issue. Any woman already has FGM, as the articles say, is likely to have her own daughters mutilated. That point of contact is really the first time that families can be helped and educated, and if need be prevented by family court etc. from perpetuating this abomination. This would be aimed at eliminating the creation of future victims, or for their need to be put through an additional form of abuse of having to provide witness statements against her own parents.
Most FGM is performed by the local midwife / traditional healer, and not just by anyone. These are the ones to inform, educate and yes, prosecute, if they continue the practice. This to me is a medical emergency, to identify the women whose families are at risk and to prosecute the repeat offenders and the women who perform the FGM.
Can I add that I also wonder why a man has raised this petition, now, and does seem to have a bit of rage directed against the women seeking a dialogue and explanation of the motives behind it. Quite odd, indeed.
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could it possibly be that Ralph T cant respond…maybe ill, or incapacitated some other way or may have died. these things do happen after all.
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