Parents fly in African village elders to circumcise their young daughters
By Nicola Woolcock

Police and health authorities fear that 25,000 British girls are at risk of
genital mutilation

HUNDREDS of young girls in Britain are suffering genital mutilation at the
hands of women paid to come to Britain by their families.
African immigrants are clubbing together to pay for practitioners to fly to
Britain and circumcise their daughters in highly secretive rituals.

Police believe that the trend has developed among parents who do not have
passports or cannot afford to return to their home countries to have their
daughters circumcised, a brutal practice that remains commonplace throughout
Africa.



The procedure is generally performed by elderly women, in unsterilised
conditions with no anaesthetic. Children as young as five have parts or all
of their clitoris or labia removed. Some have their vaginas sewn up or the
flesh shrunk with corrosives...........

The procedure is highly dangerous and leaves many of its victims with health
problems throughout their lives. Infections and cysts are commonplace, as
are complications during childbirth, endangering both mother and baby. Women
who have suffered genital mutilation are twice as likely to die in
childbirth and three times as likely to give birth to a stillborn child.

Despite the dangers, many African Muslim communities prize the ritual and
ostracise women who are not circumcised. It is common in a band stretching
from Senegal in West Africa to Somalia on the East coast and in many areas
uncircumcised women cannot find a husband.............

A BARBARIC BUT COMMON RITUAL

Female genital mutilation has been illegal in Britain since 1985

The law now criminalises the practice outside Britain on British citizens or
permanent residents. Aiding and abetting it is an offence

The maximum penalty for committing or assisting is 14 years' imprisonment

A claim for asylum by a girl facing mutilation was refused because, it was
said, she was not in a social group fearing persecution - a Refugee
Convention requisite. Five law lords have just overturned that decision

The practice is common in 28 African countries and some Asian and Middle
Eastern communities

It is usually done to girls aged 4 to 13, but is sometimes inflicted on
babies

Reasons given include custom and tradition, religious demand, family honour,
hygiene, a belief that it enhances fertility, and to control women's
sexuality

It is thought to have been carried out on about 75,000 first-generation
female African immigrants in Britain

Afterwards women are twice as likely to die in childbirth and three times as
likely to have a stillborn child

Unicef estimates that 100 million to 130 million women have had the
procedure, often performed with a basic cutting instrument under little or
no anaesthetic

The practice contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child


Full article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2416783,00.html