| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fredric L. Rice" |
| Date: |
09 Aug 2005 09:58:57 PM |
| Object: |
Female Circumcision Surfaces in Iraq |
Female Circumcision Surfaces in Iraq
Posted 08-09-2005 14:20:29 GMT 8-9-2005 19:20:29)
http://www.aina.org/news/2005089142029.htm
KIRKUK, IRAQ -- Set on an arid plain southeast of Kirkuk, Hasira looks like
a place forsaken by time. Sheep amble past mud-brick houses and the odd
sickly palm tree shades children's games. There is no electricity.
Yet along with 39 other villages in this region that Iraq's Kurds have
named Germian (meaning hot place), Hasira and its people have become noted
for presenting the first statistical evidence in Iraq of the existence of
female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), as critics call
it.
"We knew Germian was one of the areas most affected by the practice," says
Thomas von der Osten-Sacken, director of a German nongovernmental
organization called WADI, which has been based in Iraq for more than a
decade.
Of 1,554 women and girls over 10 years old interviewed by WADI's local
medical team, 907, or more than 60 percent, said they had had the
operation.
The practice is known to exist throughout the Middle East, particularly in
northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan, and Iraq. There is also
circumstantial evidence to suggest it is present in Syria, western Iran,
and southern Turkey.
But while this practice was suspected in the region, there was never solid
proof that the procedure was so prevalent. Controversial findings
When WADI presented the results of its survey in Vienna this spring, Mr.
Osten-Sacken recalls, various Iraqi groups accused the group of being an
agent of the Israelis. Even the Iraqi Kurdish authorities, who have backed
efforts to combat FGM since the late 1990s, were rattled.
While urban Kurds are generally more lax in religious practice and more
Western-looking than most Iraqis - they are the major opponents of sharia
for Iraq's new constitution, for instance - many rural pockets cling to
traditions.
"The [Kurdish] Ministry of Human Rights hauled us in for questioning," says
Assi Frooz Aziz, coordinator of WADI's Germian medical team. "They accused
us of publicizing the country's secrets." Secrecy obstructs awareness
But it's not just obstructionism that has held up awareness of the
phenomenon. Unlike in parts of Africa, where FGM is practiced relatively
openly, in the Middle East it is veiled in secrecy.
"You can't just walk into a village and ask people if they circumcise their
daughters or not," says Germian social worker Hero Umar. "These people only
talked because we've been bringing them medical help for over a year."
Women in Hasira and the surrounding villages are reluctant to talk. But
after long negotiation, Trifa Rashid Abdulkerim agrees to answer questions.
A farmer's wife from the village of Milkhasim, she says she learned the
techniques from her neighbor, and took over when she stopped performing the
operation. "June is the best time of the year," she says, "and the best age
for patients is between 3 and 8."
Anti-FGM campaigners point out that FGM crosses religious and ethnic
boundaries.
But as a cleric in Sulaymaniyah puts it, "Islamic scholars have complex
views on the phenomenon."
Sitting in his office in the Kurdish city, Mohammed Ahmed Gaznei explains.
"According to the Shafii school, which we Kurds belong to, circumcision is
obligatory for both men and women. The Hanbali say it is obligatory only
for men."
Personally opposed to female circumcision, Mr. Gaznei has helped in
campaigns to stamp it out.
In 2002, he and other senior Kurdish clerics issued a religious edict, or
fatwa, supporting the Hanbali practice. He has since appeared on TV several
times to preach against FGM.
In Germian, however, information is slow to filter through the population.
Women are still thought to be promiscuous if they are uncircumcised, some
people here say.
"They say the food an uncircumcised woman cooks is unclean," says Shirin
Ali, "and that a circumcised girl has more affection for her family."
WADI workers said that four months ago in a village just north of Hasira, a
newly married - and uncircumcised - woman was so badly treated by her
in-laws that she performed the operation on herself.
Hero Umar, the social worker, nonetheless thinks attitudes are slowly
beginning to change.
"Most imams are cooperative," she notes. "The biggest obstacle remaining is
the older generation of women."
By Nicholas Birch
Christian Science Monitor
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
http://www.rightard.org/ http://www.thedarkwind.org/
http://www.spaink.net/cos/warhero/
.
|
|
| User: "" |
|
| Title: Re: Female Circumcision Surfaces in Iraq |
20 Aug 2005 03:42:28 PM |
|
|
Fredric L. Rice wrote:
Female Circumcision Surfaces in Iraq
Posted 08-09-2005 14:20:29 GMT 8-9-2005 19:20:29)
http://www.aina.org/news/2005089142029.htm
KIRKUK, IRAQ -- Set on an arid plain southeast of Kirkuk, Hasira looks like
a place forsaken by time. Sheep amble past mud-brick houses and the odd
sickly palm tree shades children's games. There is no electricity.
Yet along with 39 other villages in this region that Iraq's Kurds have
named Germian (meaning hot place), Hasira and its people have become noted
for presenting the first statistical evidence in Iraq of the existence of
female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), as critics call
it.
"The [Kurdish] Ministry of Human Rights hauled us in for questioning," says
Assi Frooz Aziz, coordinator of WADI's Germian medical team. "They accused
us of publicizing the country's secrets."
What's wrong with that?
Personally opposed to female circumcision, Mr. Gaznei has helped in
campaigns to stamp it out.
If Bush and Blair publicly advocated FGM, would that help
eradicate it?
"They say the food an uncircumcised woman cooks is unclean," says Shirin
Ali,
That's one way to get hubby to cook.
-- The Green Troll <http://www.rev.net/~aloe/freedom#4skin>
.
|
|
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
