Date: Tue, 27 Jun 1995 10:40:02 -0400
From: CircInfoNe@aol.com
Subject: Ation Alert: Toronto Star Columnist

Thanks to B.C. colleague Jacquelin Maire and typist George Hill.

THE TORONTO STAR

Wednesday May 10, 1995

     MUTILATION OF GIRL MUST BE STOPPED

               by Ellie Tesher

     Imagine yourg boys being held down by force and their
penises amputated?  Impossible.
     A deafening public outcry would demand swift, harsh
punishment and rout out perpertrators in every country.
     But what about young girls?
     An estimated 114 million women worldwide have had their
genitals mutilated.  Add 2 million more young girls each
year, mostly by crude instruments and no anaesthetic.  Some
die of shock or bleed to death.
     Others live with infections and pain whenever they
urinate, menstruate, have intercourse or even walk.
     They are not only women in Africa, Asia or the Middle
East.  They are also our neighbors, women and girls from
countries that practise female genital mutilation.
     Secret practicioners have also performed the
"de-sexing" here and Canadian doctors have been known to
"circumcise" girls surgically.  Some Canadian born girls are
sent overseas for the ritual.
     Yet we rely on human rights organizations and task
forces to state the obvious: the barbaric practice must be stopped.
     It's little known that Canada has decided not to have a
specific law against female genital mutilation.  "We
reviewed the Criminal Code twice inthe last few years." says
Glen Rivard a justice department lawyer.  "We already have
several offenses with serious penalties up to 14 years or
life imprisionment that can be applied to performing the
operation, ranging from aggravated assault up to
manslaughter at the very least if the girl were to die."
     Even less known is a new law, effective since August,
1993 that makes it a criminal offense to remove a child from
Canada to have the operation performed elsewhere.
     In 1992, Ontario doctors were banned from performing it
and from resewing a woman after childbirth - or face
discipline which can include having their license revoked.
Some, but not all provinces, have similar professional deterrents.
     Now, Ontario's FGM prevention task force - which
justice officials are watching for its recommendations - is
due to report to Marion Boyd, minister responsible for
women's issues, at the end of the month.
     One thing clearly needed is widespread publicity among
police, teachers, and health professionals about the legal
options if the operation is suspected.
     And affected communities must be educated to understand
mutilation of females is neither authentically cultural nor
religiously proscribed. (sic)
     Its origins are in sexual power and economics.
     Begun in Phoronic times, it was a mans gurantee of
securing a virgin bride, of stamping women the property of
their fathers and husbands; of reaping a better bride price
for fathers.  Sadly, it also provided rare income and status
for women who performed the cruel rite.
     The United Nations conference on crime prevention has
finally passed a resolution this week to take measures "to
prevent, prohibit, eliminate and impose effective sanctions"
against violent acts to women and girls including genital mutilation.
     That call especially coming from Egypt, should silence
any misguided questions about western values.  Mutilation is
against any human value.
     Patriarcal rules, fear of ostracism and superstitions
have perpetuated the primitive rite., making it seem
sacrosanct.  In Muslim countries it became vested with the
authority of a presumed religious law.
     But there is nothing in the Koran or Hadith, the
sayings of the Prophets that call for cutting off wwomen's
sex organs.
     One specialist who has unsewn several African women
said, "This is the equivalent of Whacking off the entire penis."
     The harshest, widely practiced form is "nfibulation" -
cutting away the external female sexual organs and sewing
the opening shut except for a pea sized hole.
     Here's what a Somali woman living in Canada, Khadra
Hassan Farah says happend to her at the age of 8, wih her
hands tied behind her back and her legs spead apart as the
practioner approached her, holding a blade.
     ". . . S inserted a her fingers into my inside to
search for my clitoris and started to pull it out, and I
felt the pain and started to scream.  She cut off my
clitoris and I screamed more and more . . . subsequently,
she scraped raw the wall of my vulva and bound them together
with thorns."
     We need to consider every possible step to stop the butchery.
_______________
Ellie Tesher's column appears Wednesday and Friday.
Her Fax number is (416) 869-4322.