This is a horrifying story.
A little girl in Somalia was born to a couple who are no longer together. The father believes in a practice where they remove a portion of the girl’s genitalia at birth. The mother does not share those beliefs. Despite her efforts to save her daughter from genital mutilation, for the past 3 1/2 years, a local Sharia court has ruled in the father’s favor. The Sharia court ordered that the father can have the little girl’s vagina mutilated, but to make matters worse, the Sharia Judge ruled that the mother was not allowed to even lead the little girl to believe that she was not in favor of having her daughter’s genitals mutilated.
To read about this barbaric third-world country and this awful misogyny, read the full story here.
UPDATE: WHOOOOOSH!!!! That’s the sound of the point sailing over a lot of readers’ heads.
This did not happen in Somalia — it happened in Florida.
And it wasn’t a little girl. It is a 3 year old boy.
Fuck any of you who mutilate kids’ genitals, boys or girls. You’re sick fucks.
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This is absolutely horrifying! And I wish it would stop. But I have to disagree on one point: it was not “misogyny”. Misogyny is a hatred for all women for being women. The father is simply deluded and not acting rationally, and the judge wants to silence the woman for not agreeing with him (well, in the end it seems to be what the judge wanted, as well). He doesn’t hate every woman, but the mother does deserve more respect than what she got, I agree with that. Just don’t throw the M word around so carelessly, that’s why it is inflated and more and more people don’t take it serious anymore. Nothing indicates a deep hatred for an entire gender by any person reported about in the article.
Again, I wish FGM would just stop altogether. But the same way I wish males had their bodily integrity, which they don’t have in the first world. Men get mutilated in 1st world, women in 3rd world. Neither is acceptable. I just wonder: does the author report about MGM, calling those who ordered it misandrists? Whatever, that’s OT.
Yeah, try reading the post. Your irony meter is broken, I guess.
Marc, there’s a stray ” mark at the end of the link, making it otherwise not work.
A few notes–mom has not been fighting it for 3.5 years. She’s only fighting doing it now, when it would require general anaesthesia, rather than when it would not have been required.
While I won’t spoil your intent, I should note that the procedure at issue in the Court order does not involve removal of the glans or any flesh that would make intercourse unpleasant.
I do agree that the gag order on Mom is way off base.
Thank you. Fixed the link.
Regardless of when she’s fighting it, removing a piece of a person’s genitalia without their consent, solely for vanity/superstitious reasons, is barbaric.
And, while the movement is small, there are a growing number of Jews who think that it is time for Judaism to move on from this practice. And while it might not “make intercourse unpleasant,” you can’t say it has no effect.
Nevertheless, if this was a dad trying to slice off the tiniest part of his daughter’s labia, there would be a candlelight vigil with every critical gender theorist and celebrity joining in. But here, because its a boy, the fucks given are pretty limited.
This is absolutely horrifying! And I wish it would stop. But I have to disagree on one point: it was not “misogyny”. Misogyny is a hatred for all women for being women. The father is simply deluded and not acting rationally, and the judge wants to silence the woman for not agreeing with him (well, in the end it seems to be what the judge wanted, as well). He doesn’t hate every woman, but the mother does deserve more respect than what she got, I agree with that. Just don’t throw the M word around so carelessly, that’s why it is inflated and more and more people don’t take it serious anymore. Nothing indicates a deep hatred for an entire gender by any person reported about in the article.
Again, I wish FGM would just stop altogether. But the same way I wish males had their bodily integrity, which they don’t have in the first world. Men get mutilated in 1st world, women in 3rd world. Neither is acceptable. I just wonder: does the author report about MGM, calling those who ordered it misandrists? Whatever, that’s OT.
IANAL so this is no doubt a stupid thing to say, but how do Family courts get away with stuff like this? I can see a family court gag order mandating Mom X never tell child Y some lie about Father A. But this is about he truth, stuff that’s in the court record and now in print. Anyone else can tell the kid about it, but the mom can’t? It sounds too crazy so I must be missing something or misreading it.
It’s absolutely disgusting the things people believe they can do to young children. I hope karma gets them in the long run.
Hypo: Let’s say that somewhere in America there is someone who shares the beliefs of this father, and that this person owns a small business that employs women. Under the Hobby Lobby rule, would the employer be free to deny coverage to the dependents of any female employee who didn’t mutilate her daughters?
It just dawned on me that the Supreme Court, in holding that an employer has religious rights, might give a Muslim-owned corporation the right to use Sharia law.