Lucylastic
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ORIGINAL: bounty44
now there is an interesting question there---what happens when culture and law conflict?
Apparently you have people trying to force women thru legislation to give birth.
You also have circumcision being legal.
More than 125 million girls and women alive today have been cut in the 29 countries in Africa and Middle East where FGM is concentrated.
Female genital mutilation is classified into four major types.
Clitoridectomy: partial or total removal of the clitoris (a small, sensitive and erectile part of the female genitals) and, in very rare cases, only the prepuce (the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris).
Excision: partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora (the labia are "the lips" that surround the vagina).
Infibulation: narrowing of the vaginal opening through the creation of a covering seal. The seal is formed by cutting and repositioning the inner, or outer, labia, with or without removal of the clitoris.
Other: all other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area.
Oh and it predates Islam by several hundreds of years.
Antiquity
Spell 1117
But if a man wants to know how to live, he should recite it [a magical spell] every day, after his flesh has been rubbed with the b3d [unknown substance] of an uncircumcised girl ['m't] and the flakes of skin [šnft] of an uncircumcised bald man.
— Inscription on Egyptian sarcophagus, c. 1991–1786 BCE[140]
The origins of the practice are unknown.[141] Gerry Mackie has suggested that it began with the Meroite civilization in present-day Sudan; he writes that its east-west, north-south contiguous distribution in Africa intersects in Sudan, and speculates that infibulation originated there with imperial polygyny, before the rise of Islam, to increase confidence in paternity.[142] Historian Mary Knight writes that there may be a reference to an uncircumcised girl ('m't), written in hieroglyphs, in what is known as Spell 1117 of the Coffin Texts:
The spell was found on the sarcophagus of Sit-hedjhotep, now in the Egyptian Museum, and dates to Egypt's Middle Kingdom, c. 1991–1786 BCE. (Paul F. O'Rourke argues that 'm't probably refers instead to a menstruating woman.)[143] The proposed circumcision of an Egyptian girl, Tathemis, is mentioned on a Greek papyrus from 163 BCE in the British Museum:
Sometime after this, Nephoris [Tathemis's mother] defrauded me, being anxious that it was time for Tathemis to be circumcised, as is the custom among the Egyptians. She asked that I give her 1,300 drachmae ... to clothe her ... and to provide her with a marriage dowry ... if she didn't do each of these or if she did not circumcise Tathemis in the month of Mecheir, year 18 [163 BCE], she would repay me 2,400 drachmae on the spot.[144]
The examination of mummies has shown no evidence of FGM. Citing the Australian pathologist Grafton Elliot Smith, who examined hundreds of mummies in the early 20th century, Knight writes that the genital area may resemble Type III, because during mummification the skin of the outer labia was pulled toward the anus to cover the pudendal cleft, possibly to prevent sexual violation. It was similarly not possible to determine whether Types I or II had been performed, because soft tissues had been removed by the embalmers or had deteriorated.[145]
This is one of the customs most zealously pursued by them [the Egyptians]: to raise every child that is born and to circumcise [peritemnein] the males and excise [ektemnein] the females ...
— Strabo, Geographica, c. 25 BCE.[146]
The Greek geographer Strabo (c. 64 BCE – c. 23 CE) wrote about FGM after visiting Egypt around 25 BCE (right).[146] The philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE) also made reference to it: "the Egyptians by the custom of their country circumcise the marriageable youth and maid in the fourteenth (year) of their age, when the male begins to get seed, and the female to have a menstrual flow."[147] It is mentioned briefly in a work attributed to the Greek physician Galen (129 – c. 200 CE): "When [the clitoris] sticks out to a great extent in their young women, Egyptians consider it appropriate to cut it out."[148]
Another Greek physician, Aëtius of Amida (mid-5th to mid-6th century CE), offered more detail in book 16 of his Sixteen Books on Medicine, citing the physician Philomenes. The procedure was performed in case the clitoris, or nymphê, grew too large or triggered sexual desire when rubbing against clothing. "On this account, it seemed proper to the Egyptians to remove it before it became greatly enlarged," Aëtius wrote, "especially at that time when the girls were about to be married":
The surgery is performed in this way: Have the girl sit on a chair while a muscled young man standing behind her places his arms below the girl's thighs. Have him separate and steady her legs and whole body. Standing in front and taking hold of the clitoris with a broad-mouthed forceps in his left hand, the surgeon stretches it outward, while with the right hand, he cuts it off at the point next to the pincers of the forceps.
It is proper to let a length remain from that cut off, about the size of the membrane that's between the nostrils, so as to take away the excess material only; as I have said, the part to be removed is at that point just above the pincers of the forceps. Because the clitoris is a skinlike structure and stretches out excessively, do not cut off too much, as a urinary fistula may result from cutting such large growths too deeply.[149]
The genital area was then cleaned with a sponge, frankincense powder and wine or cold water, and wrapped in linen bandages dipped in vinegar, until the seventh day when calamine, rose petals, date pits or a "genital powder made from baked clay" might be applied.[150]
Whatever the practice's origins, infibulation became linked to slavery. Mackie cites the Portuguese missionary João dos Santos, who in 1609 wrote of a group inland from Mogadishu who had a "custome to sew up their Females, especially their slaves being young to make them unable for conception, which makes these slaves sell dearer, both for their chastitie, and for better confidence which their Masters put in them." The English explorer William Browne wrote in 1799 that the Egyptians practised excision, and that slaves in that country were infibulated to prevent pregnancy.[151] Thus, Mackie argues, a "practice associated with shameful female slavery came to stand for honor."[152]
wikipedia history on FGM In antiquity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation#Antiquity
Unicef, WHO, UN and various other international parties have been fighting against this cultural practice since 1997
Britain stopped it happening in the UK in 85, but actually enforcing the law is practically impossible, a bit like finding a body mod artist who will declit your submissive or castrate your male sub.
A bit like sex trafficking children....its there, thriving, but catching it, is another issue.
Edited to add
Because of the federal law in the US prohibits FGM, citizens and refugees in the US take their daughters to their country of origin to have the procedure performed. In April 2010, legislation was introduced in congress to attempt to make transport of girls for FGM illegal, and still pending.
Individual US States with legislation against FGM
California- AB 2125 (Figueroa and Lunneen)
Delaware- SB 393 (Henry)
Illinois- HB 3572 (Mulligan-Deuchler)
Michigan- HB 6095
Minnesota- 144.3872
New Jersey- ACR 35
New York- A 5010
North Dakota- SB 2454
Rhode Island- S 2317 (Perry, Cicilline,Parella,Graziano and Gibbs)
Tennessee- SB 2394 (Crutchfield)
Texas- H.B. 91 (Giddings, Thompson, Chavez, Clark)
Wisconsin- 365
States whose anti-FGM bills did not pass:
Colorado- 96-031
New York- S 597 (Volker, Montgomery), S 510 (Volker, Montgomer)
South Carolina- 7769
< Message edited by Lucylastic -- 2/16/2015 9:00:34 AM >
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