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<DIV class=timestamp>May 11, 2011</DIV>
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<H1><NYT_HEADLINE type=" " version="1.0">A Rite of Torture for
Girls</NYT_HEADLINE></H1><NYT_BYLINE>
<H6 class=byline>By <A class=meta-per
title="More Articles by Nicholas D. Kristof"
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/nicholasdkristof/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
rel=author>NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF</A></H6></NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
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<P>HARGEISA, Somaliland </P>
<P>People usually torture those whom they fear or despise. But one of the most
common forms of torture in the modern world, incomparably more widespread than
waterboarding or electric shocks, is inflicted by mothers on daughters they
love. </P>
<P>It’s female genital mutilation — sometimes called female circumcision — and
it is prevalent across a broad swath of Africa and chunks of Asia as well.
Mothers take their daughters at about age 10 to cutters like Maryan Hirsi
Ibrahim, a middle-aged Somali woman who says she wields her razor blade on up to
a dozen girls a day. </P>
<P>“This tradition is for keeping our girls chaste, for lowering the sex drive
of our daughters,” Ms. Ibrahim told me. “This is our culture.” </P>
<P>Ms. Ibrahim prefers the most extreme form of genital mutilation, called
infibulation or Pharaonic circumcision. And let’s not be dainty or euphemistic.
This is a grotesque human rights abuse that doesn’t get much attention because
it involves private parts and is awkward to talk about. So pardon the bluntness
about what infibulation entails. </P>
<P>The girls’ genitals are carved out, including the clitoris and labia, often
with no anesthetic. What’s left of the flesh is sewn together with three to six
stitches — wild thorns in rural areas, or needle and thread in the cities. The
cutter leaves a tiny opening to permit urination and menstruation. Then the
girls’ legs are tied together, and she is kept immobile for 10 days until the
flesh fuses together. </P>
<P>When the girl is married and ready for sex, she must be cut open by her
husband or by a respected woman in the community. </P>
<P>All this is, of course, excruciating. It also leads to infections and urinary
difficulties, and scar tissue can make childbirth more dangerous, increasing
maternal mortality and injuries such as fistulas. </P>
<P>This is one of the most pervasive human rights abuses worldwide, <A
title="A W.H.O. fact sheet"
href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs241/en/">with three million
girls mutilated each year in Africa alone</A>, according to United Nations
estimates. A hospital here in Somaliland found that 96 percent of women it
surveyed had undergone infibulation. The challenge is that this is a form of
oppression that women themselves embrace and perpetuate. </P>
<P>“A young girl herself will want to be cut,” Ms. Ibrahim told me, vigorously
defending the practice. “If a girl is not cut, it would be hard for her to live
in the community. She would be stigmatized.” </P>
<P>Kalthoun Hassan, a young mother in an Ethiopian village near Somaliland, told
me that she would insist on her daughters being cut and her sons marrying only
girls who had been. She added: “It is God’s will for girls to be circumcised.”
</P>
<P>For four decades, Westerners have campaigned against genital cutting, without
much effect. Indeed, the Western term “female genital mutilation” has
antagonized some African women because it assumes that they have been
“mutilated.” Aid groups are now moving to add the more neutral term “female
genital cutting” to their lexicon. </P>
<P>Is it cultural imperialism for Westerners to oppose genital mutilation? Yes,
perhaps, but it’s also justified. Some cultural practices such as genital
mutilation — or foot-binding or bride-burning — are too brutish to defer to.
</P>
<P>But it is clear that the most effective efforts against genital mutilation
are grass-roots initiatives by local women working for change from within a
culture. In Senegal, Ghana, Egypt and other countries, such efforts have made
headway. </P>
<P>Here among Somalis, reformers are trying a new tack: Instead of telling women
to stop cutting their daughters altogether, they encourage them to turn to a
milder form of genital mutilation (often involving just excision of part or all
of the clitoris). They say that that would be a step forward and is much easier
to achieve. </P>
<P>Although some Christians cut their daughters, it is more common among
Muslims, who often assume that the tradition is Islamic. So a crucial step has
been to get a growing number of Muslim leaders to denounce the practice as
contrary to Islam, for their voices carry particular weight. </P>
<P>At one mosque in the remote town of Baligubadle, I met an imam named Abdelahi
Adan, who bluntly denounces infibulation: “From a religious point of view, it is
forbidden. It is against Islam.” </P>
<P>Maybe the tide is beginning to turn, ever so slowly, against infibulation,
and at least we’re seeing some embarrassment about the practice. In Baligubadle,
a traditional cutter named Mariam Ahmed told me that she had stopped cutting
girls — apparently because she knows that foreigners disapprove. Then a nurse in
the local health clinic told me that she had treated Ms. Ahmed’s own daughter
recently for a horrific pelvic infection and urinary blockage after the girl was
infibulated by her mother. </P>
<P>I confronted Ms. Ahmed. She grudgingly acknowledged cutting her daughter but
quickly added that she had intended only a milder form of circumcision. She
added quickly: “It was an accident.” </P><NYT_AUTHOR_ID>
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