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The Different Types of Female Genital Cutting
Female Genital Mutilation is Occurring Right Now.
The hard fought Federal anti-FGM law was struck down. Female Genital Cutting has tacitly been green-lighted. It seems we are impotent to stop it, and we are not trying anyways. Today or Tomorrow or soon enough it will be done hidden away in a local basement by someone untrained in medicine.
The hard fought Federal anti-FGM law was struck down. Female Genital Cutting has tacitly been green-lighted. It seems we are impotent to stop it, and we are not trying anyways. Today or Tomorrow or soon enough it will be done hidden away in a local basement by someone untrained in medicine.
The Different Types of Female Genital Cutting
Full Article with Images: https://tinyurl.com/3d6k5kh2
Female Genital Mutilation is Occurring Right Now, to a Little Girl, Down the Street from You!
US Federal Court Releases Dr. Nargarwala Without Justice For Her Young Victims
The hard fought Federal anti-FGM law was struck down. Female Genital Cutting has tacitly been green-lighted. It seems we are impotent to stop it, and we are not trying anyways. Today or Tomorrow or soon enough it will be done hidden away in a local basement by someone untrained in medicine. Another time or times it will be done in a sterile American medical clinic by a trained doctor, as with Dr. Nagarwala of Michigan. Too soon from now another little American 1st grade girl will be taken to the country of her parent’s origin on vacation with glee in her eye only to come back shattered.
However it’s happening, it’s happening to American citizens right now. Dr. Nagarwala was caught cutting the genitals of hundreds of little girls in a medical clinic, at night, where no one could hear the screams, and despite abundant evidence, was released without so much as a slap on the wrist (1st Email)! What happens when these women grow up and question why our society knew the harms but did nothing to protect them?
VACATION CUTTING
There is even a term for it. FGM is happening to American little girls who go back to their native countries on vacation.
Imagine being told you are going back home to see all your aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. A moment of excitement in a child’s life, only to suffer the most horrendous pain and torture of genital mutilation at the hands of the people who are supposed to love and protect you! A child does not understand this. On the way home they may tell the little girls that they will be severely punished if they tell anyone and/or will lose their family.
Whether we hide our heads in the sand or not, Female Genital Mutilation is happening to US citizens underground and unabated. Without a coordinated, educational outreach FGM will simply increase as FGM cultures continue to grow within and migrate to the US, especially since the only case ever prosecuted was recently thrown out of court along with the federal law.
The WHO or World Health Organization, as mentioned in a previous email, estimates over 513,000 little girls living in the US are in danger of FGM or have already been cut a 4 fold increase since 1990. Do you really think it is not happening downtown USA?
If this is going on, on American soil, at the very least we must educate teachers, parents and students through school and media on this issue. In this email we will discuss the different classifications of FGM as describe by the WHO. Our 4th email will concern the cultural reasons FGM occurs and still persists. In our 5th email we discuss proven and effective strategies to STOP FGM while protecting all children from the painful, harmful, business of child genital cutting.
We have the opportunity to protect these girls and break harmful cultural practices, but will we?
What if we do nothing? How difficult would it be to start a well funded education campaign here?
With as much money as we spend to end FGC overseas, arguably very ineffectually, we could easily fund educational outreach programs and curriculum for medical professionals, teachers, school counselors, police officers and first responders here in the USA.
We could fund billboard and TV commercials, social media campaigns and other public service announcements, but will we? And why haven’t we?
Sometimes all that is needed is educational opportunities for parents to understand the harm as well as an awareness of of gaining social acceptance of ending this practice while respecting and promoting non-cutting parts of a culture. Many of these girls can be protected if we simply raise awareness of the harms of genital cutting.
Harvard has given us the science. The study of the lifelong effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences or CEs is ground breaking and alarming (email 2). This awareness can and should be shared.
Let’s educate our neighbors and help them to break harmful cultural cycles! Now is the time to do something, here, in America.
If mothers and fathers learn the truth, that this is harmful, we can help them break these cycles!
Contrary to Western myths most parents do not do this to harm their children. They really believe they are doing something that must be done, that is beneficial for them, healthier, can prevent social shaming and improve potential to find a good mate. We must understand WHY they are doing it in order to help them end it, which is why you have to read the next email and why we need to educate ourselves BEFORE others!
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FGM/C (Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting)
The WHO recognizes four types of FGM. Different societies do different forms of FGM and it is essential to have prior knowledge of the various types of FGM and where they are common when you have a goal of ending this practice in that culture.
While it is evident that there is more harm caused by more extreme forms of FGC, it must be recognized that even the ritual nick to drawl blood is a crime against that child and must be opposed by all people who care about children.
FGM Type I is cutting of the clitoral hood and/or the external clitoris. It is important to understand that Type I consists of two distinct forms of FGC. Type IA, the most common and generally least harmful form of FGM (other than the ritual nick), is hoodectomy or removal of the clitoral hood. Type IB is removal of the external part of the clitoris along with the clitoral hood. Since Type IB is removal of the external clitoris it could be considered more harmful than Type IIA and Type IIB making the classification system somewhat confusing.
FGM Type IIA is complete or partial removal of the labia minora. FGM Type IIB is partial or complete removal of both the labia majora and minora.
The third, FGM Type III, a horrific form of genital mutilation, estimated at 10-15% of FGM cases is known as infibulation includes sewing shut of the severed sides of the labia to create a small hole. This can be done to prevent loss of virginity prior to marriage or to ‘improve’ the experience of the husband.
When combined with Types IA, IB, and IIB Type III is often the most traumatic as tearing might be necessary for sexual penetration or giving birth. Some mutilated woman are forced to be resewn after being ripped apart during child birth or even from intercourse which causes a build up of scar tissue. This repeating process is know as reinfibulation and is a horrific experience for these women and can have dramatically damaging repercussions including miscarriage and even death.
Type IV includes all other forms of FGM including the ritual nick, cauterization, cutting the vagina (gishiri cutting), or chemical burns.
In the world today there are over 200 million victims of Female Genital Mutilation. While FGM is far more common in certain cultures, FGM occurs in all areas of the earth and even occurred in the US in the not too distant past. In an embarrassing blunder the American Academy of Pediatrics considered allowing ritual cutting without amputation until backlash from rational, clear headed people shut them down.
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS… “I am a white American, non-Muslim woman who was circumcised as a toddler by the same pediatrician that circumcised my brothers and at the same hospital at which I was born. I have no clitoral hood and only a V shaped scar and the tiniest bit of inner labia they were kind enough to leave behind.” ~Anonymous
To Read Previous Emails in the Series:
1st Email in the Series: Doctor Mutilates Close To One Hundred Little Girl’s Genitals In The USA Gets Off Scot-free, Feminists Quiet https://tinyurl.com/4kbe57rk
2nd Email in the Series: New Research At Harvard Shows Psychological Harms Of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Last A Lifetim https://tinyurl.com/4xsewh3w
References:
America’s Forgotten History Of Female Circumcision (MUST READ!)
https://sites.google.com/site/completebaby/female
Vacation Cutting: An Illegal Practice Still Running Rampant
https://www.theahafoundation.org/vacation-cutting-an-illegal-practice-still-running-rampant/
The Alarming Rise of Female Genital Mutilation in America
By Michelle Krupa, CNN Fri July 14, 2017
https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/health/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-explainer-trnd/index.html
Fact Sheet By Who On FGM
https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation
Group Backs Ritual ‘Nick’ As Female Circumcision Option
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/health/policy/07cuts.html?referer=http://m.facebook.com
AAP Retracts Controversial Policy On Female Genital Cutting
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/722840
Full Article with Images: https://tinyurl.com/3d6k5kh2
Female Genital Mutilation is Occurring Right Now, to a Little Girl, Down the Street from You!
US Federal Court Releases Dr. Nargarwala Without Justice For Her Young Victims
The hard fought Federal anti-FGM law was struck down. Female Genital Cutting has tacitly been green-lighted. It seems we are impotent to stop it, and we are not trying anyways. Today or Tomorrow or soon enough it will be done hidden away in a local basement by someone untrained in medicine. Another time or times it will be done in a sterile American medical clinic by a trained doctor, as with Dr. Nagarwala of Michigan. Too soon from now another little American 1st grade girl will be taken to the country of her parent’s origin on vacation with glee in her eye only to come back shattered.
However it’s happening, it’s happening to American citizens right now. Dr. Nagarwala was caught cutting the genitals of hundreds of little girls in a medical clinic, at night, where no one could hear the screams, and despite abundant evidence, was released without so much as a slap on the wrist (1st Email)! What happens when these women grow up and question why our society knew the harms but did nothing to protect them?
VACATION CUTTING
There is even a term for it. FGM is happening to American little girls who go back to their native countries on vacation.
Imagine being told you are going back home to see all your aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. A moment of excitement in a child’s life, only to suffer the most horrendous pain and torture of genital mutilation at the hands of the people who are supposed to love and protect you! A child does not understand this. On the way home they may tell the little girls that they will be severely punished if they tell anyone and/or will lose their family.
Whether we hide our heads in the sand or not, Female Genital Mutilation is happening to US citizens underground and unabated. Without a coordinated, educational outreach FGM will simply increase as FGM cultures continue to grow within and migrate to the US, especially since the only case ever prosecuted was recently thrown out of court along with the federal law.
The WHO or World Health Organization, as mentioned in a previous email, estimates over 513,000 little girls living in the US are in danger of FGM or have already been cut a 4 fold increase since 1990. Do you really think it is not happening downtown USA?
If this is going on, on American soil, at the very least we must educate teachers, parents and students through school and media on this issue. In this email we will discuss the different classifications of FGM as describe by the WHO. Our 4th email will concern the cultural reasons FGM occurs and still persists. In our 5th email we discuss proven and effective strategies to STOP FGM while protecting all children from the painful, harmful, business of child genital cutting.
We have the opportunity to protect these girls and break harmful cultural practices, but will we?
What if we do nothing? How difficult would it be to start a well funded education campaign here?
With as much money as we spend to end FGC overseas, arguably very ineffectually, we could easily fund educational outreach programs and curriculum for medical professionals, teachers, school counselors, police officers and first responders here in the USA.
We could fund billboard and TV commercials, social media campaigns and other public service announcements, but will we? And why haven’t we?
Sometimes all that is needed is educational opportunities for parents to understand the harm as well as an awareness of of gaining social acceptance of ending this practice while respecting and promoting non-cutting parts of a culture. Many of these girls can be protected if we simply raise awareness of the harms of genital cutting.
Harvard has given us the science. The study of the lifelong effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences or CEs is ground breaking and alarming (email 2). This awareness can and should be shared.
Let’s educate our neighbors and help them to break harmful cultural cycles! Now is the time to do something, here, in America.
If mothers and fathers learn the truth, that this is harmful, we can help them break these cycles!
Contrary to Western myths most parents do not do this to harm their children. They really believe they are doing something that must be done, that is beneficial for them, healthier, can prevent social shaming and improve potential to find a good mate. We must understand WHY they are doing it in order to help them end it, which is why you have to read the next email and why we need to educate ourselves BEFORE others!
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FGM/C (Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting)
The WHO recognizes four types of FGM. Different societies do different forms of FGM and it is essential to have prior knowledge of the various types of FGM and where they are common when you have a goal of ending this practice in that culture.
While it is evident that there is more harm caused by more extreme forms of FGC, it must be recognized that even the ritual nick to drawl blood is a crime against that child and must be opposed by all people who care about children.
FGM Type I is cutting of the clitoral hood and/or the external clitoris. It is important to understand that Type I consists of two distinct forms of FGC. Type IA, the most common and generally least harmful form of FGM (other than the ritual nick), is hoodectomy or removal of the clitoral hood. Type IB is removal of the external part of the clitoris along with the clitoral hood. Since Type IB is removal of the external clitoris it could be considered more harmful than Type IIA and Type IIB making the classification system somewhat confusing.
FGM Type IIA is complete or partial removal of the labia minora. FGM Type IIB is partial or complete removal of both the labia majora and minora.
The third, FGM Type III, a horrific form of genital mutilation, estimated at 10-15% of FGM cases is known as infibulation includes sewing shut of the severed sides of the labia to create a small hole. This can be done to prevent loss of virginity prior to marriage or to ‘improve’ the experience of the husband.
When combined with Types IA, IB, and IIB Type III is often the most traumatic as tearing might be necessary for sexual penetration or giving birth. Some mutilated woman are forced to be resewn after being ripped apart during child birth or even from intercourse which causes a build up of scar tissue. This repeating process is know as reinfibulation and is a horrific experience for these women and can have dramatically damaging repercussions including miscarriage and even death.
Type IV includes all other forms of FGM including the ritual nick, cauterization, cutting the vagina (gishiri cutting), or chemical burns.
In the world today there are over 200 million victims of Female Genital Mutilation. While FGM is far more common in certain cultures, FGM occurs in all areas of the earth and even occurred in the US in the not too distant past. In an embarrassing blunder the American Academy of Pediatrics considered allowing ritual cutting without amputation until backlash from rational, clear headed people shut them down.
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS… “I am a white American, non-Muslim woman who was circumcised as a toddler by the same pediatrician that circumcised my brothers and at the same hospital at which I was born. I have no clitoral hood and only a V shaped scar and the tiniest bit of inner labia they were kind enough to leave behind.” ~Anonymous
To Read Previous Emails in the Series:
1st Email in the Series: Doctor Mutilates Close To One Hundred Little Girl’s Genitals In The USA Gets Off Scot-free, Feminists Quiet https://tinyurl.com/4kbe57rk
2nd Email in the Series: New Research At Harvard Shows Psychological Harms Of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Last A Lifetim https://tinyurl.com/4xsewh3w
References:
America’s Forgotten History Of Female Circumcision (MUST READ!)
https://sites.google.com/site/completebaby/female
Vacation Cutting: An Illegal Practice Still Running Rampant
https://www.theahafoundation.org/vacation-cutting-an-illegal-practice-still-running-rampant/
The Alarming Rise of Female Genital Mutilation in America
By Michelle Krupa, CNN Fri July 14, 2017
https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/health/female-genital-mutilation-fgm-explainer-trnd/index.html
Fact Sheet By Who On FGM
https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/female-genital-mutilation
Group Backs Ritual ‘Nick’ As Female Circumcision Option
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/health/policy/07cuts.html?referer=http://m.facebook.com
AAP Retracts Controversial Policy On Female Genital Cutting
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/722840
For more information:
https://tinyurl.com/3d6k5kh2
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