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In May this year an e-petition demanding an end to female genital mutilation (FGM) in Britain was submitted to the UK Government website. I was lead author of that petition, which can be viewed here.
Well over 20,000, perhaps 25,000, under-age British girls are thought to be subjected to, or at serious risk of, FGM every year, so we might expect that a petition seeking to stop it would be accepted by the government, as encouragement to action and greater awareness.
But no. The petition was, after a full week of waiting, rejected without explanation. It took another month or more of insistent emails to discover why.
No 'professional neglect'?
Then at last it transpired that apparently there was discomfort in high places about the specific part of the e-petition which said:
Criminal abuse of children must not be ignored because those who enforce the law are uncertain how to deal with perpetrators and their victims.
This scandalous professional neglect, with 20,000+ children in the UK at risk, must be remedied forthwith. Full enforcement of the law must be brought to bear immediately.
The advice I eventually received was this:
It appears that it may be the phrase 'professional neglect' that is problematic, as it is potentially accusing unnamed individuals of criminal activity and could be seen as defamatory.
So the 'offending' phrase was removed and the petition published on 25 June 2012 as e-petition 35313: 'Stop Female Genital Mutilation (FGM / 'Cutting') in Britain'.
Contrasting positions
Four months and hundreds of NoFGM e-petition supporting signatories later, many of us must be scratching our heads in bewilderment.
The sensitive souls in government required that a passing reference in the NoFGM e-petition to possible professional neglect, somewhere in a very crowded, non-person-specific field, be removed - even though there are many, many thousands of practitioners in health, social, legal and child safe-guarding roles in the UK and not even any particular occupation, let alone particular individual practitioners, was mentioned or named.
But now in contrast the hunt is on for a small number of people in a broadcasting company who may, or may not, have been complicit in the child abuse allegedly perpetrated by Jimmy Savile.
If found to be true, the allegations against Savile and anyone who shielded him in crime are indeed serious. It's thought that perhaps 200 underage girls were victims over a number of years, and sadly some of them may very well have been traumatised with long term consequences.
We can however fervently hope that no-one suffered extreme pain, grim life-long physical damage or actually died - unlike the very much larger number of young girl victims of FGM (perhaps a quarter million over the decade, in Britain), some of whom will certainly have done so.
Some laws are not enforced; some may be
Procuring or perpetuating FGM in Britain, or on British children, carries a maximum (but not obligatory) penalty of 14 years in prison. It is also legally obligatory to report even any suspicion that a child is at risk or has undergone FGM.
Yet still there have been no successful prosecutions at all concerning anything to do with FGM, anywhere in the UK. 'Too difficult...' say the authorities.
The alleged child abuse by Savile and the possible culpability of BBC personnel currently make daily headline news, amid open discussion about possible prosecution of those who may at some point in the future be found to have failed to report their concerns about Savile's activities to the authorities.
So why the coyness about people who fail to report or deal with suspicions about widespread and deadly breaches of the law on female genital mutilation?
A duty of child safe-guarding
If (in my view absolutely correctly) it's now important to investigate a possible failure by third parties to protect children from abuse by the 'entertainer' Jimmy Savile, why was the far more impersonal e-petition on FGM apparently not permitted even to refer to the possibility of state-employed professionals neglecting children at risk of barbaric bodily harm?
Indeed, why did the current coalition government actually, actively, remove the role of national 'NoFGM' co-ordinator, set up expressly to bring services together to stop this nightmarishly awful practice?
For the sake of all children, and specifically to halt the hurt to an estimated-average 50 children at risk or victims of female genital mutilation in Britain every day of the entire year, we must demand to know right now exactly who in child safe-guarding is responsible for what.
Please sign the HM Government e-petition No.35313: Stop Female Genital Mutilation (FGM / 'Cutting') in Britain
You can read more about FGM and efforts to stop it here: #NoFGM: A Listing For [UK] Action & References On Female Genital Mutilation; or visit #NoFGM Daily News.
Follow Hilary Burrage on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HilaryBurrage
Sam Parker: Jimmy Savile's Latest Victim Is Art
I have addressed MGM elsewhere, as indictaed below.
ALL the people involved in the issues I raise here were under-age, i.e. CHILDREN at the time.
There is nothing else to say.
It is ritual, grievious assault, occasioning actual bodily harm carried out for no good reason.
There never can be a good reason for it.
I have heard religion, culture and cleanliness all put forward as pathetic non excuses for this mutilation.
It seems to be beyond the powers of successive Governments to stamp it out.
Most sane minded people simply couldn't imagine this happening to their own daughter or sister or grandchild.
But the fact that it does, and it does so here in Britain is even more alarming and distressing.
I cannot believe that ANY religion necessitates the procedure itself or the post procedural pain and suffering endured by these young girls and women.
It must be stamped out now.
I am off to sign the epetition.
But you are right that vulnerable children need far more protection from FGM; and that is both pathetic and quite unforgiveable. Hence my article (post) here.
That would be a contradiction in terms.
You still haven't answered why the e-petition page is not available.
You should also explain that many "tribes" or cultures that carry out this vile practise do so to protect the chastity of their women. They think by removing the genitalia the women will be unable to take pleasure from sex ergo they will not be tempted to stray. FGM is often practised as part or complete removal of the external sex organs. In some parts of the world the men sew the women's genitalia up when they embark on longer hunting sessions for the same reason. It is a vile despicable degradation of young girls and women generally perpetuated by the inadequacies of men. It makes me ashamed to think men could mistreat women and girls in such an appalling way.
Oh please, FGM is overwhelmingly an Islamic practice, and we're talking about the UK here. Yes it predates religion, that's why some Christian African communities practice it, but it's a Hadith, it's recommended by Mohammed himself. Political correctness and cultural sensitivity is precisely the reason why the UK has done nothing to protect girls.
We have getting on for 1,500 signatures so far, but we need many, many more as soon as possible.
Thanks again
PS If you can't sign the UK petition (because you're not a UK citizen or resident) you may like to sign this e-petition, or one of the other general ones, instead: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/uk-government-enforce-the-uk-law-which-forbids-fgm-female-genital-so-called-cutting#share?utm_source=guides&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly_summary
Every single person counts in this campaign to bring FGM to a halt. By signing we also increase awareness and become part of the voice which says, however complex the issues, FGM must be stopped, now.
It comes up as page no longer available?
Just to check, the e-address is http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/35313 .
Please do persevere, we need every single signatory we can get! The petition is open until 25 June 2013.
Many thanks once more,
Hilary
It is, to be straightforward, unreasonable (and unfair) to assume without a shred of relevant evidence that someone wants to 'ignore' MGM simply because they are writing specifically about FGM.
Let's get real and recognise that efforts to eradicate (non-medical, pre-adult) female and male 'procedures' require different approaches because the legal cases are currently very different.
If, as you may, you want to discss male circumcision / MGM please do so in the context of the appropriate discussion (link above), rather than trying, however unintentionally, to derail this conversation.
The real question here is, why the official contradictions observed in my piece (above) in the 'celebrity' and the 'ordinary' / 'non-celebrity' cases of child abuse??
Does anyone have answers or views on this please? If so, this is maybe where you might like to share them.
Thanks
JS is dead, his victims are almost all now over 50 years old. Their pain no less after the years and made worse by being dragged up again.. They're also unlikely to receive compensation..There's also people in high places being exposed..very news worthy (sic)..
Counter the the 'closed' world on FGM which happens exclusively in an Islamic context et voila!!!.. You have it.... A petition - "e" or written - with a million signatures on it won't get any action, because the Muslim community and it;s practices are effectively 'off limits'...
Then let's look at the cost to the health service of 'botched' FGM which happen all too frequently.. Who picks up the 'tab' for this?? We do...
It's time this barbaric practice which merely subjugates women stopped!!
I write as a bloke by the way, not some raging feminist...
Anthropologically FGM is, in the formal academic sense, 'tribal' rather than religious... as I pointed out in a previous HuffPost piece.
But yes, FGM IS truly barbaric and children absolutely just be protected both from it as a procedure AND from the subjugating culture which underlies it. So please support our efforts to bring it to an end. Thanks
Along these same lines, what is being done to stop Male Genital Mutilation? It should be illegal for both sexes, unless medically necessary or if voluntarily performed on adult with their consent.
Politicians avoid tackling this as do the Police. They appear to lack the moral fibre. These offenders should be charged, imprisoned and go on the sex offenders register for sexual mutilation.
Immigrants that come to this country should take an oath of allegiance to the UK and sign it to say they abide by the laws in this country and those laws override any religious teachings. Never mind about the history exam.
I have no wish to offend the Muslims population, but if they want Sharia Law and sexual mutilation then the UK is not the place for them and they should be repatriated to where they or their ancestors came from because their beliefs are not compatible with our own.
If you come to live in my home you obey and respect my house rules and the other inhabitants in my home. If I go to your home or country I expect to respect yours or I will not go there.
Figures for abuse tend always to go up when issues are discussed openly; how many women and girls will say they've been FGM victims when the legal cases finally begin?