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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 2023
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 29, 2006 - 07:32 pm: | 
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Genital Cutting on Trial in Georgia Case
Oct 27, 12:04 PM (ET)
By DOUG GROSS
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) - The trial of an Atlanta-area father accused of circumcising his 2-year-old daughter with scissors is focusing attention on an ancient African practice that experts say is slowly becoming more common in the U.S. as immigrant communities grow.
Khalid Adem, a 31-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, is charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Human rights observers said they believe this is the first criminal case in the U.S. involving the 5,000-year-old practice.
Prosecutors say Adem used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in their apartment in 2001. The child's mother said she did not discover it until more than a year later.
"He said he wanted to preserve her virginity," Fortunate Adem, the girl's mother, testified this week. "He said it was the will of God. I became angry in my mind. I thought he was crazy."
The girl, now 7, also testified, clutching a teddy bear and saying that Adem "cut me on my private part." Adem cried loudly as his daughter left the courtroom.
Female circumcision is common in Adem's homeland, and his lawyer, Mark Hill, acknowledged that Adem's daughter had been cut. But he said his client did not do it, and he implied that the family of Fortunate Adem, who immigrated from South Africa when she was 6, may have had the procedure done.
The Adems divorced in 2003, and Hill suggested that the couple's daughter was encouraged to testify against her father by her mother, who has full custody.
If convicted, Adem, a clerk at a suburban Atlanta gas station, could get up to 40 years in prison.
The U.S. State Department estimates that up to 130 million women had undergone circumcision worldwide as of 2001. Knives, razors or even sharp stones are usually used, according to a 2001 department report. The tools often are not sterilized, and often, many girls are circumcised in the same ceremony, leading to infection.
It is unknown how many girls have died from the procedure, either during the cutting or from infections, or years later in childbirth.
Nightmares, depression, shock and feelings of betrayal are common psychological side effects, according to the federal report.
Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of Equality Now, an international human rights group, said female circumcision is most widely practiced in a 28-country swath of Africa. More than 90 percent of women in Ethiopia are believed to have been subjected to the practice, she said, and even more in places like Egypt and Somalia.
"It is a preparation for marriage," Bien-Aime said. "If the girl is not circumcised, her chances of being married are very slim."
The practice crosses ethnic and cultural lines and is not tied to a particular religion. Activists say the practice is intended to deny women sexual pleasure. In its most extreme form, the clitoris and parts of the labia are removed and the labia that remain are stitched together.
"I had maybe read about it in Reader's Digest or some other journal, but not really considered it a possibility here," said Dr. Rose Badaruddin, the pediatrician for the Adems' daughter.
Many refugees from Ethiopia and Somalia come to Georgia through a federal refugee resettlement program.
"With immigration, the immigrants travel with their traditions," Bien-Aime said. "Female genital mutilation is not an exception."
Federal law specifically bans the practice, but many states do not have a law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of Fortunate Adem, passed an anti-mutilation law last year. However, Khalid Adem is not being tried under that law, since it did not exist when his daughter's cutting allegedly happened. |
Mony
Newbie Poster
Username: Mony
Post Number: 40
Registered: 02-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 29, 2006 - 07:36 pm: |
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"With immigration, the immigrants travel with their traditions," Bien-Aime said. "Female genital mutilation is not an exception."
I should hope that such 'traditions' are an exception in the U.S.A. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2924
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 12:02 pm: |
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If they are going to persist in that they shouldn't be allowed to settle here. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 2030
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 12:37 pm: |
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There needs to be some sort of deprogramming for the cultures who practice this. I don't understand how this barbaric practice has continued over all this time. It is not equivalent to male circumcision at all and it must STOP!!! It makes me sick to think that someone would take a cutting tool to an infant or a female of any age. Besides the practice being painful and disfiguring, I'm sure that many die from infections.
This proves once again that we Black people do more harm to our own selves than all the white people since the beginning of time  |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2927
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 01:41 pm: |
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This proves once again that we Black people do more harm to our own selves than all the white people since the beginning of time
Now you done went overboard. |
Dahomeyahosi
Regular Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 94
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, November 01, 2006 - 07:37 pm: |
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This practice will not end until African end it. It continues amongst immigrant populations in Europe and will continue amongst immigrant populations in the U.S. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6768
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, November 02, 2006 - 06:35 am: |
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I would not at all be surprised to discover that 10 - 25% of American Muslim females have circumcized (not necessarily as has been presented in this article)
And although the effects of female circumcision are OFTEN much more damaging than those of most instances of male circumcision, as long as ages-old religion and customs cloak BOTH, the existence of the latter can be used to rationalize the former. |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1390
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, November 02, 2006 - 10:46 am: |
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I do not see how the mother did not find out for a year about it. Did she not bathe the child? Dress her? She had to notice. Something is not right with the mother's story.
as long as ages-old religion and customs cloak BOTH, the existence of the latter can be used to rationalize the former.
Agree. Of course it is true that FGM is much more extreme than male circumcision. But that does not change the fact that we must address why so many of us continue to advocate the surgical removal of healthy tissue from the genitals of infants and small children.
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 2042
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 03, 2006 - 02:45 am: |
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YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!
Father Convicted in Genital Mutilation
By ERRIN HAINES
Associated Press Writer
Nov 2, 8:36 AM EST
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) -- An Ethiopian immigrant was convicted Wednesday of the genital mutilation of his 2-year-old daughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in what was believed to be the first such criminal case in the United States.
Khalid Adem, 30, was found guilty of aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Prosecutors said he used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in his family's Atlanta-area apartment in 2001. The child's mother, Fortunate Adem, said she did not discover it until more than a year later.
Adem, who had no criminal record, could have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. He held his face in his hands and wept loudly after the jury's verdict was read.
During her father's trial, the girl, now 7, clutched a teddy bear as she testified on videotape that her father "cut me on my private part."
"This child has suffered, will suffer, the rest of her life," Judge Richard Winegarden told Adem during sentencing.
Federal law specifically bans the practice of genital mutilation, but many states do not have a law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of the girl's mother, passed an anti-mutilation law last year. But Adem was not tried under that law since it did not exist when his daughter was cut.
During the trial, Adem testified he never circumcised his daughter or asked anyone else to do so. He said he grew up in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and considers the practice more prevalent in rural areas.
Adem's attorney acknowledged that the girl had been cut, but implied that the family of the girl's mother, who immigrated from South Africa, may have been responsible. The Adems divorced three years ago, and attorney Mark Hill suggested that the couple's daughter was coached to testify against her father by her mother, who has full custody of the child.
Adem, who cried throughout the trial and during his testimony, was asked what he thought of someone who believes in the practice. He replied: "The word I can say is 'mind in the gutter.' He is a moron."
The practice crosses ethnic and cultural lines and is not tied to a particular religion. Activists say it is intended to deny women sexual pleasure. In its most extreme form, the clitoris and parts of the labia are removed and the labia that remain are stitched together.
Knives, razors or even sharp stones are usually used, according to a 2001 department report. The tools are frequently not sterilized, and often, many girls are circumcised at the same ceremony, leading to infection.
It is unknown how many girls have died from the procedure, either during the cutting or from infections, or years later in childbirth. Nightmares, depression, shock and feelings of betrayal are common psychological side effects, according to a 2001 federal report.
Since 2001, the State Department estimates that up to 130 million women worldwide have undergone circumcision. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 6770
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 03, 2006 - 08:31 am: |
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Yvettep,
Yvettep: "I do not see how the mother did not find out for a year about it. Did she not bathe the child? Dress her? She had to notice. Something is not right with the mother's story."
Indeed.
And, at the risk of appearing the (perfunctory) 'evil Black man', I'm going to present some details that might accenturate the fishyness of this sad tale:
@ A child is allegedly circumcized at age 2. I say 'allegedly' because what PROOF is there that that is WHEN it occurred? The word of a 2 or 3 year old or that of a mother who admits to not even knowing what has occurred for a year?
@ The child was at such a YOUNG age aware enuff to recall that it was her father did this HORRIFIC thing to her...with "scissors".
@ Yet she apparently told no one. Not even the MOTHER who presumeably would have been her primary caregiver and consoler.
@ The mother nor no any kin, friend, sitter, acquaintance, pediatrician, etc. was aware of what happen for a YEAR.
@ In MOST cases of African FGM, the procedure is performed entirely by FEMALES.
@ The mother has also been circumcized.
@ The mother and father divorced somewhere around the time the mother allegedly discovered what happened. (Was the divorce precipitated BY the father's alleged circumcision of the girl? Or was the circumcision performed by someone else and the mother blames the father for it to effect the divorce and to reign some form of vengence and punishment upon the father?)
@ The father is BLACK African MAN.
@ And they this is all is alleged to have occurred in GEORGIA.
Just a little something for openminded foks to gnaw on...a bit.
PS: "Federal law specifically bans the practice of genital mutilation, but many states do not have a law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of the girl's mother, passed an anti-mutilation law last year. But Adem was not tried under that law since it did not exist when his daughter was cut."
I guess the Federal and State laws don't cover the MILLIONS of MALE babies that are circumcized annually. |
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