Genital mutilation

This is the custom in Africa, because the men don't want their women to enjoy sex. These people need to understand that it is against the law in this country, as are many other things such as cruel animal practises, which is something else that gets ignored.

I believe the French have been far more successful than we have here in prosecuting these sort of cases. I did read somewhere that female children of certain ethnicities were expected to have intimate examinations by a doctor, which of course is horrible for them, but certainly not as hideous as having to undergo such a barbaric practice as genital cutting which will affect them for the rest of their lives. If such examinations were a deterrent maybe they should be considered, but I understand there may be a counter argument against that. Nevertheless when one reads about such a case as this, a little girl not much more than a baby, it's very distressing.

Absolutely horrendous but will this woman be classed as being mentally stable to stand trial? It does not sound it if she is practising witchcraft.

Died = could

Apparently what can be done by a HCP is to flag up on a young girls medical record that she is at risk based on the fact that her mother was cut. As this will always be discovered during pregnancy it would be good if this was part of the template on a baby girls medical record automatically.This died of course beg the hard question of what then?

Just to add to what dbDB77 said, those 140,000 are in the UK.

Another point made is that it is a legal requirement for health professionals to report suspicion of FGM but apparently many are unaware of this. I hope something is done to inform them.

Barbaric practice. If they emigrate here they should live by our laws, not theirs. A choice before they arrive.
France is much more robust in prosecuting perpetrators.

It is beyond belief that a mother can inflict pain of this severity on her own child - just beyond belief. How deeply indoctrinated must these women be to harm their own child in such a way. Imagine taking a knife to your own daughter. Truly beyond belief. It makes me feel physically sick to think of it. It is my DGD's 6th birthday today and I have just received wonderful photos of her opening her presents. These mothers would be taking a knife to her today - it makes me shudder. Utterly sickening.

It doesn’t matter if she “doesn’t know”. She will remember the pain and fear of what happened to her and so why would she inflict that on her daughter when she remembers how awful it is. It is the same with all child abuse some people repeat the offence because it happened to them that isn’t an excuse many others who have been abused have children and are determined it will never happen to their children. There is always a choice

The mutilation of young female bodies is disgusting and desperately wrong. However, if their mothers' bodies have been mutilated in the same way many years before, how would they know?

There was an excellent interview with a senior policeman involved in this case on C4 news. He listed the range of issues in bringing a successful prosecution. The vast majority of women who have been mutilated were mutilated before they came to live here so nothing can be done about that. Getting people to give evidence is extremely problematic - this case came to light because the emergency services had to be called. If the FGM had been ‘successful’ it would never have been known about probably until she became pregnant. I believe work is done to try and reduce the number of girls being taken abroad to have it carried out but that must be logistically very difficult. So I can see that working within and with the relevant communities has to have a high priority - it’s good to see that more of the men are getting involved as well in the campaigns against it. When someone is caught then I agree the sentence needs to be as harsh as allowed to act as a deterrent. I have to say that hearing some of the details of this case about the witchcraft aspects I did wonder how on earth you could have any sort of conversation with this mother about why what she did/ enabled was wrong.

We have to ask ourselves would we ignore cultural customs if it was say, to make cuts all over a child's face, for instance.
There would be absolute outrage but because we can't see this mutilation, the Government, Police and authority can choose to ignore it.
We as women need to make ourselves heard and stand up against this cruelty.

Sorry - when I said "arranged marriages" of course I meant "forced marriages".

She has been found guilty and will be sentenced in due course - apparently she could get up to 14 years. Her husband found not guilty. A reporter on BBC news tonight said 140,000 women were affected - I could hardly believe such a figure.
The crime often comes to light when the women get pregnant and they do not wish to give evidence against their parents - a similar situation to arranged marriages.
In order to stop such barbaric practices we need to challenge the cultural basis and politicians etc are scared to do this.
I remember being part of a feminist group in London in the 1970s and we were campaigning against "female circumcision" as it was known then. We were called "racialist" - the term used at the time - and were accused of "cultural imperialism" by a black women's group.
We backed off - nowadays, older & wiser, I don't care what I'm called - FGM is a criminal act of unspeakable cruelty to girls and has no place in our modern society.

I really don't care who you are or what your customs are, if you do this to any child you deserve a severe punishment, not a couple of years, maybe seven or eight would make them think twice.
FGM makes my blood boil.

What a barbaric "custom"...and to do such a thing to your own child... it's terrible, and I hope others will be jailed.

I agree so much Nonnie. I find it so disturbing.

Its been illegal since the 1980s so why has it taken so long? Apparently she had witchcraft things in her home to use against social services and the police. I almost feel sorry for her ignorance, it has to be the way she was brought up. She must have thought it was normal. Horrific.

Why are there not more such cases in court?

it is an abhorrent procedure and illegal, It makes me feel ill and angry thinking about it. I feel so upset for the victims

I felt physically sick when I heard this item ?

About ruddy time.

Did not see this. What sort of punishment did she get? Hope it was harsh or was she coerced by a cultural maniac. Long overdue in my opinion. Also the men with many wives in this country. How the hell does this happen?

Thank goodness. Let us hope there will be more.