FGM prosecutions

I think there would be a major outcry in this country if the authorities announced they were going to examine all girls in the country for this reason. Not the least from the children themselves.
And you could not pick and choose which children were examined.
Anyway folks it ain't going to happen. The days when a school doctor came round and checked over all children are decades past. The vast majority of schools do not choose to employ a school nurse. And there is no free floating school nursing service that goes round checking for nits any more.
I think the young women in Bristol who petitioned Gove have the right idea - educate girls about this practice (and their brothers too). If they are aware of the dangers they are more likely to disclose their worries that it might happen to them or to a family member or friend. Or resist if their parents tell them it is a good idea.
The leadership for this has to come from women who have been affected, or who are members of communities in which it happens. It is heartening to see this beginning to happen both in Africa and in our own country when bright young women find the confidence to speak out.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26681364

Here it is. It seems we are barking up the wrong tree. There have been more than 140 referrals to the police in the past four years but these are the first prosecutions. It seems that before we start examining girls we need to educate the police and CPS about their responsibilities to implement the law.

It seems from the link that MiceElf posted that in France, anyone associated with mutilation of girls can be prosecuted - ie, the mothers and grandmothers who procure the procedure.The threat of imprisonment and financial penalties is proving a deterrent there.
I'm not sure that is the case in UK.
While any doctor who participates in mutilation is culpable and should be struck off, I think making the family liable is a much better preventive measure.

jingl how do you think a GP /paediatrician checks if a boys balls have dropped if a parent is worried? What if a girl has an infection? Doctors have to touch patients. Sadly I suspect it would not need much 'invasive' procedure to see that a girl had been mutilated.

I am not promoting genital checking I am just saying that perhaps if there had not been the loss of the school medical service it would be easier to set up a system for monitoring.

Years ago I used to take my class of 6 yr olds to a local paddling pool on Clapham Common. They all splashed about in the nude happy and innocent. Would not happen now and I think that is a sad reflection of our society.

Oh FFS penstemonn! It s 'one thing if a parent takes a child to a doctor for a medical reason. Quite another to have mass examining of little girls at school for no reason. Surely you can see that.

Did you read penstemmon's post jingl?
She specifically said she was not promoting genital checking, and the examples she gave of when doctors do examine children were when parents did take their children to the doctor!!
As you might say yourself, FFS!!

jingle as janea has clarified I am just suggesting that if we still had universal medical checks in schools it may have been easier to set up 'screenings' and it would not be for 'no reason' would it! Might also help to highlight child abuse & malnutrition too. Everyone gets angry when those cases slip through the net.

I think that greater education within & by communities where FGM is customary plus regular medical checks for children would make it more difficult for FGM to be hidden. However the mechanisms by which medical checks could take place have been dismantled.

I did read the post. It was not sensible.

I am sure penstemonn can do her own F-ing and does not needyou to do it for her.

I think the majority are discovered during pregnancy. It certainly causes problems during birth. Sometimes it can even cause difficulty with intercourse.
It is a barbaric irrational procedure and anything that can be done to discourage it should and must be put into place!.

Btw. I descended testes can turn malignant.

Undescended tetes!

I think

What specifically did you find not sensible jingl? A general health check at 5yrs?

Galen or tentacles as my DGS calls his.

I feel uncomfortable with the idea of little girls being examined in this way, as they are presumably not required to give consent and in any event cannot really give informed consent. But as FGM is such a horrific practice, I can understand why many people feel it is necessary to take drastic action. If such a policy were to be adopted, I feel that parents should be asked to accompany their daughters to their own GP surgery, rather than an examination being carried out on school premises.

I tend to agree with JessM that open discussion of the issue and better education might be a more effective way of dealing with it.

France is cited as a country where this procedure has produced positive results. However, I've read reports that many non-white French people feel quite alienated from French society and tend to be almost ghettoised in poor areas outside cities. I therefore don't think we should look to France as a shining example.

Education about FGM for both girls and boys (future adult males who have expectations about their wives' bodies) may well be the way forward, but who is to provide it, how and where?

No indeed France not a shining example of race relations and are storing up problems I'd say.

A Frenchwoman on a television programme about FGM said the problem we Brits have with dealing with the problem is our peculiar attitudes towards sex and our bodies. I think ( note, this my own opinion for what it's worth which is why I use the personal pronoun) our attitudes towards racism may also be a problem. So often, white people speak up on behalf of ethnic minorities without ever asking what the ethnic minorities actually want. Like Muslims will be offended by mention of Christmas. Really?

There was a group of mainly African woman who recently made a television documentary about this and had an information tent somewhere in London with some very graphic images. They were collaring young men to come in and talk about this.

penstemonn I was feeling Fed up with this whole idea when I posted that yesterday. I hope I did n't upset you.

I do, however, feel that the need for periodic school physical examinations of our children are long gone, along with cod liver oil and orange juice, and all other post-war stuff. Most children these days are well cared for physically. The sad cases that make the news are fortunately in the minority.

Perhaps the sad cases that make the news wouldn't get that far if we went back to regular routine medical exams for all children. We have recently seen the return of rickets - children kept out of the sun because parents think sunburn is life threatening and other parents impose weird dietary fads. Universal prescription of cod liver oil virtually wiped that out by the 1950s. And TB which My GP told me in the 1970s had died out because it was a disease of poverty. Obesity and anorexia? Type 2 diabetes in children? Do you live in the UK, jingl?

Yes. I live in the south-east.

Why?

Recent reports show that the issue of children's health is a matter of great concern. Increasing numbers of children are obese and doctors are worried at the rise in lifestyle-related illnesses and conditions. This is not just a problem for the poor - though it is certainly more difficult to maintain a healthy diet on a very small budget - but for all sections of society.

I have to say that many hearing issues and developmental issues are harder for schools to refer now because there is no school health service. If a parent chooses not to take a child to a GP there is little anyone can do about it and there are a few parents who find it hard to accept their child may have something that needs attention. Way back, if I had a concern about a child's health or general development I could ask for the doctor to see the child in school. Nowadays unless it is a real neglect case school cannot refer children. We had a case of 4 kids whose mum had a developing alcohol problem. Her 4th child, different dad to the other 3, had significant developmental delay but she would not accept it or agree to us asking any other professional to assess or give advice. A school check up would have helped.