Eritrea bans female circumcision

Here's some good news for a change. By Jack Kimball for Reuters, with thanks to Sr. Soph:

ASMARA (Reuters) - Eritrea has banned female circumcision, a life-threatening tradition that aid groups say afflicts some 90 percent of the country's women.

A government statement issued on Thursday said anyone who requested, took part in or promoted the practice now faced a fine of several hundred dollars or up to 10 years in jail.

"Female circumcision is a procedure that seriously endangers the health of women, causes them considerable pain and suffering besides threatening their lives," the statement said.

"Whosoever requests, incites or promotes female circumcision ... shall be punishable with a fine and imprisonment."

The ban took effect on March 31, it said....

| 39 Comments
Print this entry | Email this entry | Digg this | del.icio.us |

39 Comments

Since there is nothing to "circumcise" on the female anatomy, this is simply a psychosexual / pathological mutilation of the subservient and second-class gender for the sadistic thrills of the patriarchal poxheads.

Diseased is as diseased does.

"By their nuts ye shall know them."

Maybe now we can get it banned in Minnesota.

Does this ruling include all forms of female genital mutilation, or just the harsh "pharonic" style that Mohammad disapproved of?

(Narrated by Ibn Majjah) "Take the minimum, Omm Atiya, and don't exceed it, for this would be more pleasurable for the husband and protective of chastity by satisfying the wife's desire."

It's a start...

no words from abdullah nor naseem?


Mashallah, well done Eritrea. You are moving closer to Islam now but you are still far off. This abnominal practise was passed down through generations from pharaoh who used to cut the clits of Israeli girls to utterly dessensitize them. As Islam conquered new lands, it found it had to deal with these pharonic practises.

In Islam circumsion for boys is compulsory in keeping with Adam, abraham and all the prophet's tradition. As for girls, it is sunnah to just bleed the clit with a razor but not cut it and this is not a compulsory deed. And this is why arabs dont circumsize girls

Civilisation intrudes on the Islamic world in tiny steps, by 2640 they maybe caught up to the 20th century.

Several years ago the BBC of all people carried a brief report that 3000 cases of FGM came to the attention of the British Health Service every year. Doctors had been told to deal with such cases “sympathetically”.

Looks like we are behind the Eritreans

They'll ignore it. No one in Third World countries obey laws.

LMAO @ Abdullah above, trying so hard to make it sound like islam isn't the backasswards effed up 'religion' that it is by clarifying that they 'just bleed the clit with a razor...'

Oh is that all? They *JUST BLEED* it, huh? With a razor, eh?

Nice.

What a great 'religion' you got there, pal.

*vomit*

Assalamau Laikum all,

There is no reference to circumcision at all in the Qur'an, though there is a well-established tradition of male circumcision in Islam as a "sunnah" act (i.e., one following the practice of the Prophet and his companions)...related to cleaniness ( a bit like not eating pork).

There is no mandate at all for female circumcision, however. Although female circumcision is not mandated, one tradition of disputed authenticity permits (but does not encourage) the removal of a minuscule segment of skin from the female prepuce, provided no harm is done (but scientific evidence suggests that harm can be done).

Permitting such a ritual constitutes an act of tolerance by Islamic law for pre-Islamic practices, and may be overruled by the Islamic prohibition against harmful acts.

Consider, for example, that Islamic law protects a woman's right to sexual enjoyment, as demonstrated by the fact that a woman has the right to divorce on the grounds that her husband does not provide sexual satisfaction. It follows that Islamic law prohibits clitorodectomy (partial or complete) or infibulation, or any genital mutilation which impairs the woman's ability to enjoy sexual relations.

Peoples often confuse traditions rooted in local culture with religious requirements. For example Ethiopians in the Amerike stand between the Ethiopian culture of their heritage and the American culture of their environment.

They cannot be expected to abandon their religion. I do think, however, that the young amongst them, at least, will be willing to abandon old-world cultural practices at odds with their adopted culture when such practices are unsupported by religion.

This abhorrent practice must be banned the world over...Islam does not support it and it should be connected with this beautiful religion.

Actually, Eritrea is not a Muslim country. Tigrinya-speaking Christians make up half the population and dominate the government. Several other ethnic groups are also Christian, leaving Muslims as a large minority.

Why are all Egyptian and Somali girls circumsised if it has nothing to do with islam?

Assalamau Laikum CGW,

Why are all Egyptian and Somali girls circumsised if it has nothing to do with islam?

This is somethhing that these peoples used to do before Islam showed it's bright light upon them....i.e. in the time of christianity and/or paganism.

Islam must not blamed for showing tolerance.

Note that this practice is virtually non-existant in Pak.

HEy Abby: "As Islam conquered new lands, it found it had to deal with these pharonic practises. "


....and Islam dealt with Female Genital Multilation by adopting the practice?.....


...illogical....

"Islam must not blamed for showing tolerance. "


...how about its intolerance.....

Good for this country in Africa. Islam needs to start treating the women with respect and consideration for a change.

“This abnominal practise was passed down through generations” – Abdullah

Actually the “abnomin” has nothing to do with it.

“There is a well-established tradition of male circumcision...related to cleaniness (a bit like not eating pork)” -Naseem

-And you can thank the Jews for schooling you on that one!

-XRDC

'afflicts some 90 % of the country's women'
Well,I'm all for any genital mutilation of women
being BANNED but how is Eritrea going to police this huge number?
A tiny step in the right direction though.UNTIL AFRICA,PAKISTAN,AFGHANISTAN etc VALUE THEIR WOMEN AND TREAT THEM AS HUMAN BEINGS INSTEAD OF WORSE THAN CATTLE-ALL THESE COUNTRIES WILL REMAIN IN STONE AGE.Please note Naseem & Abdullah
how China & India's economies have raced ahead
since WOMEN GOT EQUAL RIGHTS[in theory anyway].
As for Murderous Mo's disgusting,depraved & licentious
conduct with women-ISLAM IS THE WORST RELIGION IN
THE WORLD FOR FEMALE GENDER.

Do not address me, muslim.

Billposer said: "Actually, Eritrea is not a Muslim country ... leaving Muslims as a large minority."

Nationsencyclopedia.com gives the breakdown as follows: Sunni Muslim (appr. 50%), Orthodox Christian (appr. 40%), Eastern Rite and Roman Catholic (appr. 5%), and Evangelical Protestants (appr. 2%). My reading of this is that Muslims are the largest single religious group.

Although the same site notes that "religious groups are *generally* tolerant of one another", most visitors to this site are fully aware of what *generally* happens in a country where Muslims are the majority.

"Note that this practice is virtually non-existant in Pak."


....care to wager?.....

Abdullah and Naseem - you say that the koran and islam do not endorse this practice...then why do so many of you practice it?? Why do you bring it to my country? I am sick and tired of the double talk these animals spew while all the while quoting from their sick, sick militaristic and unyielding doctrines.

As Islam conquered new lands, it found it had to deal with these pharonic practises.
-Abdullah


Why do muslims talk about islam as if it were a living thing? It is not.

It should be
As Islamists conquered new lands
or
As muslims conquered new lands

"Islam" as an ideology does nothing, the 'followers of islam' do the deeds.

Billposer said: "Actually, Eritrea is not a Muslim country ... leaving Muslims as a large minority."

This is correct. Although Muslims make up nearly half the population statisticly, most of the Muslims are uneducated Afar or Danakil tribesmen whose Islam is not very deep. The educated majority in the cities are Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians. These Christians absolutely dominate the economy and politics.

Eritrea's president, Isaias Afwerki, is an Orthodox Christian who led the revolution against the Communist Derge and won Eritea's independence from Ethiopia. Even during the revolution, Afwerki's Eritrean People's Liberation Front forbade its guerillas from engaging in FGM on their children.

Because of this, the revolution made great headway in eliminating this evil, at least among Christians. That is why the statistics claiming 90% of Eritrean women have been mutilated is way out of date. Unfortunately, it was ingrained in the less educated Muslims much more deeply and that statistic still applies to that population. Hopefully, this new law will have some positive effect on the status of these poor Muslimas.

"most of the Muslims are uneducated Afar or Danakil tribesmen whose Islam is not very deep."

.....really, all they need to know about Islam, it that Islam is killing them....

Muslims will do it anyway, just like they practice sharia law in countries that do not recognize it. eg: Europe and the USA

Abdullah Dude,

Adam was not circumcised and neither were Able and Cain. Circumcision according to Judeo Christian Doctine did not commence until Abraham.

Every time to post to this Blog you do nothing more than proclaim your ignorance of Judeo Christian belief and further nothing towards your cult.

Is it because you are afraid you may be swayed by actually cracking open a Bible and reading it for yourself instead of swallowing the bilge spoonfed to you by your Iman?

The term "female circumcision" is a euphemism that does not convey the true barbarity of the practice. It's more akin to complete castration (including removal of the entire penis) than the removal of the foreskin.

I would suggest systematically using "genital mutilation" or "clitorectomy".

Sorry to rain on everyone's parade, but let me remind everyone that prostitution is illegal in Thailand...the mentality of this is that if it is illegal it must not be happening. It will be interesting to see if this is enforced. I'm not very optimistic.

"Sorry to rain on everyone's parade, but let me remind everyone that prostitution is illegal in Thailand...""

...just recently Muslims in Thailand have been beheading prostitutes......(just a note)...

In Hirsi Ali's book, "Infidel," she describes the practice as a cultural thing in her home country of Somalia. She talks about how her father who is a Muslim but had some progressive beliefs, was totally opposed to the idea. So was her mother. But when her father was in jail and her mother went off for a few weeks to find work to support the family, the grandmother brings in some slimey old guy and he mutilated Hirsi, her older brother and her little sister. She basically created an emotional wound in the little sister from which she never really recovered. The mother was furious when she returned home but the grandmother was pretty impressed with herself and let her fury out on the mother when she called her on it.

You can pass all the laws you want, but as long as people like this grandmother, Abdullah and other Muslims continue in their pathetic ignorance, all the while screeching about their rights to practice their traditions, this crime will go on and on.

Isn't it amusing too that while these Muslims decry this as something that isn't part of Islam, they will use the name of Islam to validate why they do it. As Americans and Europeans we have a solemn responsibility to protect children from these evil men. If it takes place where we live we are all guilty if we don't stamp it out. Who cares if some whining Muslim cries that their rights as Muslims are being tread upon because they are Muslim? Who cares? Like the British general who told the men in India that if they wanted to practice their tradition of setting a man's wife on fire on his funeral pyre that it would be alright, as long as they understood that the British would be practricing their tradition of hanging those who did so, Muslims need to understand that they are not above the law, that average Americans and Europeans are very close to the breaking point and that the backlash is coming.

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

"...just recently Muslims in Thailand have been beheading prostitutes......(just a note)..."

So I take it beheading is illegal there too?

Paul says that Muslims are the single largest religious group, apparently implying that this makes Eritrea a Muslim country. It doesn't, partly for the reasons explained by Provoslavni. In any case, it doesn't make sense to split up the Christian groups. The way things actually work is that the Orthodox Christians and Eastern Rite Catholics get along well and should not be considered distinct religions for political purposes. The dominant Orthodox, however, strongly dislike the evangelical protestants and are accused of persecuting them.

"But just what is pharaonic circumcision? I have seen it being done when I was staying as a guest in the home of wealthy Arab friends. A great feast had been prepared to which all female relatives and friends had been invited, and since I was regarded as a guest of honor, I not only had to attend, but was given a ringside seat. The miserable little victim - a beautiful child, incidentally - was grabbed by four women, who threw her upon a sort of pallet on the ground and pinioned her arms and legs. Then the gedda, or specialist, or matron, or whatever you want to call her, kneeled between the little girl's thighs and began the operation by slicing off the clitoris. All of the women present began making the most prodigious din (by ullulations), which they kept up during the whole operation in a futile effort to drown the howls and shrieks of agony of the patient. As soon as the clitoris had been excised, the matron scooped (roughly speaking) it out, then began to pull and tug to extract its roots. Blood gushed left, right and center. This was only an hors d'oeuvre - the next step consisted in shearing off the edges of the inner lips, then carving off the rim of the outer lips, from which the gedda removed a gory ribbon of flesh about 2 centimeters in width. Where the clitoris had once been was a gaping hole from which blood poured. I will spare you a few other details which I would rather not enlarge upon. Finally, the matron stitched up the raw and bleeding flesh, after which she carefully inserted a tiny hollow tube into the lower portion of the vagina, to allow for the passage of urine and menstrual blood. This, so I was subsequently informed, was to remain in place until the scar had formed. The 'operation' had lasted all of twenty minutes. Finally, the patient was bound up with cords from the hips to the knees to prevent her from making any movements which might cause the stitches to burst. For fifteen days, all girls who have been infibulated have to remain motionless, supine, and trussed up like fowls."

From here: http://www.challenging-islam.org/articles/circumcision.htm

What utterly disgusting people.

Abdullah
"As Islam conquered new lands"

turned them into shit?

"Assalamau Laikum all,

There is no reference to circumcision at all in the Qur'an"

so why your brain is circumcised?

There are lots of Eritrean people in italy, none of the christian ones are cut. Only the muslim ones are.

"Note that this practice is virtually non-existant in Pak."

you're a living proof that it's a lie

http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/key-issues/fgm

FGM is also practised among Bohra Muslim populations in parts of India and Pakistan, and amongst Muslim populations in Malaysia and Indonesia.

"Abdullah
"As Islam conquered new lands"

turned them into shit?

Posted by: FedUpagain "

.....every country taken over by Muslims has turned into **** .....exactly....

...It is why they were booted out of spain....Booting Muslims out of Spain..allowed Spain to grow and prosper...other wise Spain will still be in the 7th century, just as Iran,Afghanistan,Pakistan,Yemen,Somali and all the others still are...