A pleasantly surprising update on this story. The next steps: enforcement and education. "Ban on female genital mutilation passed," by Hemn Hady and Patrick Smith for AKNews, June 23 (thanks to Nicholas):
Erbil, June 23 (AKnews) - For the first time in Iraqi Kurdistan women are protected by a new law against some of the traditions most harmful towards them.
Yesterday the regional parliament ratified a bill banning female genital mutilation and domestic violence. This is a landmark law in a region that is more steeped in such practices than surrounding countries.
As explained at the link above ("this story"), one factor Kurdistan holds in common with other countries removed from Africa where FGM is prevalent is the dominance of the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, in which female "circumcision" is obligatory.
Female circumcision, where the clitoris and hood, and sometimes the labia, are cut away, is particularly commonly in rural areas. A German-Iraqi study conducted in 2007/08 showed more than 77 percent of female interviewees aged 14 and over in the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah had undergone the procedure.
The new law lays out the penalty for encouraging female genital mutilation as 3 to 6 years imprisonment or a IQD 1 million ($860) fine. Those who carry out the operation will be sentenced to 3 to 5 years or a fine equal to IQD 5 million ($4300). If they are medical practitioners they will be banned from working for three years.
The demanding of dowry payments, forced marriage, arranged marriages for young women to men many years their elder and forcing women into prostitution are also outlawed by the new law.
It is not clear how a law, seeking to stop a practice, such as genital mutilation, that is not carried out though official means, will be enforced.
Kurdistan's health minister, Taher Hawrami, said authorities are distributing posters to promote awareness, but he said religious leaders should do more to end the practice.
"The clerics should take on the main role. People need to have better understanding of religion in order to give up this phenomenon."
There are also many issues that are not covered by bill. Payman Abdul-Kareem, a member of the parliamentary committee for women and children’s affairs said: ‘When a woman is divorced, she does not have anywhere to go and is often mistreated.
“There ought to be social welfare safety nets to cope with this.”
The final two paragraphs, along with a few above, are carried over from the prior report.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report last year that showed there are at least four factors driving the prevalence of genital mutilation: a link to Kurdish identity, a religious imperative, social pressure, and an attempt to control a woman's sexuality.
The practice is often carried out at home and by people without medical training. When not done properly the girls, who are often as young as ten, can have lasting damage and in extreme cases die from loss of blood or infection.
How could a Western author, as one of the writers named above apparently is, allow such a statement to go to press under his name? The practice has never been, is not now, and never can or will be done "properly." There is always "lasting damage." That is the whole purpose.
Kurds ...well, it is a step to be greeted.
I am always reminded of an incident several years ago in Sweden. A Kurdish family council had decided to ban one of the daughters from the city ...you know: she did not behave, become too Swedish blah-blah-blah. But she got away alive.
Anyway, her father went to the Police and said so-and-so: he and his relatives had evicted and banned her from the city, and would the Police please help enforcing this?
This was one of the first occasions to make me wonder about what the immigrants expected from their new chosen country, and how they had spent the time up until then. At least they had acquired the sense to let her live, I suppose that's another step to be greeted.
They banned it in Sudan and then de-banned it.
WARNING - Graphic photos and illustrations
Kurdistan? What about the USA? It's banned here but still occurs every day in the Somali communities. Authorities won't enforce the law due to PC madness and fear. Little girls mutilated and their entire lives destroyed (or ended) due to ignorance and barbarism. I hate islam. Don't tell me it's just an African cultural thing - what about Egypt, where 95% of women have been mutilated in this way?
http://www.middle-east-info.org/league/somalia/fmgpictures.htm
It looks as though they should be doing something about honour killings, as well.They are common enough among the Kurdish population (including the European diaspora)for a number of ex-pat women to form the 'Kurdish women's action against honour killings' group:
http://www.kwrw.org/kwahk/about.asp
"According to AFP news (KurdishMedia.com 26th Nov [2007]) report some 27 women have died in so-called ‘honour killings’ over the past four months in Iraqi Kurdistan.."
http://www.kurdmedia.com/article.aspx?id=14311
Passing laws against primitive practices like FGM is fine but the proof of the pudding is in the eating: will they be effectively implemented, particularly among people who might be inclined to treat man made laws as a dead letter if they contradict divine law. I'd imagine a major barrier against enforcing a law against FGM is that it may well involve some sort of distasteful inspection process.
I'm not at all familiar with Iraqi constitutional arrangements. Just how much autonomy does Kurdistan have? Can its laws be overturned by the national government?
Thank you Iraqui Kurds for taking a giant step toward civilization. I hope that your peoplen prosper nand that your "country" grows.
I'll say it again, so the apologists can hear me clearly:
If it has nothing to do with Islam, why do the Kurds think that enforcement and education rests primarily with the local Muslim religious leaders?
Are the Muslim Girl Scout and Muslim Elks Club members not your first line of defense?
You religious zealots who destroy women because it pleases you should be shot.
Waiting for the mullahs enthusiastic reception of this idea.....................
Well, that's very nice, but Sati has been officially outlawed in India since 1829 - yet, there have been thousands of women forced to immolate themselves on their dead husband's funeral pyre since.
So, great there's a law on the books but that doesn't mean it will be stopped in practice. Which it won't be. However, better a law on the books than not.
"thousands of women forced to immolate themselves on their dead husband's funeral pyre since".
Um Sati does not happen in India any more. You seem to imply that Sati is banned only in paper but not in practice.
Countless Hindu reformers devoted their lives to eliminating this practice throughout the Raj and post-independence, and they have succeeded.
It is in the dustbin of barbaric practices of history just like child marriage and witch-hunting during the European middle ages, among other things.