In “Our Complicity in Female Genital Mutilation” at FrontPage this morning, Jamie Glazov interviews Ines Laufer, founder of the TaskForce FGM in Germany that is lobbying for the safe protection of immigrant girls. “In recent years, the organization has been initiating several court-proceedings to prevent girls from being taken to their countries of origin where they would face the risk of mutilation.”
Laufer says this about the European political elites’ response to the phenomenon of female genital mutilation among Muslim immigrants:
Although politicians continuously affirm that FGM is a grievous violation of human rights, they still refuse to even discuss effective strategies, such as medical check-ups and medical professionals” duty to report mutilation when they detect it. These strategies can help pave the way for the prosecution of the perpetrators within the families and lead to a prohibition of parents taking their minor daughters to the countries of origin where they would face a high risk of being subjected to FGM.
FP: So what are these politicians proposing to do to change this situation?
Laufer: They support education and information campaigns. Their thinking is that by educating the governments and the population in the concerned countries — as well as immigrants — about the devastating consequences of FGM, we increase the chances of persuading the perpetrators to abandon the mutilations.
FP: And what do you think of this strategy?
Laufer: It is destined to badly fail because it is based on the very wrong assumption that those who perpetrate Female Genital Mutilation do this because of a lack of knowledge, education and awareness. The premise is that they are in a state of uninformed innocence. This approach lets the perpetrators off the hook and disguises the true nature of FGM as a form of systematic violence which intends to keep the subordination of girls and women in the concerned – predominantly Muslim – societies alive.
We can prove with empirical facts and data that those who are in favor of FGM are far away from being unknowing: The educated elites at a high level of wealth mutilate their children at the same or even higher extent than the uneducated and poor classes of population.
FP: Give us some examples please.
Laufer: Sure:
In Sudan, after 70 years of awareness-raising campaigns, the prevalence of FGM did not decline a single percent and remains as high as 89%. The mutilation-rate in highly educated families is 3% higher than in uneducated ones. In the wealthiest class of population, the prevalence of FGM is even 20% higher than in the poorest class….