Parents fly in African village elders to circumcise their young daughters

The Times October 23, 2006

Parents fly in African village elders to circumcise their young
daughters
By Nicola Woolcock

Police and health authorities fear that 25,000 British girls are at risk
of genital mutilation

HUNDREDS of young girls in Britain are suffering genital mutilation at
the hands of women paid to come to Britain by their families.

African immigrants are clubbing together to pay for practitioners to fly
to Britain and circumcise their daughters in highly secretive rituals.

Police believe that the trend has developed among parents who do not
have passports or cannot afford to return to their home countries to
have their daughters circumcised, a brutal practice that remains
commonplace throughout Africa.

The procedure is generally performed by elderly women, in unsterilised
conditions with no anaesthetic. Children as young as five have parts or
all of their clitoris or labia removed. Some have their vaginas sewn up
or the flesh shrunk with corrosives.

Last week, Esther Fornah, 19, was granted asylum because she faced being
forced to undergo female genital mutiliation if she were returned to her
home country of Sierra Leone.

In an interview with The Times, Esther said: “If I’d been sent back to
Sierra Leone I would have been forced to have it done and they would
have punished me more for exposing it and made it even more painful. I
would rather have killed myself than go back.”

In Britain, female circumcision — or female genital mutilation (FGM) —
is illegal, and carries a maximum sentence of 14 years’ imprisonment.
The penalty has, however, failed to halt the practice, with thousands of
young girls taken abroad each year for that purpose. There has never
been a prosecution, although it has been an offence since 1985 with the
introduction of the FGM Act. Since 2003, taking a child to another
country to have it done has also been an offence.

Female circumcision among the African community in Britain has been
commonplace for years but the wider population has been unaware of it.
Now, however, police, social services and health workers have become
concerned. They believe it to be widespread, with about 25,000 young
girls remaining at risk in Britain, according to the Foundation for
Women’s Health Research and Development (Forward).

A specialist unit has been set up by Metropolitan Police child abuse
investigation detectives to tackle the problem in tandem with other
agencies. Over the past year they have monitored schools and airports
and advised minority communities that sending their daughters abroad for
genital mutilation is illegal. This has resulted in about 20 successful
interventions.

Detective Inspector Carol Hamilton, an expert in the field, said: “One
primary school child was overheard telling her friends that she was
going to be taken to her home country and there would be a party, a
ceremony, because she was becoming a woman. Police and social services
visited the girl’s home. They said they were not stopping the family
from going away, but wanted the parents to know that FGM was against the
law, that their daughter would be monitored on her return, and they
could be arrested if she had had it done.

“This particular family didn’t know that it was against the law and took
the advice fully on board — many people still think it’s OK if you go
abroad.”

However, she said there had been a worrying development. “The
information we’re now getting is that people who don’t have passports or
who can’t afford to go abroad are clubbing together to pay for someone
to come in. But getting the details is a problem. People always say it
doesn’t happen in their area, but they’ve heard it takes place
elsewhere.”

The procedure is highly dangerous and leaves many of its victims with
health problems throughout their lives. Infections and cysts are
commonplace, as are complications during childbirth, endangering both
mother and baby. Women who have suffered genital mutilation are twice as
likely to die in childbirth and three times as likely to give birth to a
stillborn child.

Despite the dangers, many African Muslim communities prize the ritual
and ostracise women who are not circumcised. It is common in a band
stretching from Senegal in West Africa to Somalia on the East coast and
in many areas uncircumcised women cannot find a husband.

One health worker who helps the Somali community in Sheffield said: “At
12 or 13, some girls are pressured by their peer group if they haven’t
had it done. They will be ostracised or seen as unclean.”

Over the summer, police ran a poster campaign aimed at parents taking
their daughters on “holiday” for the procedure, produced a DVD for
community leaders and are negotiating with BAA to show a rolling
30-second video at airport departure lounges reminding people of the
penalty.

But there has been frustration at the lack of prosecutions. Ann Clwyd,
the Labour MP who brought the Bill that became the 2003 Act, voiced her
dissatisfaction in the Commons last year, saying: “When I introduced the
legislation, I expected some prosecutions to follow.

“Acts that have been in force for 20 years without any prosecutions mean
that 7,000 young girls in this country are estimated to be at risk of
being taken abroad for those procedures.”

Agencies working with those at risk say that victims will not admit that
they have been forced to undergo mutilation because they fear their
family or community elders could be investigated.

Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital runs an African well women’s clinic that
treats about 400 victims of female genital mutilation every year.

A BARBARIC BUT COMMON RITUAL

Female genital mutilation has been illegal in Britain since 1985

The law now criminalises the practice outside Britain on British
citizens or permanent residents. Aiding and abetting it is an offence

The maximum penalty for committing or assisting is 14 years’
imprisonment

A claim for asylum by a girl facing mutilation was refused because, it
was said, she was not in a social group fearing persecution — a Refugee
Convention requisite. Five law lords have just overturned that decision

The practice is common in 28 African countries and some Asian and Middle
Eastern communities

It is usually done to girls aged 4 to 13, but is sometimes inflicted on
babies

Reasons given include custom and tradition, religious demand, family
honour, hygiene, a belief that it enhances fertility, and to control
women’s sexuality

It is thought to have been carried out on about 75,000 first-generation
female African immigrants in Britain

Afterwards women are twice as likely to die in childbirth and three
times as likely to have a stillborn child

Unicef estimates that 100 million to 130 million women have had the
procedure, often performed with a basic cutting instrument under little
or no anaesthetic

The practice contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child