BARCELONA: Gambian parents jailed for cutting daughters

The Telegraph
May 23, 2013

Gambian parents jailed in Spain for circumcising daughters

by Fiona Govan, Madrid

In what is believed to be the toughest sentence in Europe to date for parents who allowed genital mutilation on their daughters, Binta Sankano and her husband Sekou Tutay, were sentenced to six years for each crime against their young daughters.

A panel of judges at the Provincial Court in Barcelona ruled that the parents, both of Gambian nationality and resident in Spain for 20 years, were criminally responsible for the clitoridectomy performed on both their daughters.

"The couple deliberately mutilated their young daughters either directly or through a person of unknown identity," said the written judgement. "Female circumcision is not a culture. It is mutilation and discrimination against women."

The case came to light when doctors examined the girls in January 2011 and discovered that both had undergone a procedure of female genital mutilation during a period of six months since their last examination. They were aged six and 11 at the time.

It is one of the first such cases to be successfully prosecuted in Spain because despite not knowing exactly when or who carried out the procedures it was proven that they must have occurred on Spanish soil and not on a visit to Gambia and that the parents were aware it was illegal.

The parents accepted in court that the family had not travelled from their home in Villanova I la Gertru, a small town 25 miles south of Barcelona, to Gambia since 2009.

Social services had visited the parents in 2008 and discussed the issue of female circumcision.

"On that occasion the woman made a promise as a mother not to undertake such a practice on her daughters," the court ruling stated.

Both parents denied knowledge of their daughters having undergone any procedure and Sankano insisted that she was not aware that such a practice was illegal in Spain.

The written judgement observed the "inevitable clash of cultures" that occurs with migration but said: "Respect for cultural traditions must be limited against the respect for human rights as universally recognised."

There are no reliable figures for how many female circumcisions take place in Spain each year.

BARCELONA: Mother spared jail for daughters cutting

UPI
April 10, 2013

Mother spared jail for girl's circumcision

BARCELONA, Spain, April 10 (UPI) -- A Senegalese woman whose young daughter was circumcised before her arrival in Spain has been given a two-year suspended sentence.

The court ordered the woman to pay her daughter 10,000 euros ($13,000) in compensation for the operation, which is also called female genital mutilation, thinkSpain reported Tuesday.

The sentence was reduced from the seven years sought by the prosecution because the woman did not realize female circumcision is illegal in Spain. The 40-year-old woman will not have to serve any time if she is not convicted of anything else.

The woman immigrated to Barcelona with her children in 2010 after her husband, who had been working in Spain for more than a decade, got a family visa. The circumcision was discovered during a routine medical checkup.

The woman told authorities the circumcision took place while her daughter was staying with her grandmother, and she did not find out about it until it had been completed.

In the only other case involving female circumcision, a Gambian immigrant was sentenced to six years in prison for arranging the surgery in Spain.