GEORGIA: Government may make [female?] genital cutting criminal

This is Georgia the country next to Turkey, and it's not a done deal yet


Agenda.ge
November 24, 2016

Gov’t takes step to declare circumcision a criminal offence

Georgia's Ministry of Justice has begun proceedings to make circumcision, same as female genital mutilation (FGM) illegal in Georgia. [A careful reading suggests that "same as" means "such as" not "like" and that this whole article refers only to female genital cutting.]
 
Acting Minister of Justice Thea Tsulukiani said the Justice Ministry had initiated a law amendment that would make circumcision a criminal offence.

Her comment yesterday followed local media reports that two-three of villages in eastern Kakheti region, inhabited by Muslim Kist people, still addressed FGM.

Several locals told media that circumcision remained part of their tradition that played a role in the 'coming of age' of a girl and was necessary before marriage.

Throughout the world FGM is widely frowned upon, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) saying FGM is the deliberate mutilation of female genitalia, with FGM being described as any procedure that injured the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

The Muslim Kist population still believed FGM was appropriate and meant girls would be a virgin for their wedding night and remain faithful to her husband, as the mutilation prevents women from achieving sexual pleasure.

The process was generally carried out by people who do not have relevant medical knowledge and experience, with no anesthesia and sometimes could be fatal.
"Over the last four years the Government of Georgia has taken a range of steps ... to ensure high level protection of children’s rights,” Tsulukiani said. "The process must continue and conclude with the ratification of the Istanbul Convention I had the honour of signing two years ago. I have big hopes that the new Parliament of Georgia will ratify the Convention,” she added.
A couple of days ago the Ministry of Justice introduced an Article in the Istanbul Convention that envisaged circumcision would become illegal and punishable, said Tsulukiani, adding "unfortunately” there was no earlier information about the existence of the archaic tradition in the "two or three” villages in east Georgia where the practice still occurred.

Representatives of the Muslim religion said their holy scriptures "said nothing" about circumcision and said it was a custom of some ethnic groups that mainly resided in Africa, consequently Islam generally doesn't support FGM.

Georgia’s civil sector has already addressed the issue and said circumcision was one of the "highest level violation of human rights.”

Circumcision is generally carried out on young children aged 2-4 years of age but it can also be carrier out on young adults through the initiative of family members.

JAKARTA: Female cutting - "Don't touch our tradition"

Jakarta Globe
April 20, 2013

Activists Demand Repeal of Regulation on Circumcision

by Yuli Krisna

Bandung. “Once a baby girl is 40 days old, she can be circumcised. That’s the tradition,” says Lusi, a mother of one.

“My mother says the child must bleed, but the midwife said there’s no bleeding involved because she’s just cleaning it up down there.”

Lusi is one of many mothers in Indonesia who subject their daughters to a procedure involving pricking and piercing the hood of the clitoris with a needle, citing an Islamic belief that it will keep the girl’s libido in check when she grows up.

Although there is no official data to gauge the extent of the practice, women’s and children’s rights activists say it is widespread, particularly in rural areas.

Ellin Rozana, the executive director of the Women’s Institute, an advocacy group, argues that a Health Ministry regulation issued in 2010 that legitimizes the practice must be repealed.

She says the government’s rationale — that the form of female circumcision performed in the country is largely symbolic and not harmful — is irrelevant, and that no form of female circumcision can be justified on religious grounds.

“Admittedly the circumcision practiced in Indonesia isn’t as bad as in some African countries, where they mutilate parts of the girl’s genitals,” she tells the Jakarta Globe.

“Here they call it pricking and cleaning, but there’s no clear reason for why it has to be done. It’s different from male circumcision, which has clear health benefits.”

Ellin says the age-old reason given, that the circumcision prevents a girl from having a high sex drive and thus from becoming sexually promiscuous, highlights the patriarchal and discriminative nature of traditional Islamic Indonesian society toward women.

“There’s this idea that if a girl is circumcised, she will grow up to be a ‘good girl’ with a low sex drive,” she says.

“But this is a question of a woman’s reproductive rights, her right to enjoy sex.”

The government initially banned all forms of female circumcision in 2006. Four years later, however, it made an about-face and issued a regulation giving health workers the discretion to perform circumcisions as they saw fit.

The government argued that the regulation was needed because the all-out ban had led to large numbers of parents getting their daughters circumcised by unqualified shamans and traditional healers, thereby putting their children at high risk of medical complications.

The Health Ministry regulation defines permissible female circumcision as “an incision of the skin covering the front of the clitoris, without cutting the clitoris.”

But a 2003 study by the Population Council found that 22 percent of 1,307 female circumcision cases in the country were excisions, meaning that part of the clitoris or labia was removed. Of the rest, 49 percent involved incisions while only 28 percent were of the “symbolic” prick-and-clean type.

Ellin argues that as minimalist as it seems, the kind of circumcision allowed by the government is still unacceptable under internationally recognized standards on women’s rights.

In December, the United Nations passed a resolution banning female genital mutilation, which extends to the circumcision practiced in Indonesia.

Procedures such as pricking, piercing, incising, scraping, cauterization or burning that are carried out for non-medical purposes are categorized by the World Health Organization as mutilation along with practices that alter or remove any part of the genitals.

Back in Bandung, Lusi has come to realize that she did not need to have her daughter circumcised.

“I found out too late that what I did was a violation of my child’s rights,” she says.

MALI: Link between FGC and abuse

Chicago Tribune
September 24, 2012

Genital cutting tied to later abuse risk

By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who underwent genital cutting as young girls may be at increased risk of physical, sexual or emotional abuse from their husband, a study of women in Mali suggests.

The study, of nearly 7,900 women, found that 22 percent of those with genital mutilation said they'd been physically abused by a husband or male partner. That compared with 12 percent of women who'd never been subjected to the procedure.

...

In the new study, researchers looked at whether there's a link between genital mutilation and a woman's odds of suffering abuse from her partner.

In Mali, where the vast majority of women have undergone genital mutilation, the government has taken steps to raise awareness of the consequences of the practice. But genital mutilation has not been outlawed.

The difficulty is that genital cutting is widely seen as an important cultural tradition, rather than a form of abuse.

"If something is entrenched in a culture, it is difficult to change," said Dr. Hamisu Salihu of the University of South Florida in Tampa, the lead researcher on the new study.

On the other hand, physically abusing your wife - though common in Mali and other African countries - does not have that cultural acceptance, Salihu told Reuters Health.

So being able to frame genital cutting in the context of domestic violence might help change people's views on the practice.

The study, reported in the obstetrics and gynecology journal BJOG, included 7,875 Malian women. The large majority - 6,919 women - had genital mutilation.

Of those women, 22 percent said they'd suffered physical abuse from their partner, while five percent reported sexual abuse and 12 percent emotional abuse.

When the researchers accounted for other factors - like education level and poverty - genital mutilation was linked to two- to three-fold increases in the risk of all three types of abuse.

One of the possible limitations of the study, according to Salihu's team, is that women were asked about sensitive issues. The actual levels of abuse may have been higher than women reported.
Past studies have suggested that across sub-Saharan Africa, half of all women have been abused by a husband or partner.

Salihu said these latest findings suggest that women with genital cutting may be in particular need of screening and counseling for abuse.

...

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/NCx4Kw BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, online August 24, 2012.