EASTERN CAPE: 300 botched circumcisions

SABC
December 22, 2012

E Cape gets cash boost to curb initiation deaths

In July this year, initiate deaths rocketed to the alarming figure of 42 in the Eastern Cape (SABC)
Government has allocated R20 million to the Eastern Cape Health Department to curb the deaths of initiates and ensure safe circumcisions. Seventeen boys have died due to botched circumcisions since the start of the circumcision season.
Eastern Cape Health and officials from Pretoria met in Bhisho to discuss strategies to tackle circumcision-related deaths in the province.
Eastern Cape Health Department spokesperson, Sizwe Kupelo says: "The discussions were held in Bhisho and it transpired that the department is allocated R20 million to deal with circumcision and ensure safe circumcision in the Eastern Cape."
In July this year, initiate deaths rocketed to the alarming figure of 42 in the Eastern Cape while other provinces like Limpopo and Free State had much lower figures of four and five respectively. [Cold comfort to their families.]
More than 300 initiates were admitted to hospitals across the Eastern Cape this season due to botched circumcisions or complications resulting from failure to carry out medical check-ups before going to the bush. [It is unclear how prior checkups prevent botched circumcisions.]
In South Africa, traditionally performed circumcision is still largely influenced by culture as [o]pposed to Western circumcision at a hospital. [Actually, Western circumcision at a hospital is largely influenced by culture - our culture.] It is performed routinely on boys from infancy to adolescence to initiate them into manhood. Although other South African ethnic groups practice the ritual, it is mostly associated with the Xhosa culture. According to the history of the Xhosa people, one has to be circumcised to be considered a "man".
Circumcision is performed by traditional "teachers" or "principals" who run the initiation school, often in the bush where boys spend two or more weeks undergoing all the rituals. However there have been reports that no anesthetic is used, therefore hygiene becomes crucial.
The leaders performing the procedure use "razors" or knives that are reportedly not sterilised and can be used to circumcise the entire group of initiates. [- greatly increasing the risk of HIV transmission.]

SYDNEY: Imam condems female "mutilation" defends "circumcision"

The Australian
December 24, 2012

Female circumcision is a right, says imam

by Rachel Baxendale

A MUSLIM leader and outspoken opponent of female genital mutilation says female circumcision, which he defines as the partial removal of the clitoral hood, is not only an utterly distinct practice, but the "divinely ordained right of a woman" under Islam.

Sydney-based Al-Ghazzali Centre for Islamic Sciences and Human Development founder and president, Imam Afroz Ali, appeared on the ABC's 7:30 program in October, condemning female genital mutilation and saying he had been told by community members of its occurrence in Australia.

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JAKARTA: Govt told to stop female circumcision

The Jakarta Post
December 23, 2012

Govt told to stop female circumcision

As the United Nations has adopted a resolution urging member states to ban female genital mutilation, the government has been told it has no choice but to revoke a Health Ministry regulation issued in 2010 that condones female circumcision.

National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) deputy chairwoman Masruchah said that the 2010 ministerial regulation runs counter to the UN resolution because it legalizes a practice that is harmful to the sexual and reproductive health of women.

The UN General Assembly unanimously approved the resolution, which is not legally binding, on Thursday, urging its 193 member states to enforce legislation that prohibits female genital circumcision.

The 2010 Health Ministry regulation stipulates that female circumcision is allowed as long as it is performed by licensed doctors, nurses or midwives.

“We have consistently pushed the ministry to revoke that regulation because it abuses the reproductive rights of women. This practice stems from the erroneous interpretation of cultural and religious teachings,” Masruchah told The Jakarta Post.

Many Indonesians, she said, believed that female circumcision could control the sexual desires of girls.

Instead of providing health benefits, female genital mutilation can cause severe bleeding, urination problems and can lead to complications during childbirth, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Health Ministry website claims that female circumcision, as stipulated in the regulation, cannot be categorized as female genital mutilation.

The regulation stipulates that “female circumcision is an action of incising the skin that covers the front part of clitoris, without harming the clitoris”.

The Indonesian Doctors Association chairman, Zaenal Abidin, said that the association would study the UN resolution and that they would issue a recommendation related to female circumcision.

“The association cannot make any recommendations unilaterally. We will involve religious scholars and communities in the deliberations. We will also study the suggestions from the WHO and international doctors’ associations,” he said.

...

Indonesian General Practitioners Association member Enrico Renaldi, who believes that female circumcision is unnecessary and harmful, said that medical practitioners in the country were facing challenges in preventing the practice.

“It is hard for doctors to be agents of change. There are strong pros and cons in the matter. Indonesians, particularly those in rural areas, see female circumcision as a necessity,” Enrico said.

Iffah Ainur Rochmah, the spokesperson for the Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), rebuffed the negative assumptions about female circumcision practices in Indonesia.

“This is a part of our culture rooted in Islamic teachings. The practice should be carried out through procedures that will not cause health implications,” she said.

Iffah called on the global community, including the UN, to not liken Islamic female circumcision with the unhygienic and inhumane practice of female genital mutilation.

She explained that Islam teachings regulated female circumcision as a minor incision of the skin that covers the front part of the clitoris.
...
Earlier story

BERLIN: Majority oppose new circumcision law

Unternehmen-heute.de 22. Dezember 2012 Umfrage: Klare Mehrheit der Deutschen lehnt Beschneidungsgesetz ab von Bernd Seeger Berlin - Das vom Bundestag mit großer Mehrheit beschlossene Gesetz zur Beschneidung von Jungen wird von 70 Prozent der Deutschen abgelehnt. Das ergab eine repräsentative Umfrage des Instituts Infratest dimap im Auftrag des Vereins Mogis (Missbrauchsopfer gegen Internetsperren), die der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung vorliegt. Nur 24 Prozent der Befragten hielten das Gesetz demnach für richtig. Es erlaubt - mit einigen Auflagen - die bestehende Beschneidungspraxis. Im Bundestag hatten sich Mitte des Monats 434 Abgeordnete für die Annahme des Gesetzes entschieden. Für die Meinungsumfrage wurden 1.000 Personen am 18. und 19. Dezember befragt.

Unternehmen-heute.de December 22, 2012 Poll: Clear majority of Germans reject circumcision law by Bernd Seeger Berlin - An infant male circumcision law overwhelmingly adopted by the Bundestag is opposed by 70 percent of Germans. The findings of a representative survey by the institute Infratest dimap on behalf of the Mogis Association (abuse victims against Internet censorship) were presented in the Sunday edition of Frankfurter Allgemeinen. Only 24 percent of respondents considered the law appropriate. It allows - with a few conditions - the existing practice of circumcision. In the Bundestag at the middle of the month 434 MPs had decided to pass the law. In the survey, 1,000 people were questioned on 18 and 19 December. Earlier story

EASTERN CAPE: Circumcision deaths resume: 15 this season

TimesLive (South Africa)
December 21, 2012

Eastern Cape officials to meet on circumcision deaths

by

Officials from the national department of health will meet with local leaders and officials on Friday to discuss the deaths of young boys after circumcision.

The department will meet with the Eastern Cape MEC for health Sicelo Gqobana, the Eastern Cape House of Traditional Leaders and local government departments in Bhisho, said provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo.

This meeting follows the death of a boy in Mzimvubu this week.

He was the 15th boy to die as a result of a botched circumcision this season. [Apart from his death, how was his circumcision different from one that wasn't "botched"?]

In June, a total of 49 boys died while undergoing initiation in the mountains.

"The national department of health is expected to present a plan to the province and then there will be discussions that will seek to bring an end to the problem," Kupelo said.

UNITED NATIONS: Call for a world-wide ban on female cutting

CBS News (AP)
December 20, 2012

U.N. seeks a global ban on female circumcision

UNITED NATIONS The U.N. General Assembly unanimously approved a resolution Thursday calling for a global ban on female genital mutilation, a centuries-old practice stemming from the belief that circumcising girls controls women's sexuality and enhances fertility.

It has also been linked to religious and cultural practices, although Muslim and Christian leaders have spoken out against it.

Although not legally binding, General Assembly resolutions reflect international concerns and carry moral and political weight.

The U.N. said in 2010 that about 70 million girls and women had undergone the procedure, and the World Health Organization said about 6,000 girls were circumcised every day.

The resolution, cosponsored by over 100 countries and adopted by consensus, calls the practice harmful and a serious threat to the psychological, sexual and reproductive health of women and girls.

It calls on the U.N.'s 193 member states to condemn the practice and launch education campaigns to eliminate it. It also urges all countries to enact and enforce legislation to prohibit the practice and to end impunity for violators.

According to Amnesty International, female genital mutilation is commonplace in 28 countries in Africa as well as in Yemen, Iraq, Malaysia, Indonesia and among certain ethnic groups in South America, but it is also a worldwide concern because it is also practiced by immigrants in diaspora communities.

Amnesty International's U.N. representative Jose Luis Diaz called the resolution "a first" for the General Assembly and an important moment for campaigners against "this grotesque practice."

NEW YORK: Metzitzah non-warning defended as freedom of speech

Not telling parents about the risks of sucking penises is freedom of speech now?

The New York Times
December 18, 2012

Lawyer Says Ritual Circumcision Is Protected Activity

by Russ Buettner

A lawyer for Orthodox Jewish groups asked a federal judge on Tuesday to throw out a New York City regulation requiring parents to sign a consent form before their infant sons undergo a form of Jewish ritual circumcision in which the circumciser uses his mouth to remove blood from the incision.

The lawyer, Shay Dvoretzky, said the practice, which is prevalent in parts of the ultra-Orthodox community, is a constitutionally protected religious activity. He said that requiring ritual circumcisers, known collectively as mohelim, to be involved in conveying the city’s perspective on the procedure would infringe upon their rights of free speech.

“That lies at the heart of First Amendment protection,” Mr. Dvoretzky said.

But a lawyer for the city argued that the regulation was necessary and that the practice most likely caused 11 herpes infections in infants between 2004 and 2011. Two of the infected babies died; at least two others suffered brain damage.

“The health department is not looking at the religion in determining what to do about this conduct,” said Michelle L. Goldberg-Cahn, a lawyer for the city. “The city is looking at the conduct.”

The Orthodox groups, including Agudath Israel of America and the Central Rabbinical Congress, sued the city in October to block the regulation, which was approved by the New York City Board of Health in September but is suspended until a ruling is issued in this case. The groups say that the procedure is safe and that the city has not definitively linked infections to the practice.

Infectious disease experts, several of whom filed briefs in support of the regulation, widely agree that the oral contact, known in Hebrew as metzitzah b’peh, creates a risk of transmission of herpes that can be deadly to infants because of their underdeveloped immune systems.

On Tuesday, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, heard oral arguments in the case, one that pits the sanctity of ancient religious rituals against the rigors of both modern medicine and secular government regulation [but not, so far, human rights]. She said her decision would come within a few weeks.

Her sharpest inquiries were directed at Mr. Dvoretzky, the lawyer for the Orthodox groups.

She raised a hypothetical situation in which a single religious group amputates left pinkie fingers at birth, and asked Mr. Dvoretzky whether the city would have the authority to regulate the activity. He said it would depend upon whether the practice caused immediate, serious harm. [Does anyone seriously argue that it wouldn't?]

Judge Buchwald also said there was a direct comparison to consent requirements placed on physicians when they perform a circumcision.

Mr. Dvoretzky called that an “apples and oranges” comparison, because a physician would not perform a metzitzah b’peh.

“Wait a second,” Judge Buchwald interrupted. “They can’t perform any circumcision without consent. It’s a surgery.” [She's on the brink of Getting It. Whose consent, when it is unnecessary surgery.]

Mr. Dvoretzky said the city should undertake a broad education campaign, to prevent all infant herpes infections.

But Judge Buchwald said such a campaign would have little impact, because the risk of infections is medically well-known.