OK, if you want to ban FGM, that is one thing, but has anyone considered that forcing girls to
undergo an exam to "prove" that they've not had the practice done could be just as "violating" as
the practice itself?  Let's just say she's undergone the practice, you want to make it worse by
making her get examined to see the extent of the FGM?


     And let's say she's not undergone the practice, now you want to force her to undergo an exam?
 To prove that she' snot been?


     I can remember being a teenager / child, and I'd have definitely been self-conscience of my
body, and I'd have been completely uncomfortable having people examine me.


     So, in order to stop one harm, you're going to do antoher.  That's real nice.  And the only
reason why this is even being entertained is because, presumably? an African said it.


      What stops FGM is not forcing people to do certain things, it's education, I guess, or I
hope anyway.  It's educating people about the harm, and about how their bodies work, and doing it
in a culturally sensitive way.  I'd think.  But when you start forcing people to do things, when
you criminalize things like this, it just goes underground and people do it anyway.  And even more
so when you feel as though, rightly or worngly, people are attacking your culture.


Ginny

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