Omar thanks for a wonderful posting. You've said it all. Although busy with work, I just have to stop for a minute to  add to what you've already said.

Again today we(foreigners) woke up to being the headlines news in Norway. I am sure for most of us it has been the topic of discussion at work or for most of us women, being looked at in a very peculiar way, wondering if we are or not circumsised.I am sure most of us are not surprised by the shallow and one-tracked way the program was featured  on TV.  And now it is like all the Gambian and Somalian teenage girls are being pressured and in danger. I have a six year old daughter and I have never felt pressured to circumsise her. But whose fault is it?

Omar has given you a very vivid account of what happened. How the muslim leaders said one thing in public and another thing on hidden camera, after showing on Tv one of our Imams giving a sermon about telling lies. To say it mildly(I am sorry if I hurt anybody), these muslim leaders were made to be liars and hypocrites on national TV. One of the leaders went on TV to try to make it good again but I am sorry to say, it was pointless. I have to say that I admire his courage for coming on that live program but one he failed to realise is how manupulative journalists can be. As Omar said, he ended up apologising on national TV.

I am sure most of those leaders meant good when they adviced the young Somalian to listen to her parents, because as they said on the video, it is in the Koran to obey your parents. Probably they were thinking that, here is a young girl who wants to take the "western way of life". That the Norwegians should not tell us what to do with our culture/religion. Whatever these leaders were trying to do, it is very shameful and at the same time annoying to see them being ridiculed like that on National TV. These are people that are suppose to be our elders in this society. These are people that most of us seek advice from and it hurts so bad to see them being treated like that. They could have used the oppturnity to tell the Norwegians that not everybody practice it in in the Gambia. And what about the women groups in the Gambia trying to educate people about the dangers of female circumcision?

But have these leaders sit for a minute sit and think about what female circumcision is all about? Do they know what goes in those gatherings? Do they know for real how it is done? Do they know the health poblems associated with that? Have they ever been around and listen to these young girls scream their loungs off during the perfomance? The list can go on and on... NO! they don't know much about it. They don't even want to know because it is a women issue. As Omar mentioned, it is a tabo to talk about it to guys. Well, I think it is about time the men know exactly how and what is done during those gatherings. I don't think any father would want to put his daughter through that pain.

The one leader who went on TV said that it was a mistake to advice that girl to do it. Okay. I am challenging all those muslim leaders and any other Gambian who thinks that it is okay to "do it"(as it was adviced on tv), to read about it, watch the tapes and talk to people that have gone through it. They should know more about it before advicing anybody even if there was no law against it.

There has been much talk about it being tradition/religion. Personally, that is one aspect of my tradition/religion I have completely erased out of my life. As I mentioned earlier I have a six year old daughter and she'll never go through that.

Isatou