Girls flee circumcision in Kenya

[sanity rules]

Good for them! May others follow their example!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7766806.stm

[LavenderMae]

I'm so glad people are helping the girls stay safe.
I wish the world would wake up and stop the mutilation of children's genitals. No child should have to flee their home to keep their genitals intact. No parent should have the right to force GM on their child.

[Fyrestorm]

Too bad baby boys born in the US can escape from the parents and doctors who want to mutilate them here.

[loveyourohana]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm

Too bad baby boys born in the US can escape from the parents and doctors who want to mutilate them here.

Couldn't agree more... if only our education was for the baby, I think more minds would change... there is pressure here from our Medical society just as there is tribal for girls there... I think ours is actually worse, as far as knowing and not telling, and advice coming from Medical...


Good for those girls... I would flee too... and they have the confidence at age seven to run away from something they don't want done!!! Wow! I am happy to see that education, and self confidence is being spread with that particular subject.

[perspective]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm

Too bad baby boys born in the US can escape from the parents and doctors who want to mutilate them here.

Here, true, but even in Africa boys are not safe, in fact they are in more danger. Thats what I hate about these news stories, they only tell half the story going on.

There are also "circumcision seasons" for boys. They also circumcise as a rite of passage into adult to, and are often pressured or forced by their parents to get it done. A local circumciser takes a group of boys out into the country and with about the same care, and medical training, circumcise the young boys.

To give you an idea of the loss of life going on all over africa thats being ignored by these reporters, during the last winter "circumcision season" in the Eastern Cape alone 24 boys died, but even more had wounds that went septic, many that resulted in the need to amputate the whole penis on these young boys.

Often if a boy loses his penis as result of the sloppy work of a circumciser, the assumption is that the boy could not handle the pain himself, and flintched, causing the injury himself, and because he could not handle the pain, he is not seen as a man.


To give you one story, there was one teenage boy who after his circumcision , found out that his wound was going septic, and he escaped the location his circumciser was holding him at and went to the hospital, where they were forced to amputate his penis, otherwise he would die from infection.

Because he went to a hospital, he was mocked by male and female villagers alike for being a "wimp" and was not considered a man because he did not finish the ceremony.

One of the things that disgusts me most about circumcision, is that international human rights groups totally ignore this issue if the victim is a boy. Even though he is facing the EXACT same (if not more) social pressures then girls there, and where their mutilation can be just as bad as the most extreme forms of FGM.

[anony]

Originally Posted by perspective

Here, true, but even in Africa boys are not safe, in fact they are in more danger. Thats what I hate about these news stories, they only tell half the story going on.

There are also "circumcision seasons" for boys. They also circumcise as a rite of passage into adult to, and are often pressured or forced by their parents to get it done. A local circumciser takes a group of boys out into the country and with about the same care, and medical training, circumcise the young boys.

To give you an idea of the loss of life going on all over africa thats being ignored by these reporters, during the last winter "circumcision season" in the Eastern Cape alone 24 boys died, but even more had wounds that went septic, many that resulted in the need to amputate the whole penis on these young boys.

Often if a boy loses his penis as result of the sloppy work of a circumciser, the assumption is that the boy could not handle the pain himself, and flintched, causing the injury himself, and because he could not handle the pain, he is not seen as a man.


To give you one story, there was one teenage boy who after his circumcision , found out that his wound was going septic, and he escaped the location his circumciser was holding him at and went to the hospital, where they were forced to amputate his penis, otherwise he would die from infection.

Because he went to a hospital, he was mocked by male and female villagers alike for being a "wimp" and was not considered a man because he did not finish the ceremony.

One of the things that disgusts me most about circumcision, is that international human rights groups totally ignore this issue if the victim is a boy. Even though he is facing the EXACT same (if not more) social pressures then girls there, and where their mutilation can be just as bad as the most extreme forms of FGM.

Unfortunately this is a historical trend. The rights and freedoms of boys are downplayed and a man is expected to be a pawn when his culture tells him to. Then outside cultures are not disgusted by it if it's something they themselves promote (circumcision in this case) but if it's girls in the story it's somehow now a human rights issue as if it isn't relevant if boys were suffering the same. Of course, some look at tribal circ's and say they're terrible but not because of the pain and oppression boys face but because it's done with rudimentary tools, non-medical professionals, etc. As if somehow the doctors in our hospitals can perform a complicated, potentially damaging surgery flawlessly every time.