Genital cutting on trial in Georgia case

[Ishmael]

Genital cutting on trial in Georgia case

By DOUG GROSS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- The trial of an Atlanta-area father accused of circumcising his 2-year-old daughter with scissors is focusing attention on an ancient African practice that experts say is slowly becoming more common in the U.S. as immigrant communities grow.

Khalid Adem, a 31-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, is charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Human rights observers said they believe this is the first criminal case in the U.S. involving the 5,000-year-old practice.

Prosecutors say Adem used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in their apartment in 2001. The child's mother said she did not discover it until more than a year later.

"He said he wanted to preserve her virginity," Fortunate Adem, the girl's mother, testified this week. "He said it was the will of God. I became angry in my mind. I thought he was crazy."

The girl, now 7, also testified, clutching a teddy bear and saying that Adem "cut me on my private part." Adem cried loudly as his daughter left the courtroom.

Female circumcision is common in Adem's homeland, and his lawyer, Mark Hill, acknowledged that Adem's daughter had been cut. But he said his client did not do it, and he implied that the family of Fortunate Adem, who immigrated from South Africa when she was 6, may have had the procedure done.

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The Adems divorced in 2003, and Hill suggested that the couple's daughter was encouraged to testify against her father by her mother, who has full custody.

If convicted, Adem, a clerk at a suburban Atlanta gas station, could get up to 40 years in prison.

The U.S. State Department estimates that up to 130 million women had undergone circumcision worldwide as of 2001. Knives, razors or even sharp stones are usually used, according to a 2001 department report. The tools often are not sterilized, and often, many girls are circumcised in the same ceremony, leading to infection.

It is unknown how many girls have died from the procedure, either during the cutting or from infections, or years later in childbirth.

Nightmares, depression, shock and feelings of betrayal are common psychological side effects, according to the federal report.

Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of Equality Now, an international human rights group, said female circumcision is most widely practiced in a 28-country swath of Africa. More than 90 percent of women in Ethiopia are believed to have been subjected to the practice, she said, and even more in places like Egypt and Somalia.

"It is a preparation for marriage," Bien-Aime said. "If the girl is not circumcised, her chances of being married are very slim."

The practice crosses ethnic and cultural lines and is not tied to a particular religion. Activists say the practice is intended to deny women sexual pleasure. In its most extreme form, the clitoris and parts of the labia are removed and the labia that remain are stitched together.

"I had maybe read about it in Reader's Digest or some other journal, but not really considered it a possibility here," said Dr. Rose Badaruddin, the pediatrician for the Adems' daughter.

Many refugees from Ethiopia and Somalia come to Georgia through a federal refugee resettlement program.

"With immigration, the immigrants travel with their traditions," Bien-Aime said. "Female genital mutilation is not an exception."

Federal law specifically bans the practice, but many states do not have a law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of Fortunate Adem, passed an anti-mutilation law last year. However, Khalid Adem is not being tried under that law, since it did not exist when his daughter's cutting allegedly happened.

Anyone seen this little item?

I emboldened the part that caught my eye. I get the impression that the spokesperson for that "Human Rights Group" is implying that we should accept this practice in the name of 'multi-culturalism.' That because it's part of their culture over there, we should find it perfectly acceptable for them to continue the practice over here. Undoubtedly this will play a major role in the perps defense.

I find it appalling that the "Human Rights" spokesperson was even solicited for comment.

Ishmael

 

[Sean]

As usual, you misrepresent. I suggest you pull the whole of what she said up.

 

[Zamdrist]

Where is Now? Where is the NAACP?

<crickets>

Absolutely appalling.

 

[paganangel]

yeah, except the human rights person didn't say that. you said yourself it was an impression you got. pretty subjective, and my impression is that you're dead wrong. that's subjective too, but i base it on the fact that thinking a human rights person would have that view makes NO sense. that and the fact that human rights groups have been trying to raise awareness of the practice for years.

 

[paganangel]

Where is Now? Where is the NAACP?

<crickets>

Absolutely appalling.

you, like ish are being biased. unlike ish you make no sense.

 

[Ishmael]

yeah, except the human rights person didn't say that. you said yourself it was an impression you got. pretty subjective, and my impression is that you're dead wrong. that's subjective too, but i base it on the fact that thinking a human rights person would have that view makes NO sense. that and the fact that human rights groups have been trying to raise awareness of the practice for years.

One would think. But there is NO statement of condemnation. And what perports itself to be "human rights" groups these days can be quite contrary.

Ishmael

 

[Sean]

Did you miss the rest of it you lying Nazi cunt?

"With immigration, the immigrants travel with their traditions," Bien-Aime said. "Female genital mutilation is not an exception."

 

[Olivianna]

Anyone seen this little item?

I emboldened the part that caught my eye. I get the impression that the spokesperson for that "Human Rights Group" is implying that we should accept this practice in the name of 'multi-culturalism.' That because it's part of their culture over there, we should find it perfectly acceptable for them to continue the practice over here. Undoubtedly this will play a major role in the perps defense.

I find it appalling that the "Human Rights" spokesperson was even solicited for comment.

Ishmael

did you even read what you quoted? because it is difficult for someone who had read it to arrive at the same conclusion you have. the 'human rights group' is clearly opposed to fgm.

 

[Ishmael]

did you even read what you quoted? because it is difficult for someone who had read it to arrive at the same conclusion you have. the 'human rights group' is clearly opposed to fgm.

I have arrived at NO conclussion. I used the word impression. Mainly becuase we were treated to an explanation of certain facts with no condemnation of the act itself. Perhaps she was only partially quoted.

Ishmael

 

[Vikingstone]

Yeah. your 'human rights spokesperson' comment was complete dog shit, as usual.

But this twisted ancient practice must be abolished. It must end. Now.

Women get to have pleasure. Period. They are not strictly vessels for a penis and sperm and then a baby.

Women are not breeding stock. I don't care if the practice originated 100,000 years ago. Fuck you and your neolithic bullshit. We are talking about human beings.

You want to continue this practice...start cutting off cocks as well as clits.

 

[Sean]

I have arrived at NO conclussion. I used the word impression. Mainly becuase we were treated to an explanation of certain facts with no condemnation of the act itself. Perhaps she was only partially quoted.

Ishmael

By you.
"Genital mutilation" implies condemnation to me.

 

[Vikingstone]

Where is Now? Where is the NAACP?

<crickets>

Absolutely appalling.

Anybody ever tell you you look like Will from Lost in Space?

 

[paganangel]

One would think. But there is NO statement of condemnation. And what perports itself to be "human rights" groups these days can be quite contrary.

Ishmael

that's because it's obvious. there's no statement of acceptance either. and actually, she said the victims were "subjected" to the practice. negative connotation.

 

[John Doe]

You want to continue this practice...start cutting off cocks as well as clits.

You say that like we haven't been.

 

[paganangel]

did you even read what you quoted? because it is difficult for someone who had read it to arrive at the same conclusion you have. the 'human rights group' is clearly opposed to fgm.

exactly

 

[Sean]

And it's "conclusion" you fucking retard.

 

[Vikingstone]

You say that like we haven't been.

Ek-squeeze me?

 

[paganangel]

I have arrived at NO conclussion. I used the word impression. Mainly becuase we were treated to an explanation of certain facts with no condemnation of the act itself. Perhaps she was only partially quoted.

Ishmael

oh, c'mon dude, you did too. you posted a thread. you were pretty sure.

 

[Sean]

What, no comeback from Ish? Ish the all knowing, never wrong? Ish the racist, homophobic cunt?

 

[Ishmael]

oh, c'mon dude, you did too. you posted a thread. you were pretty sure.

Do you still beat your wife?

Ishmael

 

[Sean]

Do you still beat your wife?

Ishmael

Genius. Get fucked up the arse and go for it.

 

[paganangel]

Do you still beat your wife?

Ishmael

i confess, i don't get it.

 

[Sean]

i confess, i don't get it.

It's what Ish does when he gets his arse kicked. Deflect and argue something else.

 

[Lavared]

I am highly doubtful of a seven-year-old remembering anything that happened to them as a two-year-old, no matter how traumatic the experience.

Does clitoral circumcision always entail the removal of the entire clitoris? 'Cause if so, that's going to prevent those girls/women from ever having orgasms but I very seriously doubt it would keep all of them from ever having extramarital sex.

 

[Vikingstone]

Goddam...the fucking dirty swine bailed on his own thread?!