Finally, a sentence handed down for a European Muslim parent who took his daughter out of the country for a clitoridectomy. These laws have been on the books for over two decades in some cases, but are widely ignored throughout European countries by the authorities. This, from the Brussels Journal:
Swedish Citizen Sentenced for Clitoridectomy
From the desk of Filip van Laenen on Thu, 2006-07-06 11:23
Female circumcision or clitoridectomy (removal of the clitoris) is a form of genital mutilation that is practised mostly in Islamic countries in East Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Last week, on the same day that nine Muslims were sentenced in Denmark for murdering a female family member in a so-called “honour killing,” a court in Göteborg in neighbouring Sweden, sentenced a 41-year old Swedish citizen, Ali Elmi Hayow, to four years’ imprisonment for the genital mutilation of his daughter. He also has to pay her 346,000 Swedish kronor (€37,300; $46,000; £26,000) in damages.
This is the first conviction in Sweden since the country prohibited clitoridectomy in 1982. In 1999 Sweden also outlawed taking children abroad for the mutilation. The maximum penalty for female genital mutilation (FGM) is ten years’ imprisonment. Hayow, a Somali immigrant, had his daughter, his eldest child, mutilated in Somalia.
Continue reading (this truly makes me sick, what this man did) at: The Brussels Journal
8 comments:
The fact that this law has been on the books for 24 years, and yet this is the first conviction, indicates that a seachange is occuring in Northern Europe.
This seems like very good news.
It definitely is an interesting change. I need to write a post about this Somali filmmaker I met who escaped to France and then to the US. There are so many reports, aand no one does ANYTHING. I've read that it's really bad in Britain, but also in Northern Europe, and that though there are some done locally, this method is more and more popular, of flying the girl back to the home country for the mutilation. The description in the link is horrid! The girl's description? Horrifying! Not that most accounts are, but still....
Yes. I like that solution. That's the best I have ever heard.
Nice one Atlas! Unfortunately even though the Swedes have decided to finally take someone on regarding this law, sentencing in Sweden is still fairly light. Actually, by American standards most European "justice" is quite soft.
It was revealed today that the murderer of Pim Fortuyn was a suspect in the murder of yet another man he had threatened to kill, yet he was walking free. After murdering Pim, he was sentenced to 18 years, which was considered very heavy. He may not even serve it all.
It's funny that the more brutal justice systems in most Muslim countries, though they would protect this man (always protect the rights of a father regarding his daughters!), would destroy such criminals otherwise. Yet few criticize this, other than the usual human rights groups. Europeans seem more likely to speak up about the US having the death penalty than any punishments meted out in the Middle East.
I agree with Atlasshrugs: "Cut the guy's dick off. An eye for an eye."
I'm surprised that two men to whom I have mentioned the problem of clitoridectomies did not seem to understand that a clitoris is the equivalent of a penis, not a foreskin. One was a former Political Science professor at Simon Fraser University who used to give lectures in my community about how rotten Israel was to Palestinians. He was Jewish himself. When I raised the issue of cliteridectomies, he responded, "Jews cut off the male foreskin" and suggested that there was an equivalency there. He resisted any criticism of Islamic culture for this.
The second guy, not as well educated, to whom I mentioned the issue of clitoridectomies dismissed them by making the same comparison. He got excited and pointed out that we in the West cut off men's foreskins. He is very pissed off that he lost his. But women in the Middle East are losing a hell of alot more than a foreskin.
I think the term "female circumcision" leads people to equate it with male circumcision so I avoid that term.
I recall a couple of years ago, a model in the Netherlands (a black model about 39 years old whose name I forget) got a human rights award and $15,000 for her work opposing cliteridectomies. Maybe that award contributed to the sea change now occurring in Europe in relation to this issue.
But I remember thinking, 15,000 dollars? What a pittance! If millions of men were having their penises clipped off every year, it would be considered a priority global human rights crisis. Big money would be thrown at it.
Jane,
Men who don't know what clitorises are?
You need to meet some different guys.
That's hilarious, but pathetic at the same time.
I agree with Atlas. They should perform a peckerectomy on the perpetrator, with the rusty edge of an old coffee can followed with an alcohol bath.
Is FGM an exclusively islamic problem?
As I understood it, it's an African problem practiced by people of many faiths.
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