FGM Strikes Again??

Ive been away for a long time... that comes down to several factors; it took me awhile to set up my internet connection in my new flat and ive been quite busy with another year at uni...

yesterday i came across something that really stirred me up. i got really frustrated and depressed. i was reading an article on www.masrawy.com which talked of a 23 year old girl undergoing circumcision in Egypt (regardless of the fact that it has become illegal) after a Doctor convinced her that it was necessary for her to be circumcised in order to complete her womanhood. She ended up bleeding uncontrollably and needed to be rushed to hospital. Fortunately they managed to stabilise her condition and she is alright.

What pissed me off the most wasnt the fact that illegal FGM was still in existence or that so called "Doctors" are still carrying it out, but the comments that some people left at the end of the article.

one specific one really got to me. An Egyptian man, claiming that he will only marry a circumcised woman and that if he finds out that his wife is not circumcised he will divorce her! He also said that all of his brothers and friends feel the same way. He also claimed that the only reason the government is supporting anti FGM campaigns is to submit to pressure from the USA!!

For God's sake this has nothing to do with politics, its about people's lives that you are destroying with an inhumane and barbaric act.

What exactly is it going to take for people to realise that certain customs and traditions are wrong. just because ones ancestors carried it out for years, doesn't mean it is right.

I guess Egypt is more ignorant than i thought it was. There is no way for us to progress if the majority of the public think this way. The educational system is not helping in anyway and everyone knows it is in need of total reform. It is such an important thing, it is what shapes our future. If your educational system is crap then you have no base for the people of the future to thrive upon!

I guess what we need is some way to brainwash society into understanding the negativities of such an act and help them realise what it is they are actually contributing to.

How many more deaths and complications will it take for people to realise this needs to stop?

here is the link to the article if you are interested in reading it, i do apologise to anyone who cannot read arabic though...

http://www.masrawy.com/News/2007/Egypt/Politics/november/8/circumcision.aspx