Believed to be the first reported criminal case in America, the Associated Press is reporting that a father is on trial in Georgia, having been accusued of circumcising his daughter and the mother discovered it a year later. The parents are not now married.
So not so fast, the Dad an immigrant from Ethopia says he did not and would never do that.
Is this a case of he said, she said? A consequence of ill feelings following divorce? Will anyone ever really truly know?
What is at stake is in the mind of America, a young girl went through a brutal and creul process. Regardless of who did this to the young girl, will the impact of culture prove to mitigate what is otherwise considered to be, in this country, a horrific crime?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/27/female.circumcision.ap/index.html
4 responses so far ↓
Kily Cloony // November 4, 2006 at 10:39 am
I saw that the father was convicted. This is horrible at so many levels. How can the mother not know this happened to her daughter – for over a year!?! Would she have noticed a scrapped knee from fall? A tummy ache from something she ate? Or a cold? A flu? But she didn’t notice her daughter’s clitoris cut off! They should both be locked up.
Absent from every news account discussing this story is an inquiry on how this practice started. Really, how can a culture decide that a mutilated young girl would be a more desired young woman?
Kily Cloony // November 4, 2006 at 10:59 am
This reminds me of another stupid and dim-witted practice, not in “unsophisticated” cultures but in the “refined” and culturally literate societies of Europe. Young boys with a talent for singing were chosen to perform in their church choir. For some, this meant eventual castration to maintain their “angelic” voice. This practice was wide spread in the churches of middle ages.
holygoodnight // November 4, 2006 at 2:07 pm
Convicted. Very big word. I don’t know if the man did it or not; regardless, it is hard to know how you could miss a child’s mutilation. Many parents could overlook a change in the area as it is not one open to regular observation and short of pain or bleeding, may not be inspected/noticed. I would think that there had to be pain and at least her closest family members would have known that.
Speculation, regardless, the practice makes no sense to this Western mind and is disfigurement and abuse.
holygoodnight // November 4, 2006 at 2:08 pm
We did not know that Kily about the choir. Very saddening, again, a civilized world but this cannot be blamed on Third World culture.