{"id":31388,"date":"2014-04-16T11:30:38","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T10:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=31388"},"modified":"2014-04-16T11:30:38","modified_gmt":"2014-04-16T10:30:38","slug":"the-bmj-today-why-does-female-genital-mutilation-persist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/04\/16\/the-bmj-today-why-does-female-genital-mutilation-persist\/","title":{"rendered":"The BMJ Today: Why does female genital mutilation persist?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2012\/08\/rich_hurley.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-19363\" alt=\"rich_hurley\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2012\/08\/rich_hurley.jpg\" width=\"160\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2012\/08\/rich_hurley.jpg 160w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2012\/08\/rich_hurley-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/348\/bmj.g2424\">A news story by Clare Dyer<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/348\/bmj.g2424\/rr\/694583\">a rapid response<\/a> from the director of public prosecutions in England and Wales, Alison Saunders, keep <em>The BMJ<\/em>\u2019s spotlight on female genital mutilation.<\/p>\n<p>For a long time these horrific practices were downplayed as \u201ccircumcision\u201d or \u201ccutting.\u201d But female genital mutilation includes, without medical indication, excision of all or part of the clitoris, possibly removal of the labia, and, at its most extreme, closure of the vagina. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And the word \u201cfemale\u201d in FGM hides the reality that these procedures are often inflicted on very young girls. Thus FGM represents a nadir in societies\u2019 control of women\u2019s sexuality, by physically and irreversibly trying to prevent women ever enjoying vaginal intercourse without pain and other complications.<\/p>\n<p>FGM is rife in parts of Africa and the Middle East, but it also occurs where the traditions have been transplanted to Western settings (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/340\/bmj.c2728\">see our 2010 editorial<\/a>). In 1985 the UK government legislated to ban the practices, and in 2003 it extended the law to try to stop UK nationals from taking girls abroad to have them abused this way.<\/p>\n<p>But in three decades, incredibly, not a single prosecution has been brought\u2014that is, until last month, when two men including a doctor were charged under the 2003 act, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/348\/bmj.g2313\">as Zosia Kmietowicz reported in late March<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In relation to this, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/348\/bmj.g2424\">Clare Dyer recently reported<\/a> that some doctors are worried about the potential for being prosecuted if they were to carry out repairs to stop bleeding after giving birth in women who have previously had their genitals mutilated.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/348\/bmj.g2424\/rr\/694583\">In her rapid response posted yesterday<\/a>, Alison Saunders wrote, \u201cThe law is clear that no offence of FGM is committed by an approved person who performs a surgical operation which is necessary for the patient\u2019s physical or mental health, or for the purposes connected with the labour or birth. This was, of course, considered in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Katrina Erskine, head of obstetrics at Homerton Hospital in London, had reportedly told the <em>Independent<\/em> newspaper, \u201cI cannot help suspecting this has something to do with the [director of public prosecutions] being up before the home affairs select committee and she needs something to say.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/348\/bmj.g2424\">Saunders had appeared before the committee on 25 March<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Saunders slammed such critics, reminding that it is \u201cextremely important that nothing prejudices the upcoming trial.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/348\/bmj.g2807\">Dyer reports today<\/a> that a panel of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service has found that a general practitioner in London who performed labiaplasty on a 33 year old woman for cosmetic reasons had not intended to perform FGM. Although a \u201cserious clinical failure\u201d on the part of the doctor, there was no evidence of intent as the panel had \u201cnot been provided with any cultural or surgical reasons\u201d for the botched surgery.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s leave discussion of the far more common, far less controversial, albeit seemingly far less damaging, non-medically indicated male genital mutilation for another time (we ran a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/335\/7631\/1180\">head<\/a> to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/335\/7631\/1181\">head<\/a> debate on this issue way back in 2007).<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Richard Hurley<\/strong> is the deputy magazine editor, The BMJ.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A news story by Clare Dyer and a rapid response from the director of public prosecutions in England and Wales, Alison Saunders, keep The BMJ\u2019s spotlight on female genital mutilation. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/04\/16\/the-bmj-today-why-does-female-genital-mutilation-persist\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5750],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-bmj-today"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The BMJ Today: Why does female genital mutilation persist? - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2014\/04\/16\/the-bmj-today-why-does-female-genital-mutilation-persist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The BMJ Today: Why does female genital mutilation persist? - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A news story by Clare Dyer and a rapid response from the director of public prosecutions in England and Wales, Alison Saunders, keep The BMJ\u2019s spotlight on female genital mutilation. 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