I forgot to post the piece last night Thor, sorry. Here it is:MGM?The plight of Nigerian mother Pamela Izbekhai, a resident of Sligo arrested earlier this month for ignoring a deportation order, has raised the issue of Irelands refugee policy in relation to those fleeing Female Genital Mutilation. Before looking at the particulars of Ms Izbekhai’s situation, it would be interesting to turn the whole thing on its head and imagine this barbaric ‘tradition’ practiced in reverse:MGM; Male Genital Mutilation! A procedure whereby enough of the mans sexual organs are hacked off with a rusty blade to ensure that he will never experience sexual pleasure; that’s ok though, because enough are left to allow him procreate. A cultural rite of passage that all boys must go through before they can be deemed fit for marriage. Can you imagine it? Can’t you just picture the horrified faces of men from all corners of the earth at the mere thought of such a procedure? Such shock, such disgust, would surely provoke an understandable outcry on an international scale; and doubtless failsafe procedures would swiftly be rushed into place to stop this affront to humanity. Men just wouldn’t put up with such a thing. The societies in which FGM is practiced today are strongly patriarchal, in fact this practice could be said to be a direct by-product of a patriarchal society. Surely somewhere along the line Germaine Greer has had something to say on the subject; it would be most interesting to hear it.An estimated 135 million of the world's girls and women have undergone genital mutilation, and two million girls a year are at risk of the procedure, this breaks down to approximately 6,000 per day. It is practised extensively in Africa (in 28 countries, no less) and is common in some countries in the Middle East. It also occurs, mainly among immigrant communities, in parts of Asia and the Pacific, North and Latin America and Europe. The procedure sometimes consists of clitoridectomy (where all, or part of, the external clitoris is removed), excision (removal of all, or part of, the labia minora), and cutting of the labia majora in such a way as to create raw surfaces, which are then stitched together in order to form a cover over the vagina when they heal. A small opening is left to allow menstrual blood escape.According to the World Health Organisation the ages of females violated in this way ranges from shortly after birth to sometime during the first pregnancy, but is most commonly preformed between the ages of four and eight. Sometimes girls will be told to sit in cold water beforehand, a paltry attempt at pain reduction. More commonly, however, no steps at all are taken to reduce the pain. The girl is immobilized, restrained by an adult or adults and her legs are forced and held open. Mutilation may be carried out using broken glass, a tin lid, scissors, a razor blade or basically any available cutting instrument. When the mutilation has taken place, thorns or stitches may be used to hold the two wounds of the lost labia majora together, and the legs may be bound closed, often for up to 40 days. Antiseptic powder may be applied, or, more usually, pastes - containing herbs, milk, eggs, ashes or even animal excrement - which is believed to facilitate healing.The effects of this procedure can lead to death. When it does not, the horror of genital mutilation doesn’t end with the healing of the wounds. During the procedure pain, shock, haemorrhage and damage to the organs surrounding the clitoris and labia can occur. Afterwards urine may be retained and serious infections often develop. [Use of the same instrument on several girls without sterilization can cause the spread of HIV. More commonly, the chronic infections, intermittent bleeding, abscesses and small benign tumours of the nerve which can result from clitoridectomy and excision cause discomfort and extreme pain. FGM can have even more serious long-term effects: chronic urinary tract infections, stones in the bladder and urethra, kidney damage, reproductive tract infections resulting from obstructed menstrual flow, pelvic infections, infertility, excessive scar tissue, keloids, which are raised, irregularly shaped, progressively enlarging scars and dermoid cysts.] – Amnesty International.The psychological, psycho-sexual and emotional effects of Female Genital Mutilation are serious, and they are life lasting. The removal of the clitoris head seriously impairs the woman’s sexual pleasure; indeed one of the reasons put forth by advocates of the practice is that it discourages excessive masturbation and that a mutilated woman is far less likely to be unfaithful to her husband. The ritual is seen a sexual ‘cleansing’ of sorts and the words used to describe it are synonymous with that; ‘tahara’ in Egypt, ‘tahur’ in Sudan or ‘sili-ji’ among the Bambarra, an ethnic group in Mali. These words, in direct translation, mean purification, decontamination and cleansing. The mindset is obvious; if a mutilated woman is considered clean by way of her mutilated state then the unmutilated woman can only be dirty. In some FGM-practising societies unmutilated women are regarded so unclean as to be disallowed handle food and water. A Mrs Njeri, described as a defender of female genital mutilation in Kenya says: "Circumcision makes women clean, promotes virginity and chastity and guards young girls from sexual frustration by deadening their sexual appetite". The same Mrs Njeri is a woman who has undergone the procedure herself and doesn’t fully understand what has been done to her, in that she cannot know how much more responsive and enhanced her sense of sexual sensation would be had she not been mutilated in this way, it seems safe to assume.[First sexual intercourse can only take place after gradual and painful dilation of the opening left after mutilation. In some cases, cutting is necessary before intercourse can take place. In one study carried out in Sudan, 15% of women interviewed reported that cutting was necessary before penetration could be achieved. Some new wives are seriously damaged by unskilful cutting carried out by their husbands. A possible additional problem resulting from all types of female genital mutilation is that lasting damage to the genital area can increase the risk of HIV transmission during intercourse.During childbirth, existing scar tissue on excised women may tear. Infibulated women, whose genitals have been tightly closed, have to be cut to allow the baby to emerge. If no attendant is present to do this, perineal tears or obstructed labour can occur. After giving birth, women are often reinfibulated to make them "tight" for their husbands. The constant cutting and restitching of a women's genitals with each birth can result in tough scar tissue in the genital area.] – Amnesty InternationalThat women are expected to go through this sort of physical and mental torture in order to keep their vaginas ‘tight’ for their husbands is, thankfully, beyond the imagination of most western women. Apart from the obvious downside, there are far more psychological and emotional issues affecting these women than the damage to their sexual enjoyment and expression. Personal accounts of mutilation reveal feelings of deep anxiety, terror, humiliation and betrayal, all of which would be likely to have long-term negative effects in a mental and emotional sense. One brave victim of the barbaric procedure, Hannah Koroma of Sierra Leone, relives her experience:“I was genitally mutilated at the age of ten. I was told by my late grandmother that they were taking me down to the river to perform a certain ceremony, and afterwards I would be given a lot of food to eat. As an innocent child, I was led like a sheep to be slaughtered. Once I entered the secret bush, I was taken to a very dark room and undressed. I was blindfolded and stripped naked. I was then carried by two strong women to the site for the operation. I was forced to lie flat on my back by four strong women, two holding tight to each leg. Another woman sat on my chest to prevent my upper body from moving. A piece of cloth was forced in my mouth to stop me screaming. I was then shaved. When the operation began, I put up a big fight. The pain was terrible and unbearable. During this fight, I was badly cut and lost blood. All those who took part in the operation were half-drunk with alcohol. Others were dancing and singing, and worst of all, had stripped naked. I was genitally mutilated with a blunt penknife. After the operation, no one was allowed to aid me to walk. The stuff they put on my wound stank and was painful. These were terrible times for me. Each time I wanted to urinate, I was forced to stand upright. The urine would spread over the wound and would cause fresh pain all over again. Sometimes I had to force myself not to urinate for fear of the terrible pain. I was not given any anaesthetic in the operation to reduce my pain, nor any antibiotics to fight against infection. Afterwards, I haemorrhaged and became anaemic. This was attributed to witchcraft. I suffered for a long time from acute vaginal infections.”To regard this simply as a method of controlling women’s sexuality and reproductive functions however, would be wrong; simply inaccurate. The act of mutilating women in this way is now so old as to have become a deeply embedded tradition and is accepted and even actively encouraged by many women themselves. It is culturally significant and besides that, the sense of shame connected with being unmutilated is so great in many cultures that women defend it and wouldn’t dream of having their daughters avoid the procedure. These points in no way condone it, but rather are useful in considering the reasons why this practice has survived as long as it has and why people, women in particular, could ever have come to accept it. Female genital mutilation is considered grounds for an asylum application, but Peter O’Mahonoy of the Irish Refugee Council contends that it is notoriously difficult to secure refugee status on those grounds alone. The flaw in the policy is as barbaric as the act of genital mutilation itself and it cannot be accepted that this is in any way an exaggeration or amplification of the facts. To refuse a woman fleeing FGM asylum is to condemn that woman and any female children she may have to that fate, not inadvertently, but directly.Ms Izbekhai was jailed in Mountjoy Prison earlier this month for ignoring a deportation order which would, she contends, have condemned her two young daughters (five and three) to this practice. She is reported to have broken down several times in court while explaining to the judge that she had gone into hiding because she feared the genital mutilation they would face if sent back to Africa. She said, after having explained this: “I am afraid for my children”. She was granted conditional release pending a challenge to the deportation order, but ordered to surrender herself to Gardai within one hour should she be refused leave to challenge that order. Most women who apply for asylum on those grounds would do so, I suspect, for the sake of their young daughters, rather than for themselves who most likely have already undergone the procedure. A doctor could confirm whether this was so in about two seconds flat (as could any woman, and most men with half a wit) and any mother of accompanying female children who is proven to have undergone this ‘surgery’ herself ought to be allowed automatic asylum. It is the only humane response to a situation which is inhumane by its very nature. On the subject of asylum seekers though, the laws of the land wherein a person resides must be the laws that person abides by and no special concessions should be made for people who break those laws based on their cultural background. Mutilating people is illegal in Ireland, thank God, and girls and women should not and must not be subjected to this barbaric treatment here, regardless where or what sort of cultural environment their parents hail from.