At one point, when it was clear that the U.S.'s justification for going to war Iraq was (at best) mistaken, Bush and his wife justified the invasion as a way to support the interests and aspirations of women. There may have been some truth to that in Afghanistan, but when you look at the U.S.'s record in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Sub-Saharan Africa, it's not hard to realize that Bush et al are completely full of crap.
You can argue that FGM is a cultural phenomenon and not a religious one, and that the Koran doesn't justify it (although there are Muslims who will dispute that), but what a lot of people get from a fundaments interpretation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is that women are lesser beings than men are. It sets the zeitgeist so that, for some people, things like FGM is perfectly acceptable -- in fact, is good.
So much for religion as a moral force.