France Hands Down Shockingly Lenient Sentences To Parents of FGM Victims

Before we crack on with the current post, I thought it might be prudent to import something I said previously in a post entitled: Democracy! I’ll Take Anarchy Any Day. A bizarre enough post in its own right, but certainly pertinent to this post, if only to highlight the (misogynist) attitudes of the Georgia House of Representatives.

But it is for more reasons than that, that I make use of the words. The pathetically lenient sentience handed down to the father and mother, twenty four and eighteen months respectively, for systematically maiming and disfiguring their own four daughters, is I think, and particularly for France, is nothing short of an outrage, and in itself borders on the criminal.

The text below is response to the sentencing guidelines recommended by the Georgia House of Representatives in regard to legislation banning the practice of female genital mutilation. (FGM) What I must stress however, is just how polite I am being regarding my feelings to acts of such barbarity.

Two to twenty years; I wouldn’t have a problem with the full twenty being handed down to any parent who subjected a daughter to such a selfish act of barbarism, in fact if religion were cited as the reason for carrying out this heinous act, I would give them forty years.

And my reasons would not be, as you might have so easily gathered, that I am anti religion, for this practice is nothing whatsoever to do with religion, it is but for the purposes of subjugating women and robbing them of their sexuality and as such, make them less likely to “stray.” And in doing so, bolster against the overriding insecurity of the misogynist males that abound in the countries where this practice still takes place.

As I said above, it is a bizarre post, because the House went on to include a ban female genital piercings, displaying in the twenty first century, attitudes that are simply astounding.

The legislation applies only to females mind you, it doesn't apply to the male of the species. Democracy! I’ll Take Anarchy Any Day

A slight change from original plans, the Wail has a more comprehensive article than the one I intended to employ.

Islamic holy man and his wife are jailed for mutilating the genitals of their four daughters

Victims sob in court as parents are led away
Minister brands female circumcision a 'grave crime'
By Craig Mackenzie
3 June 2012

An Islamic holy man and his wife have been jailed for the genital mutilation of their four daughters.

The case has shocked France and was branded by a female government minister as a 'grave crime' and an 'intolerable affront to women's dignity.'

All four of the victims, now aged between 11 and 20, were in court to hear the sentence and wept and cried out as their parents were led away from the dock.

The unnamed father was sentenced to two years and his wife got 18 months for allowing a 'doctor' to remove parts of their vaginas.

They were charged with ‘complicity in voluntary violence having led to mutilation by an older person of a minor under the age of 15 years’ , a crime punishable by a maximum of 20 years jail.

The father was said to be a ‘ marabout’ - an Arabic word for an Islamic ascetic holy man alleged to be endowed with magical powers.

The couple originally came from the west African state of Guinea where according to a 2007 study, 96 per cent of young girls have their genitals mutilated in the name of religion. More with photo's.

More in the sidebar under FGM. A previous French related issue posted under the 'Us and Them' tag: 'Your religious values are not superior to the laws of the republic.' French Muslim Jailed