Fwd: The UK's cruelest cut

[david at gbenet.com]

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- -------- Original Message --------
Subject: The UK's cruelest cut
Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 07:51:49 -0400
From: Emma Ruby-Sachs - Avaaz.org <avaaz at avaaz.org>
To: david at gbenet.com <david at gbenet.com>

Dear friends across the UK,

Each year, tens of thousands of girls in the UK are forced to have their genitals cut, often
with no anesthesia. But there has been never been a conviction for female genital mutilation
here -- even though in London alone, police have received 166 complaints in the last four
years! Now we have a chance to help.

Undercover reporters for the Sunday Times recently caught three medics on film offering to
mutilate young girls, massively scaling up the pressure on law enforcement to act. We can
use this moment to call on Home Secretary Theresa May for real accountability. She is in
charge of every police chief in England and Wales -- if she takes the issue up personally,
the entire police system could be shaken into action.

Avaaz member Ruth Burnett has created a petition calling on the Home Secretary to start
prosecuting people involved with these assaults and already more than 2000 people have
signed! If we reach 20,000 signatures, Avaaz will deliver it directly to Home Secretary May
and the head of Metropolitan Police Force -- click below to sign and forward to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_female_genital_mutilation_in_the_UK/?cl=1821616703&amp;v=14523

Female Genital Mutilation is a custom widespread in nearly 30 Middle Eastern and African
countries. But FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985 and in 2003 the law was tightened
to stop girls being taken abroad for the operation -- on so-called “FGM holidays”.

Still, the practice is widespread here in the UK! When the undercover Sunday Times reporter
explained to Mohammed Sahib, an alternative medicine practitioner in East London that he
represented a Ghanaian couple who wanted to have their two daughters -- aged 10 and 13 --
circumcised, he said “I can do it here,” confirming that he would both remove the clitoris
and sew up the vagina. “This is my work. I know what I’m doing. I’m going to do it. I will
tell you how [much] to pay [for one]: £750.”

Home Secretary Theresa May -- who oversees women’s issues for David Cameron, and who has the
power to hold police chiefs all across England and Wales accountable -- recently admitted
people would be “shocked” by the number of young girls in Britain subjected to FGM. Now we
can push her to take concrete action to end FGM in the UK -- click below to sign the
petition now and share with everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_female_genital_mutilation_in_the_UK/?cl=1821616703&amp;v=14523

>From Iran to Morocco to South Africa, our community has fought back attacks on women’s fundamental rights. In the world we all want, a woman would never be forced to suffer the horror, pain and trauma involved with FGM. Today, here in Britain, we have a chance to take a giant step closer to making that world a reality. Let’s stand with these women and eliminate this practice from our country.

With hope and determination,

Emma, Maria Paz, Ricken, Alex, Rewan, Emily and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION:

Female genital mutilation 'offered by UK medics' (The Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/22/female-genital-mutilation-uk-medics

Birmingham arrests over female genital mutilation (BBC)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-17955330

Cruel Cuts (Avaaz.org Daily Briefing)
https://en.avaaz.org/418/female-circumcision-scandal-uk

Genital mutilation in the UK, an investigation (Sunday Times, paywall):
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/comment/leaders/article1021882.ece

The Prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation in England and Wales (DoH study, 2007):
http://www.forwarduk.org.uk/key-issues/fgm/research This message was sent to
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