FGM

I'm so glad that someone in the UK has at last been prosecuted for mutilating the genitals of a young girl. In this case the criminal was the girls own mother, which makes it even more upsetting. It is not known how many young girls have had their genitals mutilated in the UK but we do know the figure is at least many thousands per year judging from the number of cases referred to the NHS. This barbaric custom us usually done in the name of Religion and/or superstition or cultural indoctrination, there are no medical or functional reasons for doing it and if you read the stories of Women who have had this procedure done to them, it is simply inhumane and fraught with the risk of infections and permanent disfigurement. For many years now the police authorities have chosen to tread a path of "cultural sensitivity" around this subject, preferring (it seems) to avoid prosecution. I don't know why this is so but can guess that it's something to do with a misguided sense of not wanting to be seen to be racist or discriminatory toward particular cultures. In my view this relativist approach is flawed, it causes much unnecessary suffering and simply perpetuates ignorant and dangerous ancient practices that need to die off. There is nothing special in the universe about cultural practices or religions, they are just ideas in minds of people and like any other idea, sometimes they're brilliant and tranformative and sometimes they're just crap.