Posted on 02/05/2018 1:58:38 PM PST by nickcarraway
The #MeToo campaign against sexual abuse should include the stories of survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM), activists said ahead of a global day on Tuesday to raise awareness about the internationally condemned ritual.
Leyla Hussein, one of the first FGM survivors to come forward in Britain, urged people to use the #MeToo hashtag when posting about the practice on social media on Feb 6, the annual International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM.
“It’s a shame the #MeToo campaign doesn’t include FGM,” said Hussein, founder of the London-based Dahlia Project, which provides counseling for women who have been cut.
“FGM is a form of sexual abuse, but yet again we’ve been left out,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
At least 200 million women and girls globally have undergone FGM, U.N. data shows. The ritual, involving the partial or total removal of the external genitalia, is practiced in about 30 African countries and parts of Asia and the Middle East.
Campaigners say the tradition - often justified for cultural or religious reasons - is underpinned by the desire to control female sexuality. It can cause serious health problems.
Hibo Wardere, a British activist who was cut as a child in Somalia, said both the #MeToo campaign and the global drive to end FGM were about “women having ownership of their bodies”.
Countless women and girls have taken to social media in recent months using the #MeToo hashtag to talk about their experiences of sexual harassment, abuse and rape.
The campaign was sparked last year after a slew of sexual harassment and assault allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. The scandal has since engulfed many other celebrity figures across various industries.
”FGM is a form of sexual violence - of course it should be part of #MeToo,“ Wardere said. ”Being attacked because of our gender unites us.
“FGM is a way of controlling our sexuality, our bodies, our thoughts,” she added. “It’s a way to make you feel like nothing but a commodity that belongs to a man ... That’s what we’re all fighting against.”
Some campaigners said conflating FGM with the sexual abuse highlighted by the #MeToo campaign could wrongly imply there was sexual gratification involved with the ritual.
They said FGM should be seen as child abuse, not sex abuse.
But Hussein said sexual assault was not about gratification.
“It’s about having power over someone,” she said. “When someone does FGM, it’s all about power.”
They said FGM should be seen as child abuse, not sex abuse.
But Hussein said sexual assault was not about gratification.
“It’s about having power over someone,” she said. “When someone does FGM, it’s all about power.”
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Well, make up your peace loving (no pun intended) minds.
If MeToo means everything from a coworker asking you out on a date (or complimenting your hair or dress) to having your mom hold you down while a religious leader cuts away at your genitalia with a knife, then it means everything and nothing.
Use a new hashtag to speak out about how women are mistreated under islam (child brides, slave trade, multiple wives, domestic abuse, clitorectomies, no schooling, not driving, head to toe burqa, stoning for getting raped...)
“It’s a shame the #MeToo campaign doesn’t include FGM,”
It’s because your on the wrong side of the politically protected class. Westernized feminazis don’t care about the struggle for Muslim women’s rights
An excellent guide to US Immigration should simply be cross-referencing several UN Indicators
1) Prevalence of FGM
2) Prevalence of Consanguinity (cousin marriage)
3) Prevalence of street defecation
4) Average IQ (inverse)
Just simply set a standard, for example, if a country is in the top 10 of 2 categories (or more), those people are not allowed into the USA (rare exceptions can be made under extreme vetting).
Now that an actual oppressed group of people has entered the room, you will now find orgs and media groups such as VOX, Upworthy and Buzzfeed retiring the hastag/movement as “Passe” and “Uncool”.
Mark my words.
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