Where girls are married at age 12 after genital mutilation

Terrible, barbaric misogyny!

The object of genital mutilation is to remove the clitoris, so the woman will not equate sex to pleasure, and never experience a orgasm in her life time. The thinking behind it is that if she does not have an orgasm, she will not cheat. Like neutering an animal. This is a very ancient practice.

Uganda?

Not surprised.

You'd think that the Pope would say pass down some edict like "You -- who call yourselves Catholics -- need to stop genitally mutilating your pre-pubescent females. Or, at least stop doing it in the name of Our Religion."

But, the Catholic Church has stayed silent about this atrocity.

Again...not surprised.

When I hear people complain about america... I always think "well, you could ahve been born in a place like THAT!"

I think it should only be allowed if the man has to go thru the castration process too. Of course, this would mean no kids, so the tradition would die off, which would be a good thing.

Apparently, the practice has been outlawed. 10 years in prison for anyone who performs the act and lifetime for anyone who forces a girl to be mutilated.

Milika Cherop, Sylivia Chebet,19, Sulai Chekwemboi, 17, Agnes Cheroitich, 16, and Anne Chellangat are determined to inspire other Sabiny girls to change the traditions of the community. “We refused to do FGM, stood by our word and remained at school. Our parents intimidated and threatened us but we vowed to drag them to court if they used force. Our target is to inspire others to say no to FGM but say yes to education,” Chebet says.

Hooray for these girls for wanting to educate other girls in their predicament. This is a terrible thing to do to any human and those who practice these atrocities should be held accountable! The media bringing attention to this is a start but out the outcry of the public is what is essential to stop these inhumane traditions.

Before I start my opinion I just want to recount my grandmothers teenage life.

There was a man and a woman who were married. That man is my grandfather, that woman is not my grandmother. They had two children. The mother died shorty after giving birth.

That mother had a younger sister, who has 4 years old at the time of her death. Now the father did not want to marry a stranger as he thought the new wife may disrespect or not care enough for the children. He waited 10 years for that 4 year old sister to grow up until she was at the age of 14 so she could marry him (strange how he cradled her at her birth then later married her, just a thought).

This marriage was illegal in the eyes of my Orthodox church as people are not permitted to marry their in-laws. However he was determined not to marry a stranger for the sake of the children, and so was married under either the Catholic or Anglican church (can't remember exactly which one)

When they were married, it is still unclear to me whether she was forced into it or whether she was asked to be married.

When they married, the two children were ages 12 and 10, and the new wife was 14. However the maturity and responsibility she showed was amazing. Now this father was a very tough man, and had told the 14 yr old mother that she will wash the children's feet and drink that water (trying to point out the children are the first priority).

These two had 5 more children, one of them my mother. That 14 year old is now my grandmother.

Now to the actual discussion. I personally don't like this tradition, however in the eyes of their community is was percieved as acceptable (not required however). Other countries see our media as immoral. We see certain traditions as barbaric. However, it all comes down to how much harm it will cause the people affected by the tradition. I do not like seeing people bash other cultures for their traditions but keep in mind they would be doing the same thing. I'm watching family guy at the moment and I'm pretty sure if my grandparents were watching it they would call it dispicable.

My point is hopefully time will take care of things as it has done in the past, until then tradition bashing shouldn't be condoned. I personally don't like the tradition, but that doesn't justify any bashing.

However iIf they require assistance then we should provide it if possible. But keep in mind the reaction of the host country, imagine if another country came and removed South Park and Family Guy in the name of goodwill.