{"id":1301,"date":"2017-06-06T09:03:15","date_gmt":"2017-06-06T08:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/?p=1301"},"modified":"2017-06-06T09:03:15","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T08:03:15","slug":"usamichigan-genital-mutilation-case-will-test-our-countrys-political-correctness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/usamichigan-genital-mutilation-case-will-test-our-countrys-political-correctness\/","title":{"rendered":"USA:Michigan &#8216;genital mutilation&#8217; case will test our country\u2019s political correctness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In February, federal investigators uncovered a Michigan-based network of doctors and others who <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wxyz.com\/news\/detroit-emergency-room-doctor-charged-with-child-genital-mutilation\">practice female genital mutilation<\/a> (FGM) on girls as young as six at medical clinics in the state. FGM is the cutting of a girl\u2019s genitalia with the aim to \u201cpurify\u201d her and repress her sexuality.\u00a0All defendants in the case are members of the Dawoodi Bohra, a religious Muslim group.\u00a0One of the girls who underwent the procedure was reportedly told that she was going on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/local\/michigan\/wayne\/2017\/04\/13\/detroit-doctor-mutilated-genitals\/100416124\/\">\u201cspecial girls&#8217; trip\u201d to \u201cget the germs out.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While the victim in this case may find justice in the courtroom, their lives and bodies have been\u00a0irrevocably changed.\u00a0Survivors of FGM whom I spoke to for my documentary film <a href=\"http:\/\/www.honordiaries.com\/\"><em>Honor Diaries<\/em><\/a> tell of the physical and emotional pain that remains long after the abuse.\u00a0Sexual intercourse and childbirth become horribly painful and traumatic experiences.\u00a0Women may have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/reproductivehealth\/topics\/fgm\/health_consequences_fgm\/en\/\">chronic urinary tract infections<\/a> and are often plagued with depression and other invisible\u00a0scars.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2017\/06\/05\/michigan-female-genital-mutilation-case-test-political-correctness-column\/102310920\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In February, federal investigators uncovered a Michigan-based network of doctors and others who practice female genital mutilation (FGM) on girls as young as six at medical clinics in the state. FGM is the cutting of a girl\u2019s genitalia with the aim to \u201cpurify\u201d her and repress her sexuality.\u00a0All defendants in the case are members of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[420],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fgm"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1302,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1301\/revisions\/1302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.haloproject.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}