On Monday, an Ethiopian man was deported after serving ten years in prison for slicing off his two-year-old daughter’s clitoris with a pair of crude scissors at the family’s Atlanta apartment in 2001.
“Khalid Adem, 41, was imprisoned in 2006 after he became the first person in the U.S. to be convicted of female genital mutilation — a ritualistic practice common in certain parts of the world, but widely condemned in western countries,” reports The New York Daily News.
Adem was charged with aggravated battery and cruelty to children. The case was so horrific that it prompted the state of Georgia to pass legislation barring the cruel practice, adding an extra layer of safeguards to existing federal law.
While ICE officials rarely comment on individual cases of deportation, Adem’s case in particular is especially disturbing.
“A young girl’s life has been forever scarred by this horrible crime,” said Sean Gallagher, a director with ICE. “The elimination of female genital mutilation/cutting has broad implications for the health and human rights of women and girls, as well as societies at large.”
Female genital mutilation is irreversible. The primitive procedure, still practiced among Muslim-majority tribal societies in Africa, including Somalia, and syncretic, animist Christian sects in Ethiopia, is designed to ensure that young girls never grow up to enjoy sexual stimulation as women. It’s a practice grounded in misogyny and control, carried out by elders, even women tasked with preserving the status quo of patriarchal domination over women’s bodies.
Documenting the personal stories of various victims, ABC News explains the sheer depravity of the practice. “There are four types of FGM, according to the World Health Organization. They range in severity from removing parts of a woman’s genitals to infibulation (sealing closed the vaginal opening),” ABC reports. “According to the WHO, FGM complications range from bleeding and infection to problems with childbirth and increased risk of death for newborns.”
The CDC reports a three-fold increase of FGM across the United States since the 90s. The risk of FGM is increasing, thanks to the influx of predominately Muslim communities from Somalia and other Islamic countries.
The primitive procedure, still practiced among Muslim-majority tribal societies in Africa, including Somalia, and syncretic, animist Christian sects in Ethiopia, is designed to ensure that young girls never grow up to enjoy sexual stimulation as women.
Why haven’t more reporters tracked this troubling practice, shedding light on instances of depraved misogyny within the United States? The fact is, the brutal practice of female genital mutilation is often inextricably linked with the religion of Islam. Leftists have different standards for non-Christian, non-White, non-Western demographics. Therefore, all instances of wrongdoing, no matter how barbaric, committed by peoples that fit into this nice checkbox of “victimized groups” are blurred, obscured, or altogether erased.
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