Like Dickens--with female genital mutiliation

Eighteen-year-old Adama Bah may learn today whether she will be deported to Guinea. In the spring of 2005, the federal government arrested Bah and held her for 6 weeks in a juvenile detention center on unsubstantiated charges that she was a potential suicide bomber:

Officially, she and a 16-year-old Bangladeshi girl arrested in Queens the same day were detained solely because their childhood visas were no longer valid. That remains the only reason Ms. Bah is in deportation proceedings, and the sole legal basis for an order last year that released the other girl, Tashnuba Hayder, on the condition that she leave the country immediately.

Even now, Ms. Bah says she has no idea whether her slight acquaintance with Ms. Hayder was what caused agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to hold her for questioning. Though a document provided by a federal agent at the time said the F.B.I. considered the girls “an imminent threat” to national security, it provided no evidence, and officials refused to discuss the matter. [NYT]

Bah's father. a cabdriver, was also arrested and detained until he was deported last month. Her mother, who is illiterate and speaks little English, subsequently lost the trinket stand that was the family's sole means of support. Bah has had to drop out of school to support her four younger siblings. Her government-imposed curfew won't allow her to go to night school, so her education is on hold. Now, the government is trying to deport Bah to Guinea where she faces female genital mutilation:

“Right now all we have is a straightforward asylum claim,” said Bryan Lonegan, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society’s immigration unit who is advising Hughes, Hubbard lawyers on the case. “This is a life and death situation for her.”

The petition draws a grim picture of what she would face in Guinea as a young woman with intact genitalia who opposes the painful and dangerous practice of female genital mutilation.

In Guinea, “If a girl’s genitals are not mutilated, she is considered dirty, repulsive, unfit for marriage and motherhood, and devoid of morals and monetary value,” an expert, Hanny Lightfoot-Klein, wrote in an affidavit. Male relatives consider themselves dishonored, and will beat her until she submits, the affidavit added. “Elder women perform the procedure on dimly lit floors, with dull kitchen knives, glass shards, scissors or razor blades,” the affidavit said.

Ms. Bah’s mother, Aissatou Dalanda Bah, who has separately applied for asylum, had her clitoris excised by her grandmother with a kitchen knife when she was about 10, the court papers said. Later, she watched helplessly as one of Adama’s cousins bled to death from the procedure. [NYT]

It's unclear what would happen to Bah's four younger siblings (all American citizens) if she and her mother were to be deported.

For Ms. Bah, who grew up absorbing American values and believing she was a legal immigrant, the prospect is terrifying and unreal. Genital mutilation “has nothing to do with my religion,” she said. “You can’t just circumcise a woman against her will, to take away her pleasure. That’s my right as a woman.” [NYT]

This is truly one of the most shocking and heart-wrenching stories I've read in a long time. I wish the New York Times had reported on Bah's deportation status earlier so that the public would have had more time to rally in support of her asylum claim.

Comments

[Eric Jaffa]

The US should establish a total ban on deporting females to Guinea, instead of deciding case-by-case.

[Count Zero]

This just gives me chills thinking about it...think circumcission gone wrong.

[DavidByron]

It's messed up to kick some kid out if they've lived their whole life in the US and don't even speak their "native" language, but the angle that the lawyers are going with is a technicality at best -- it shouldn't be in the title of this post. It's a non-issue.

FGM is (for her) a voluntary act. Asylum is for when the government (not your mom) is persecuting you. Not for when you might feel peer pressure to do something stupid. Life and death? That's a reach.

Ms. Bah’s mother, Aissatou Dalanda Bah, who has separately applied for asylum...

Wonder what they cooked up for her application?

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

David, I suspect you have no idea what you're talking about. The girl's sworn statement is that she expects to be mutilated against her will. If you've got some reason to doubt her claim, let's hear it.

[DavidByron]

Some reason to doubt her knowledge about Guinea?

she was still facing deportation to Guinea, where she has not lived since she was 2

I'm sure she's an expert on the place.

There was nothing in that article saying she swore any statement about Guinea. You might be thinking of the expert witness for her that you quoted:

Male relatives consider themselves dishonored, and will beat her until she submits

We don't even know if she has male relatives in Guinea.

Which leads me back to the real issue here. This American kid is being sent across the planet to a freaky African country she's never been to. The FGM angle is a pretext because unfortunately the real issue is completely legal. Don't you see that?

Do you honestly think that if the Guinea government stepped in and said "OK we'll guarantee she won't be subjected to FGM" that everyone would be happy campers?

I bet the kid would leap at the chance to have FGM done to her if it meant she could stay in the states, get her dad back and put all this crazy shit behind her.

[Eric Jaffa]

DavidByron -

The 1996 Fauziya Kasinga case shows that it doesn't have to be an official government agency engaging in the persecution to qualify for asylum:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n7_v90/ai_18434550

[togolosh]

I bet the kid would leap at the chance to have FGM done to her if it meant she could stay in the states, get her dad back and put all this crazy shit behind her.

You bet she'd leap at the chance to have her clitoris excised with a kitchen knife?!

Tell me, David, under what circumstances would you leap at the chance to have the head of your penis hacked off without anesthesia or sterile surroundings?

[Sean]

FGM - Just another traditional family value being preserved by the US Government.

Yay for US!

/sarcasm

[Guest]

"I bet the kid would leap at the chance to have FGM done to her if it meant she could stay in the states, get her dad back and put all this crazy shit behind her."

This blog must be doing something right - quality trolls like this never show up unless there's something nice to ruin.

[Count Zero]

You bet she'd leap at the chance to have her clitoris excised with a kitchen knife?!

Tell me, David, under what circumstances would you leap at the chance to have the head of your penis hacked off without anesthesia or sterile surroundings?

LOL! Tog that was hilarious.

[DavidByron]

Ok that might not have been the best choice of words.

But the point stands: surely the rest of you can see that FGM is not the issue here? Would you really not care if this girl (now an adult) had already had the operation done before she came to America? no FGM no issue? really? An entire family is being ripped apart.

The 1996 Fauziya Kasinga case shows that....

Link didn't work.

[DavidByron]

Look, no offense to Guinea intended, but if I was 18 and was going to ripped from my family and exported to some freaky African country where I didn't even speak the language (which as it happens I do in real life, a little) and what I knew of it was that they were so barbaric they ripped people's penises off... well then sure.

Tell me, David, under what circumstances would you leap at the chance to have the head of your penis hacked off without anesthesia or sterile surroundings?

Except of course even for that question you have to exagerate. What's wrong is FGM not bad enough? Got to spice it up?

There are countries that do that to boys btw. Don't know about Guinea but male genital mutilation's legal in the US.

[DAS]

Don't know about Guinea but male genital mutilation's legal in the US. - DavidByron

Judging by your comments in the thread to the previous post, I presume you're referring to male circumcision?

If so, you're comparing appples and oranges here ... male circumcision doesn't cut off the head of the penis, only the foreskin. Unless you are very ignorant of male anatomy (or the analogous/homologous parts of female anatomy, in which case I feel sorry for your partner, assuming you're straight ... heck, given the comment you made equating the foreskin with the head, I feel sorry for your partner even if you're gay), why are you conflating the two?

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

David, would you care to match your knowledge of female genital mutilation practices against those of the expert witness in this case, Hanny Lightfoot Klein? You don't know anything about the risks.

Female genital mutilation is illegal in Guinea, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen, or that women aren't forced to undergo it. Rape is illegal, too, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Mob hits are illegal, but that doesn't mean the witness protection program is unnecessary.

FGM is practiced primarily as a coming-of-age ritual in Guinea. So, Ms. Bah is within the target age range for mutilation.

If adult women want to get pieces of their bodies cut off, or stuffed with silicone, or whatever, I don't care.

This young women is scarcely more than a girl with a 10th grade education, few jobs skills, no money, and a broken home. She's about to be deported to an alien country where she will be dependent on family, if she has any resources at all. At least one of her family members is known to mutilate genitals. At least one of her family members has already been killed by this practice.

Just because it's logically possible that some people consent to have barbaric things done to them says nothing about the risk of people doing those things to others by force.

[DefJef]

Circumcision is a rather abhorent practice in the USA and that too should be stopped. The reasons given for this "practice" are insane.

Can we please get out of the dark ages?

[Windypundit]

Except of course even for that question you have to exagerate.

It's not an exaggeration, it's an analogy. FGM is the removal of the most sensitive parts of the genitalia. It is far worse than male circumcision.

[DavidByron]

I agree that the female genital mutilation in Guinea is worse than the male genital mutilation in the US. Is that the standard? "Better than Guinea"? Some male genital mutilation is worse than FGM in Guinea. America isn't exactly the nastiest place in the world for genital mutilation of men.

Female genital mutilation is illegal in the US but male genital mutilation is not. Why? because American society says violence against males is ok.

As this dismissal illustrates:

you're comparing appples and oranges here ... male circumcision doesn't cut off the head of the penis, only the foreskin.

Is it too much to say that we should not be cutting bits of flesh out of infants and children of either gender? why the dismissal? If it is so different then precisely what difference makes it ok to cut up male but not female infants?

My impression is that feminists would prefer to avoid the comparison with male circumcision because their political ideology requires women to be portrayed as victims and men as the criminals. This means they often refuse to admit that male victims of violence exist. Yet there is also some cultural superiority here. It's ok if you are an American.

[mudkitty]

In many countries it's the women who actually perform the mutilation. This is the kind of thing that drives me around the bend. This is the kind of thing we should be talking about in the headlines and in the front pages. Not fiddleing around with the Bushie private war for profit.

[DavidByron]

David, would you care to match your knowledge of female genital mutilation practices against those of the expert witness in this case, Hanny Lightfoot Klein? You don't know anything about the risks

Well neither does she on the basis of what we have seen. She is claiming the threat comes from male relatives. As I said we don't know if this girl even has any in Guinea.

It just sounds like a canned response by an advocate with a particular political angle.

It is one thing to present evidence that a government has a policy of doing such and such a thing but if your argument is that the relatives are the threat then surely you have to talk specifically about what relatives this girl actually has or does not have?

It is irrelevent whether 99% of families or 0.1 % of families have this issue going on in Guinea because this girl doesn't have a generic family she has her own family and their views and likely actions are a potential fact which this expert witness has done nothing to find out.

It would be like me saying "Oh well 99% of countries don't have this FGM problem therefore it doesn't exist in Guinea either". The expert is giving the wrong kind of fact here.

But this is way off the subject -- we just don't know what the argument is that they are making based on only a snatch or two quoted in the newspaper. And I didn't suggest the position you asked me to defend anyway (glad to do it though).

What I said was that this is an issue about a kid having her life screwed up -- not an issue about FGM.

[Alon Levy]

David, your characterization of feminism is about as accurate as your characterization of me and 1984 Was Not a Shopping List.

As Orwell said, there's a segment of society that sees no problem with big violence, like genocide or FGM, but screams at every instance of small violence, like low-intensity wars and male circumcision.

[DavidByron]

I'm not catching your drift Alon. I'm against all these forms of violence and you are in favour of all of them except FGM.

As Orwell said, there's a segment of society that sees no problem with big violence, like genocide or FGM, but screams at every instance of small violence, like low-intensity wars and male circumcision.

And once again this feminist spin that male circumcision is less violent (as if a certain quantity of cutting up of infants is ok) is simply false. You mean American cicumcision is less violent.

[Cranky Observer]

> Circumcision is a rather abhorent
> practice in the USA and that too
> should be stopped. The reasons
> given for this "practice" are insane.

Please don't allow the trolls to divert the focus in this way. Male circumcision is controversial but there are legitimate arguments on both sides. I could give you some arguments for the pro side based on unpleasant personal experience _in the comments to an appropriate post_. This is not the appropriate post to discuss male circumcision when the issue is forced FGM.

Cranky

[mudkitty]

I'm a feminist, and I don't think that in 2006 you have to teach a boy cleanliness by chopping off the tip od his dick. And I know lots of feminists who feel the same way.

I've been with circumsized men, and with uncircumsized men, and I've enjoyed both. I think the main reason people do it nowdays is because they want their sons to look like their fathers.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

People--I hate to say this, but I think that we've established that DavidByron is an agent provocateur, whose desire is not to add thoughtfully to the conversation, but to disrupt what we're doing here.

>Please don't allow the trolls to divert the focus in this way.

Well said, and let's follow this advice. I think all those of you that I've met before have proved yourselves well able to have thoughtful discussions. Wordy trolls are still trolls, don't be fooled.

[DavidByron]

Hmm. For some reason I don't think I've ever seen anyone ever raise the question of whether FGM actually makes sex more pleasuable for the man or not. Gee, I wonder why?

I've been with circumsized men, and with uncircumsized men, and I've enjoyed both.

Oh I got it! Because only an utter asshole would suggest it made one damn bit of difference to the ethics of the situation. Only a complete sexist pig would dare to suggest that a man's sexual pleasure had any weight whatsoever in the question of cutting up little girls.

God dammit mudkitty. You actually tried to say something positive there too. What am I supposed to say to this? Do I say "Wow - you're sensitive for a feminist"?

Can you imagine it? Can you imagine for one second if I for example had said somewhere above that FGM didn't even make the sex better for men... can you imagine the flak I would have got? and richly deserved?

I have never seen it said. And I've debated with some real right wing nutcases on these things. some real cavemen as you might say.

*Sigh*
And now I go to bang my head against a desk for a bit.

Thanks for your support mudkitty. It's good to know that some feminists are sensitive to the idea that cutting up little boys is wrong.

Ugh.