New Trends in Genital Mutilation

The fight against FGM (Female Genital mutilation) in Africa and Asia 
 produced an unexpected result in Europe.

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New Trends in Genital Mutilation

A report by our London correspondent P.D.

Octobre 3, 2001.

 Throughout the past couple of years the western "civilized" world 
has been informed thoroughly about female genital mutilation (FGM) 
in Africa and Asia. Newspaper articles, radio and tv reports have 
spread the knowledge about this widespread procedure which affects 
some 2 million women or rather girls per year.

The information campaign led to protests in western countries 
against FGM, and in Asia and Africa education programmes were 
launched. After a couple of years the organizers  of the information 
campaign could really be proud of the fact that their action had 
really led to a decrease of FGM in Africa and  Asia. 

But there was another result of the campaign which wasn't recognized 
immediately. Professor John Taylor of the London Clinic for Genital 
Reshaping (LCGR):"We of course collect figures about our work but 
these figures are only evaluated once in five years. So it took some 
time before we realized that a new trend had come into existence 
here in Europe - more and more people came to our clinic and asked 
for all kinds of circumcisions."

That was odd the scientists thought as there was no increase in any 
serious illness which might demand circumcisions. So they 
interviewed those coming and heard what had happened.

Prof. Taylor:"Apparently the reports about FGM had brought the idea 
to the peoples' minds that this was a good means to control their 
girls, keep them from masturbation, protect their virginity, prevent 
pregnancies and control the faithfulness of married women."

The number of circumcisions rose steadily and soon the  scientists 
recognised another change.

Prof. Taylor:"We noticed that more and more parents came with their 
boys and demanded genital changes for their kids which had the same 
effect on boys as FGM had on girls - that is circumcisions, 
penectomies, castrations, penis decapitations. Thus Male Genital 
Reshaping (MGR) came into being. By the way, FGM today is no longer 
called FGM here in Europa but Female Genital Reshaping (FGR)."

At first all this was merely noticable, the figures were very low. 
But soon this changed drastically. Prof. Taylor:

"Nowadays we don't do anything else here in our clinic but FGR and 
MGR.  And the relation has changed - we do decisively more MGR than 
FGR. Today we cut some 25 000 boys/men per year here at our clinic 
while we only do some 12 000 girls - we hardly do any women any 
more. And we definitely do more serious changes on boys than on 
girls. All those changes apparently are connected to the increase of 
female superiority in today's society."

That development is definitely not restricted to Britain. While the 
 LCGR first was the only such clinic in Europe there are now another 
10 in several other countries.

To get a better picture of the situation we talked to a doctor of 
LCGR. Dr. Jones told us about his patienst of the day - any day in 
any given week he made clear.

"Well, here I have the  files of the patients I did today and they 
give a fairly average picture of what we see every day. First there 
was a boy aged 12. His parents had caught him several times 
masturbating and now had his penis removed - this is a very typical 
case which we have very often. Usually such parents are religious. 
They have his penis removed instead of having him castrated as they 
want him to develop a normal body physique and want him to be able 
to father a child - with the help of a doctor of course.
 
Next there was a rare case - a boy of only six years of age. His 
mother didn't want him to  have contact with any form of sex at all 
- so she had him cut well before anything happened. He was 
penectomized and castrated. 

Then three girls aged 15, 16 and 15. All accompanied by their 
parents and all caught masturbating. I cut off the clit of the first 
two and infibulated the third - a rare operation today. 

The next case is interesting as this could represent a new trend 
within the movement. It was a man of 27 who was caught masturbating 
by his wife. As she told me she had caught him several times and had 
always warned him that she was not going to tolerate that. Finally 
she was fed up with it and brought him here - he couldn't do 
anything about it as today - as you know - it's legally correct that 
he women determine what's happening. She let me cut his penis off. 
When I asked about the influence of that step on her sex life she 
said that didn't matter - and she could always get hold of another 
man if she wanted to. We have more and more of those cases - women 
catching their husbands masturbating or cheating on her who want his 
penis off. Other women are just fed up with sex in general - they 
usually have him castrated. And there are those who are not 
satisfied with their husbands' package - they usually want me to 
castrate and penectomize him. They want to keep him as a husband but 
have someone else for sex. The number of these cases is increasing 
drastically. I had four more husbands today - two lost everyting as 
their wifes thought they were too small.  

Then one boy, aged 15. I cut his penis off. The interesting thing 
about him is the fact that he has four older brothers who were all 
penectomized by me as well. The parents only want to leave one son 
untouched. There is one more son at the age of 13  - but his mother 
is pregnant again. If this child is another boy the 13-year-old will 
lose his penis too.

Then five boys between 13 and 16 - all brought in by their parents 
because of heavy masturbating.  Three were penectomized, one of them 
also castrated. The other two lost their glans. 

And finally three girls who came here on their own - and could also 
be part of a new trend. They wanted the prepuce of their clit to be 
cut away for better feeling. And they wanted their inner labia to be 
cut back. Apparently the girls believe that it is not beautiful when 
the inner labia are too long. 

What I dind't hve today is the complete desexing of a male  that is 
castration, penectomy and removal of the prostate. Usually I have 
two of those a week."

So the number of men done by this doctor that day was more than 
double as high as the number of girls - and they clearly lost more. 
As far as other doctors told us this was very typical.

So usually fewer girls are affected, normally they are under 15 and 
and in comparison to the boys they are better off - but that doesn't 
mean that there are no extreme cases involving girls or rather young 
women.

We met Kathrin, an 18 year old from Germany. "Only two more days and 
I would have been free and fully intact....  Well I got interested 
in sex extremely early and ever since that day have been very active 
sexually. My parents who are extremely religious could never cope 
with that and tried to staop me - lock me up, tie me to my bed, give 
me tranquilizers and so on. But they could never stop me. When I 
lost my virginity at 13 they almost went mad. They always threatened 
to do something to finally stop me but I didn't think they would 
harm me - and for a long time they  really didn't know what to do. 
But apparently they one day heard about FGR and decided that this 
was the solution. 
I didn't know anything about FGR - only when it was too late. My 
parents took me to London a week before my 18th birthday. We had a 
nice time in London but two days before my birthday they took me to 
the clinic. I protested and fought when I realised what was going to 
happen but I had no chance - the law was on their side. So my clit, 
my inner and outer labia were removed, I was infibulated, they 
removed my vagina - and on top of that they also cut my breasts 
off." 

This apparently is an extreme case but as we were told things like 
that happen in extremely religious circles.

It is no coincidence that Kathrin is from Germany. The MGR and FGR 
is spreading more and more and Germany seems to be at the top of the 
movement. We heard that in certain areas in Germany  virtually all 
boys and girls were affected. So we travelled to Germany and asked 
pupils of differet ages. One class in X. seems to be rather typical. 
It was a tenth grade, the boys and girls between 15 and 16 years of 
age. We asked them at the beginning of the term. Of the 14 girls 8 
were untouched, but 2 were due withing the next couple of weeks.  Of 
the six others  three had lost their clit, one was infibulated and 
one was infibulated, had lost her vagina and her breasts. Of the 15 
boys only five were untouched but two were due. One said his parents 
didn't want him to be cut and he didn't want it either but that he 
sometimes felt like an outsider. The ten other boys all had  their 
penises cut off, six were also castrated. 
When we came back at the end of the term the situation was as 
follows: The two girls due were infibulated, one other lost her clit 
and another was totally desexed. So only 4 girls remained untouched. 
The two boys due  lost their penises and were castrated. Two 
remained untouched - among them not the boy whose parents didn't 
want him to be cut. He didn't want to stay an outsider and had his 
penis cut off at his own will. 
We also aked the younger ones. At the age of 8 to ten most didn't 
really know to say something about that matter. But the 12 years 
olds actually couldn't wait to be cut as well. So waht started as a 
punishment or a cure now seems to become a desirable measure. 

As far as we found out, this seems to be very typical for large 
areas of rural Germany, in the cities the figures seem to be a bit 
lower. But according to a new survey in Germany apparently all boys 
will be affected in future. It is common practice now that all boys 
at the age of 15 or 16 will have to undergo a procedure which could 
be called extended penis decapitation. Their foreskin is pulled back 
as far as possible and the part of the penis which is now visible 
without foreskin is cut off - usually a good third of the penis. 
That action takes away most of the sensuous parts but leaves enough 
for the boys to be able to father a child.

So the fight against FGM brought forth a totally new movement in 
Europe which probably can't be stopped easily. 

------------------------------------------------
- what about writing a similar story concerning the USA?

- I read in newspaper articles and saw on TV that America's plastic 
surgeons are actually asked more and more to cut away the prepuce of 
the clitoris and cut back the inner labia of teenagers. Does anybody 
know more about that?