Hrm. I have cause to apologise to Nick Cohen. I’m so used to being irritated by his unfair accusations of bigotry or totalitarian sympathies that I’ve become prejudiced against the bloke. So, when I found him insisting that our society’s inadequate response to acts of female genital mutilation was due to “opposition to the ‘inappropriate’ imposition of ‘western’ values on the formerly colonised” I huffed about his moralism. Well – he had a point; a reminder not to let one’s views towards writer’s previous offerings entirely shape one’s perception of their newer works.
Female genital mutilation has been the subject of two Newsnight documentaries that exposed the scandal of the British response to such atrocities. There are thought to be more victims of it on our isles than in France and yet they’ve witnessed the conviction of dozens of perpretrators while we’ve prosecuted none of them. The Muslim girls who appeared in the documentaries were not shy in pinning this on handwringing over cultural sensitivities and that, to some extent at least, seems to be correct. Cohen writes that he “know[s] doctors who worry they will be accused of racism if they protest about the mistreatment of girls”. He’s not the only one. In 2004 a paper by Belgian academics reported that “key informants [in Britain] indicated the anxieties of many health professionals in responding appropriately…such as fear of being perceived as racist or accepting FGM because cultural traditions have to be accepted”.
But there’s a limit to what health professionals can do. Much of the two-part programme was concentrated on the fact that the French has instituted mandatory inspections of girls families who are deemed to be at risk. I can understand discomfort with such measures. If I was a parent and the state insisted that my daughter’s genitals be examined I wouldn’t be thrilled. Scotland Yard’s Simon Foy went further, suggesting that inspections might themselves be a form of abuse. Hmm. Genital mutilation can and does result in acute infections, haemorrhaging, cysts, fistula and a lifelong absence of pleasure during sexual intercourse, as well as all the mental trauma that such a painful and humiliating operation is liable to provoke. Such inspections might be embarrassing and aggrieve a few innocent parents. An argument as to the efficacy of such measures would be one thing but Foy’s is indicative of terrifically skewed priorities.
Prosecutions are, of course, no panacea. A hundred convictions might be better than none but considering the extent to which the practice continues it’s hardly worth celebrating. The traditions and beliefs that underpin its continuation have to be discredited. This means that the clerics who promote and legitimise it have to be opposed; professionals who are willing to perform it have to be exposed and, yes, communities have to be inspired to be proactive in teaching their relatives, friends and neighbours of what an abomination it is. That sounds like the kind of liberal notion that’s easy to write but hard to realise yet the girls Newsnight profiled were so dignified and articulate that on this issue, at least, I think it could well happen.
The rest of us have to listen to them, and especially to those of them who’ve faced abuse. One thing Cohen forgets, I think, is that a lot of people aren’t so much indifferent to horrendous things like FGM as oblivious to or unable to comprehend them. Before the migration of the 1990s what reason would most Brits have had to even be aware of it? I think that many of us are struggling to catch up with pace at which local phenomena have been internationalised by globalisation and it can be bewildering. We’ve had it so good with regards to our personal freedoms that I think we find it hard to grasp the magnitude of suffering others can be forced to bear. This, perhaps, is also a factor behind our being oversensitive with regards to issues concerning discrimination and judgmentalism. We’ve all had people be rude and condescending to us. It’s harder to imagine being held to the ground and having knives taken to our flesh.
July 26, 2012 at 9:28 am
a lot of people aren’t so much indifferent to horrendous things like FGM as oblivious to or unable to comprehend them. Before the migration of the 1990s what reason would most Brits have had to even be aware of it?
FGM isn’t a high profile issue in the UK, unless you look for news about it. I doubt that many professionals would know anything about it and that those who do are among those who deal directly the tiny section of the population that’s affected by it.
I’m so used to being irritated by his unfair accusations of bigotry or totalitarian sympathies that I’ve become prejudiced against the bloke.
No, your prejudice against our Nick is well-founded – the difference is that this time, he’s basing his pro forma, heavily generalised denunciations of Tha Librulz Relativissess upon somebody else’s rigorous hard work, rather than his own research.
Since Nick’s own research is usually feeble to the point of bathos – straight lifts from other articles, books and blogs, in large part – it’s not surprising that he does a bit better when he repeats the BBC’s major points, and then hooks them up to the machine that churns out the same tirade against the Moral Degeneracy Of The Liberals that it’s written once every fortnight for a decade.
I should note first that I didn’t see this report and don’t have access to a computer at home just now, so I won’t get to see it. As such, I’m reliant on the BBC article Nick refers to, which doesn’t say that “thousands of British girls are the victims” of mutilation, as Nick does. It says that many thousands are “at risk” and makes plain that mutilation is a growing occurrence in the UK and that NHS clinics are struggling to cope with the issue, due to a recent large influx of Somali immigrants.
Nor does it state or imply anything even approaching his conclusion that “respect for other cultures” or “celebrations of diversity” have created entire professional classes crazed with an “anti-colonialist” desire to protect horrific mutilation in order to avoid the “inappropriate imposition of ‘western’ values on the formerly colonised”. Nick has made that up.
In fact, I can see squarely nothing to justify Nick’s waffle about colonialism at all – the only place I can see anything relevant being raised is Muna from Bristol, who accused the government of “using cultural sensitivity as a barrier” to doing anything about it, and who calls on David Cameron directly to act.
That’s fair enough! That’s exactly what should happen in response to a serious criminal justice issue that’s beyond the current ability of public authorities to deal with. It needs clear instruction from central government.
Nick though notes that there have been no prosecutions for genital mutilation in Britain and concludes that this must be down to anti-colonialism, which just happens to be his Major Dumbass Theory of Absolutely Fucking Everything.
Isn’t it a little bit more likely that there have been no prosecutions because there is no method of detection? Nick himself acknowledges that there are no medical examinations of children.
Nick isn’t thick – he knows full-well that no examinations and no victim reporting equals no doctors being notified, no police being notified, hence no criminal case being built and no prosecution being launched.
(And also – Nick says he “knows doctors who worry they will be accused of racism if they protest about the mistreatment of girls…”. Similarly, I know journalists who say that Nick has just made this factoid up in order to support what looks like a brutal crowbarring of FGM into his war on The Liberals and like Nick’s doctors, you can’t phone them up to check whether this is true or not).
FGM is an issue that clearly needs urgent direction from central government radiating out to every agency that deals with at risk children. That would be useful, practical action aimed at both prevention and punishment.
What is less useful are hacks who cheerfully use mutilated girls as a stick to beat their political enemies with in the most ludicrously generalised and over the top fashion.
July 26, 2012 at 9:46 am
And while I’m at it, on Commander Foy’s comment that he’s “not necessarily sure that the availability of a stronger sense of prosecution will change” the incidence of FGM “for the better”…
Like I say, I didn’t see the interview, but that statement is simply 100% true. I strongly doubt it represents the whole of his opinion – a professional policeman, and that’s his response? These interviews take around fifteen minutes at least, so I think not.
And even taken in isolation – can we reasonably infer from that comment that Foy believes there’s no point in pursuing people who mutilate girls? No.
And on Foy’s contention that having medical staff check girls would infringe girls’ rights, this is also 100% true. While an examination of a consenting child, with the consent of parents, could never be upheld as a violation of rights (and every senior policeman should be aware of that), any cases where the girls and their parents refuse consent for an examination is going to become a rights issue sharpish. A really, really nasty fight in court.
This is where the debate about examination becomes very, very difficult. The vast majority of parents of unharmed children will likely consent to have their daughters examined; a small minority of parents of unharmed children won’t and parents of a mutilated girl are going to object almost every time. That’s going to lead in short order to legally-enforced genital inspection of non-consenting children, against their parents’ wishes.
While it’s damn easy to say who gives a shit what any parent who refuses consent thinks, we need to be clear that at brass tacks, we’re talking about a judge requiring policemen to remove young girls and teenagers from their homes; to transport them to a hospital or medical centre where nurses and doctors will restrain them, remove items of their clothing by force and examine their genitals against their will.
Now, try to imagine that it’s your job to organise and enforce these examinations. Suddenly, mandated examination looks a little less straightforward than it might previously have done, I would’ve thought.
Not that you’d get any sense that this issue might be in any way controversial or difficult from Nick, of course. He’s to busy jumping on his high horse, reading minds and issuing denunciations of thousands of unnamed individuals to consider how his own conclusions would actually function in the real world. It’s his speciality.
July 26, 2012 at 11:33 am
Hi FR -
…it’s not surprising that he does a bit better when he repeats the BBC’s major points, and then hooks them up to the machine that churns out the same tirade against the Moral Degeneracy Of The Liberals that it’s written once every fortnight for a decade.
Hah! Fair.
Similarly, I know journalists who say that Nick has just made this factoid up in order to support what looks like a brutal crowbarring of FGM into his war on The Liberals and like Nick’s doctors, you can’t phone them up to check whether this is true or not).
He may well be but considering that Leye and Deblonde report on the same phenomenon, and Relph et al also report that a considerable number of health professionals wouldn’t inform the authorities if faced with cases of FGM, it nonetheless appears correct.
…we need to be clear that at brass tacks, we’re talking about a judge requiring policemen to remove young girls and teenagers from their homes; to transport them to a hospital or medical centre where nurses and doctors will restrain them, remove items of their clothing by force and examine their genitals against their will…
Precisely my reaction. But would it entail that? The first point to be made is that one clearly wouldn’t be strip-searching teens. I think the French apply this to girls up to about six. The second is that I’m not sure it would seem so extraordinary to a child that they’d need restraining, forcible stripping and so on. I swear that I remember having a pretty, er – thorough medical examination in infant school and it wasn’t so traumatic that I can remember anything of it except that it took place. If it would actually be more trouble than it’s worth I’m up for hearing arguments – hell, 75% of what I know about FGM I’ve learned in the past three days; I’m not going to pretend to have the key to preventing it – but what angers me is that if one reads the reports from up to a decade ago, we’ve known for years that our approach to this form of abuse has been completely ineffective and there seem to be no plans as to how to oppose it or even particular research into means for opposing it.
And it’s fair for Cohen to say – or, at least, to regurgitate something one of the girls who were interviewed said – that even if it had been a much lesser form of abuse, if it had been directed against white natives the response would have been more energetic by many orders of magnitude. I think this has more to do with a failure to comprehend the significance of a phenomenon that most of us are wholly unfamiliar with than colonial condescension – and, indeed, I regret my implicit acceptance of some of Cohen’s usual rhetorical excesses; claiming that the CPS only cares about white girls, for example, when I rather think that their employers have intervened into more cases of forced marriage, honour violence and domestic abuse against black and Asian women than he ever will – but it’s shameful nonetheless.
July 26, 2012 at 12:44 pm
This topic featured in yesterday’s “Woman Sour”. Over a hundred prosecutions in France, apparently.
Re inspection, I remember the school nurse at my primary school holding one’s testes then asking us to cough – something to do with undescended testes. Don’t know if there was any equivalent inspection for girls. But then schools took “in loco parentis” literally – I’m pretty sure no parent ever got asked for their agreement.
July 26, 2012 at 12:47 pm
I tell a lie – apparently a check for hernia.
July 26, 2012 at 1:16 pm
I’m surprised I can’t remember the thing. These days I dread the inevitable trip to the doctors when you’re coolly ordered to drop yer kecks.
It is a trickier point than Cohen’s letting on. (As I said on Twitter, opinion journalists have such an easy job that they don’t realise how difficult others’ can be. As an arts student this is clearly true of me as well.) It felt normal to us because it WAS normal. It would feel very different, both to parents and to children, if it was suddenly sprung on them. I know some have proposed that all girls face inspections but this would seem silly considering how obvious it is that most of them aren’t from backgrounds that would make such abuse likely. The suggestion that the daughters of people who’ve been known to have undergone FGM be monitored seems more reasonable.
But it’s not the failure to institute such measures that offends me – I don’t know what would or wouldn’t work – but the apparent idleness when it comes to even investigating them.
July 26, 2012 at 2:08 pm
75% of what I know about FGM I’ve learned in the past three days
Well, it’s not like I can claim any expertise on the matter – I’m largely commenting on this because Nick’s article was picked up on Twitter by lots of people shouting variations on “Anyone who apologises for this obscene practice, is despicable!” and “Curse the liberals for allowing this via their PC touchy-feely (insert wank about not punishing criminals with brown skin here).
When I ran a quick search, two things were notable by their absence – anyone apologising for FGM, and evidence that any of this is down to PC, touchy-feely anything.
Also, I do have to wonder whether Nick has ever met a Crown prosecution lawyer. I’m engaged to one and I can report that their politics tend far closer towards hang-em-and-flog-em than they do kiss-em-and-pass-them-a-scalpel. You’d think the reasons why would be obvious, yet Nick appears to be convinced that the entire service are badge-carrying SWP-type “anti-colonialist” warriors.
I mean, seriously. When was the last time you heard the word “colonialism” or any variation on it, in face-to-face conversation with a real human being?
(Re: Nick knowing doctors who are scared to report genital mutilation for fear of being called racist) …considering that Leye and Deblonde report on the same phenomenon, and Relph et al also report that a considerable number of health professionals wouldn’t inform the authorities if faced with cases of FGM, it nonetheless appears correct.
Assuming that you mean the figure “87.3% of respondents, working in London boroughs where child protection is highly topical would act upon this requirement (to inform the authorities of children at risk of FGM)”, that is a disturbingly low figure.
I know nothing about statistics, but if we assume that, of the 12.7% of medical professionals surveyed in key London boroughs who wouldn’t report would do so for these reasons, including some mix of
a) Genuinely-held but incorrect worries about punishment for breaching patient-doctor confidentiality, with (highly debatable) concerns that reporting could do more harm in the long run, due to the possibility of discouraging other people from coming forward;, or
b) some other form of wrong-headed bureaucratic/procedural dipshittedness, or
c) Incorrect concerns about being labeled racist…
…Then it seems odd to me that Nick is reporting anecdotal meetings with an unspecified number of nameless doctors in category c), who must surely represent a smaller proportion of less than 13% of doctors in very specific areas of one city. If you see what I mean.
That’s not to say that I don’t think urgent measures should be taken to get that compliance figure up to 100%. Government action is clearly needed to address this issue, and quickly.
But would it entail that?
Maybe it wouldn’t – maybe it would be really simple and straightforward, like the medical checks they gave us at school. On the other hand, it really is worth considering how this policy would work in practice. Up here, schools have to notify parents of medical examinations etc. in advance. It would only take a few parents countrywide to dig their heels in, and you’d have some really hairy court cases sooner rather than later.
what angers me is that if one reads the reports from up to a decade ago, we’ve known for years that our approach to this form of abuse has been completely ineffective and there seem to be no plans as to how to oppose it or even particular research into means for opposing it.
I’d wager that nothing has been done because the public aren’t aware of it and it wouldn’t register as a major concern among them if they were. It’s a shitty but predictable fact of politics that squeaky wheels get the grease, especially if the squeakers represent a large enough section of the electorate.
even if it had been a much lesser form of abuse, if it had been directed against white natives the response would have been more energetic by many orders of magnitude.
I agree, but most likely because you’d have many more victims coming forward to discuss and pressurise on the issue in public. Somali immigrants aren’t coming forward to speak to the press or police in any great numbers, although this Newsnight report is very encouraging on that score. Is that a problem of librulz racism? I don’t think so.
In the absence of self-reporting, we really are looking at blind luck in the emergency room for cases to be spotted, or for rogue GPs to start unilaterally checking little girls for mutilation.
And to bring it back to the article, it’s not like Nick doesn’t understand any of this. It’s all obvious stuff, and yet instead, he chooses to charge the cops, the CPS and the medical profession with racism and pandering to criminals. I think we’d have to acknowledge that this tactic is intentional, and that doesn’t say good things about his use of mutilated kids in this context.
July 26, 2012 at 3:16 pm
[...] this under corrections and clarifications. Flying Rodent has swept down and nibbled at my post on female genital mutilation. His view is that I’m too charitable to Cohen and, [...]
July 28, 2012 at 1:03 am
there’s also issue with some of the organizations who oppose FGS:
http://www.swans.com/library/art15/barker24.html#24
although the piece does start out with seemingly praising cultural relativism.
July 28, 2012 at 4:02 pm
[...] Have we become a nation of apologists? It used to be claimed that the Left – whatever it was held to be – works by a principle of justifying or at least tolerating the obnoxious views and actions of those from cultures other than their own. As the audiences of such commentators have grown sick of the mention of people like George Galloway and Andrew Murray, though, they’ve expanded this critique to cover sizable proportions of the Western cultural political infrastructure. [...]