#anti-fgm

[lycandrophile]

Different anon. FGM is nearly the same to "bottom surgery". It's mutilation based on sex and genitals. The intent doesn't make it any less destructive or sad.

first of all, FGM is not at all nearly the same as bottom surgery, even just from a technical perspective. as many people in the replies of the last ask have pointed out, one difference is that bottom surgery involves the penis being either created from the clitoris or constructed on top of it, not removing it as with many forms of FGM.

but, for the sake of argument, let’s say they are similar surgeries on a technical level. do you really think it’s the kind of surgery that makes FGM bad? would you say that somebody who received a similar surgery for medical reasons was a victim of FGM?

what makes FGM “destructive and sad” is that:

it’s done to people who don’t want it.

it’s done to people who don’t actually know what’s being done to them or what the risks or consequences might be, so victims often find themselves living with complications for the rest of their lives that they never agreed to.

it has many potential harmful effects and no actual benefits.

gender affirming surgeries like bottom surgery don’t match any of those points. they’re:

performed only on people who actively want them and chose to have them done.

only ever done when the patient can give informed consent, meaning they know what the surgery entails and what the risks could be and have chosen to do it with that knowledge.

proven to have mental health benefits for the people who receive them, and are often considered medically necessary on that basis.

fundamentally, bottom surgery is an exercise of bodily autonomy while FGM is a violation of it. that’s what makes FGM so bad and makes the two so vitally different. mutilation is an act that causes serious harm without any true benefit; FGM fits that bill, bottom surgery doesn’t. saying the two are the same is like saying a medically performed abortion is the same as pushing a pregnant person down the stairs to cause a miscarriage: it focuses solely on the most literal understanding of what’s being done without any regard for the details or the impact on the people involved.

the problem with FGM is the fact that it’s being performed on people who can’t give informed consent and who will likely suffer from it while not gaining any benefits from it. if you actually care about victims of FGM, you should be upset about the violation of their bodies and lifelong suffering they’re subjected to, not the fact that it’s their genitals that are being altered.

[mpov]

I've blazed this post probably half a dozen times with no problem. Suddenly it gets rejected? I guess @staff suddenly supports genital mutilation of helpless children.

[demiurgeua]

Воїни Збройних Сил України за допомогою ПТРК Javelin знищили ще один гелікоптер Ка-52 рашистів

Воїни окремої бригади морської піхоти Збройних Сил України за допомогою американського переносного протитанкового ракетного комплексу «Джавелін» знищили ще один ударно-розвідувальний гелікоптер Ка-52 рашистських окупантів. _________ With help of the FGM-148 Javelin American-made portable anti-tank system, warriors of the separate brigade of marines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed the…

[thequeenofsastiel]

I appreciate most of this but I take exception to the notion that male circumcision isn't mutilation. It is.

Storyville - Defying the Cutting Season

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has been illegal in Tanzania since 1998. But every year thousands of families still plan to have their daughters cut, an ordeal that could cost them their lives. The ‘Cutting Season’ takes place during the December school holidays.

During this time hundreds of girls are saved from FGM by the police, the government and the work of the Safe House. It is run by Rhobi Samwelly, who was herself a victim of FGM, and now, not only does she valiantly run the safe house but she also works with the local police to rescue and protect girls at risk while arresting the parents and cutters.

But they have a tough and dangerous job and old customs die hard. Men believe that girls must be cut to reduce promiscuity and cut girls command twice the bride price in cows as uncut girls. Girls like Rosie, just 12 years old, have had to make the most difficult choices of their young lives - run away from home, not knowing if they will ever see their families again, or submit to female genital mutilation and child marriage.

These brave and courageous young girls are fighting against a tradition that goes back thousands of years. They are standing up for their human rights and fighting for change in their community.

The Safe House is the one safe place they can escape to.

[jobskenyaplace]

TENDER FOR PROVISION OF MEDICAL INSURANCE COVER AND WIBA PLUS FOR STAFF AND BOARD DIRECTORS

ANTI-FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION BOARD TENDER JUNE 2024   INVITATION TO TENDER TENDER FOR PROVISION OF MEDICAL INSURANCE COVER AND WIBA PLUS FOR STAFF AND BOARD DIRECTORS TENDER NO. ANTI-FGM BOARD/ OT/1/2024-2025 1. The Anti-Female Genital Mutilation Board invites sealed tenders from eligible candidates for the provision of Insurance Covers for an initial period of one year, renewable once subject…

[wiki-fight]

Let's just submit the 2 most recent on my Wikipedia mobile app...

Sigmund Freud and FGM-148 Javelin Anti-Tank Missile.

[magnetothemagnificent]

Do you think the sudden outcry against circumcision is rooted in antisemitism? I feel like it is... every person i know who has been circumcised has stated its never posed an issue for them in their life, they've never even thought of it. And I've noticed a lot of these groups are funded by Christian groups, and often even compare circumcision to female genital mutilation, which is in no way ever comparable. I've been trying to help people consider this child be true, but they always say I'm just trying to center Jewish issues too much in an issue that's unrelated.

Oh it's most definitely rooted in antisemitism (also Islamophobia in modern tomes, but anti-circumcision rhetoric wielded against Jews predates Islam). The ancient Greeks and Romans considered circumcised penises to be inferior, and numerous occupiers of Judea placed bans on circumcision to oppress the Jewish people. I wouldn't call the "outcry against circumcision" is sudden at all- it goes back for millennia.

While many cultures practice circumcision, in Western society, circumcision is most associated with Jews. The idea of circumcision as being uniquely barbaric is tied to blood libel which paints Jews as bloodthirsty child molesters and abusers. It is no coincidence that most anti-circumcision groups are funded by Christians- Christianity has demonized circumcision ever since it broke away from Judaism.

Circumcision doesn't really cause significant changes in penis sensation or functionality, and contrary to popular belief, Jews don't circumcise for any aesthetic or sexual reason (like these anti-circumcision "activists" like to claim)- it's purely because it's what G-d commanded us to and because it's our mark of our covenant with Him. And it's absolutely a disservice to victims of FGM to compare circumcision to it.

Anti-circumcision rhetoric cannot be separated from antisemitism.

[gendercriticalthinking]

My thoughts:

The main intent of this post is very eye-opening and true. While I think a lot of psychological analyses, including this one, tend to create meaning and complexity where there isn't any (to get an intellectual/detective/solving-a-puzzle "wow" factor), and a lot of "womb envy" analysis seems to be more about comforting and empowering women than accurately analyzing male motivations (most violent men aren't subconsciously* resenting the fact that women can give birth, they just like to hurt people), the overall message does have truth to it. Many, maybe even most, violent men use violence as a way to gain control/power. (But all of them do it because they like to cause suffering.)

My eyes rolled into the back of my skull upon reading this author mention the Columbine shooters played video games. (I can kind of give her a pass since her writing was published in 2004, since I absolutely support questioning new things and investigated them to see if they cause harm. Also I'm only calling this out just because I didn't see anyone else doing so.) I'm sorry but if video games cause/escalate violent urges to the point you just have to kill someone, most people should be dead by now. It is a multi-billion dollar industry. Countless women have played violent video games since their creation and yet we for some reason have never had a sudden uptick in female violent crime in the late 80's or the decades since. It's a male problem. Men who have violent urges come to video games, movies, television, hobbies, schools, malls, grocery stores, life in general, seeking a way to unleash their urges through what is otherwise benign. They come to these things already violent, and saying a piece of media (or clothing) was the/a reason they hurt people is to absolve them of the blame they deserve for their own actions. Again, it's just because they like to hurt people and have control over them. The hypothetical man who used to be pure and kind but got corrupted by an FPS game still would have become a murderer if he had watched a horror movie instead.

I'll close out the compliment sandwich by appreciating the teardown of (popular/organized) religion, and how clearly it's laid out that its invention was by and for men to make a system where they could gain and abuse power and control over others (women especially). Men would not and do not worship a female God because God is meant to be a surrogate for themselves.

*Incidentally, I realized this idea from "womb envy" actually contradicts a belief a lot of women who believe in "womb envy" also seem to hold (or at least flirt with): that men are biologically inferior (usually the reason cited is because of their role for reproduction, which one Google search for how emu parents act should disprove) to the point they're mentally incapable of deep/complex/intellectual/etc thought. If men are so animalistic they can't do anything besides feel carnal/animalistic emotions, then they also can't have subconscious desires, because they wouldn't have a subconscious. And if you instead/then believe "womb envy" is a conscious desire that they just hide from us then the fact that they know to hide it (and are decent enough at it for "womb envy" to be a Feminist Iceberg Tier 4 Concept most people haven't heard of despite its supposed prevalence in causing male behavior) is, again, not something a stupid, purely animalistic being would be able to do well, or possibly at all.

having a good day then thinking about this one quote about no woman ever comparing herself to god after creating life by giving birth but every boy with a gun is a god in his own eyes because he has the power to choose who lives or dies and he uses it to take and destroy lives. coughing up blood right now. i need to be hospitalized.

[radfemsiren]

Where/how did you find that sexist islam hadith? i keep getting pressured that if i "just researched" i would revert and i want to show exactly why i won't

I was told this Hadith by word of mouth as a child. Here is the original and translated, it’s a sahih Hadith, which means it’s authentic: Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "I was shown the Hell-fire and that the majority of its dwellers were women who were ungrateful." It was asked, "Do they disbelieve in Allah?" (or are they ungrateful to Allah?) He replied, "They are ungrateful to their husbands and are ungrateful for the favors and the good (charitable deeds) done to them. If you have always been good (benevolent) to one of them and then she sees something in you (not of her liking), she will say, 'I have never received any good from you."

حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ مَسْلَمَةَ، عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنْ زَيْدِ بْنِ أَسْلَمَ، عَنْ عَطَاءِ بْنِ يَسَارٍ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ، قَالَ قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صلى الله عليه وسلم:

‏"‏ أُرِيتُ النَّارَ فَإِذَا أَكْثَرُ أَهْلِهَا النِّسَاءُ يَكْفُرْنَ ‏"‏‏.‏ قِيلَ أَيَكْفُرْنَ بِاللَّهِ قَالَ ‏"‏ يَكْفُرْنَ الْعَشِيرَ، وَيَكْفُرْنَ الإِحْسَانَ، لَوْ أَحْسَنْتَ إِلَى إِحْدَاهُنَّ الدَّهْرَ ثُمَّ رَأَتْ مِنْكَ شَيْئًا قَالَتْ مَا رَأَيْتُ مِنْكَ خَيْرًا قَطُّ ‏"‏‏.‏

Sahih al-Bukhari 29

Honestly when it comes to debating Muslims, it’s impossible to win. I’ve seen Muslims defend this Hadith saying it’s about the women of jahiliyah, or pagan times before Islam … which still doesn’t make sense because the men of jahiliyah were committing infanticide against their daughters regularly. They were much worse than their women. They also excuse this Hadith saying that it’s just because women have a slightly higher population than men. I’ve heard that one many times. The prophet literally says the reason why in this Hadith, they don’t listen to reason!

If you must debate, this is a good Hadith to bring up, but there’s quite a few mentioning the hell full of women issue, so it might get muddy. Try to stick to the topic of Aisha. It is the core, root problem of why Islam is a threat to women. And simply replying, “That’s still pedophilia.” Works for every argument they bring up.

I’m actually working on a short series explaining the basics of Islams misogyny and it will cover a few topics, like the awrah/hijab law, sex slavery, Aisha, unequal inheritance, unequal eye witness testimony, marital rape, etc! So that’s coming within the week, keep an eye out for that! It will be in my anti-Islam tag :) It’s good to call out misogyny from other cultures too, but we have to be educated and know the difference between oppressive cultural practices (FGM) and oppressive religious practices (hijab laws)

[rapeculturerealities]

‘Over my dead body’, say Gambian mothers amid efforts to lift FGM ban | FGM | Al Jazeera

In  2015, the Gambian parliament took the historic step to pass the Women’s (Amendment) Act of 2015, which criminalised FGM and made it punishable by up to three years in prison – a significant shift after years of advocacy.

But recently, on March 18, politicians voted 42 to 4 to advance a controversial new bill which would repeal the landmark FGM ban if it passes following further consultation and expert opinion from specialised government ministries.

[ms-revived-frogs]

So like classic pro-choicers, people are lying about me that I'm some religious fanatic that blindly follows my boyfriend, and that I've lied for years about being a feminist and being bisexual. I'm not even sure why I'm clearing this up, but I don't like having my private life pried-into like this especially when it's false.

1) I have been reading into the pro-life stance for longer than the few months that have recently passed. Only recently, in the last month or so, have I really come to be confident in my pro-life ideas. No, I did not switch up and immediately become pro-life after I left Radblr in September. I was interested in it far longer than that, only when I was off Tumblr did I have the chance to really read through it.

2) I have had a boyfriend for longer than the few months that have recently passed. I did not get a boyfriend immediately after leaving Radblr in the September. And neither did he "convince me" into being religious (which I was before I left Radblr and before I met him) or pro-life (he was mostly neutral on abortion, I brought the topic up to him as I learned more about it)..

3) I still consider myself a feminist because I believe in women's liberation. I am still fervently anti-rape culture, anti-prostitution, anti-pornography, anti-surrogacy, anti-FGM and what not, all for feminist reasons. I have experienced misogyny in my personal life, and I've seen it in the lives of women around me. I do not, however, consider myself a radical feminist anymore, although this change was not immediate after leaving Radblr in September.

4) I never lied about my sexuality. I am still bisexual, I am simply dating a man. I gradually stopped the "febfem" label ages ago and I can't remember the last time I called myself that. However, I know for certain that the last time I called myself a "febfem" was far before I left Radblr in September.

This narrative that I left Radblr in September and became a radically different person is wrong. I was always religious, my being pro-life is not all that sudden, my having a boyfriend is also not all that sudden. I would appreciate if people did not make lies about me especially since they do not know me. I hope this clears things up.

[kkoffin]

You know what I would actually love to see? Productive liberal feminism. Because I have friends that I would call genuine liberal feminists, and I don’t think mainstream liberal feminism is at all what it should be.

In theory, right, if liberal feminism is feminist action through law, policy and regulation through existing institutions, it could do good things. Theorising about a feminist revolution and a perfect world, talk of culture and separatism is great and all, but we need to fix the world we currently live in so it’s friendlier to women as well, and i believe that’s what liberal feminism should be. There’s things to improve upon through law in the western world, but moreover there’s countless of things to fix and change in other countries to help women. I do honestly believe this kind of feminism is equal or even more important than radical/cultural feminism. I’ve considered shifting my own focus to things like this, considering I’m studying law and crime anyways.

A productive liberal feminism movement could help illegalize FGM worldwide, remove mandatory hijab or covering laws, have harsher punishments for offenders in honour killings. It could get more women into parliament, force law enforcement to take sexual crimes and hate crimes against women more seriously. It has done good in past, no doubt: such as laws surrounding what questions can be asked to the victim in sexual assault or rape cases, and what personal information of the victim the jury can be provided with.

But unfortunately, reality is that historically, liberal feminism has been extremely individualistic, and focused only on upper-class white women (See: Betty Friedan in the 1960s telling women that the solution to their problems (emotionally) is to get a job and get out of the house - whilst most working-class and WOC already had a job, or were working too much from home to consider a job. She came to this conclusion because she only talked to and researched upper-class white women)

Gail Dines often says liberal feminism operates on a basis of “If i’m happy then fuck you”. The fact alone that liberal feminism nowadays focuses on “Empowerment” rather than looking at the genuine struggles that even lower class women in their own countries face, let alone struggles and liberation of women in other parts of the world is telling of its intentions and individualistic view. Honestly i feel like liberal feminism should be a separate term, and this “empowerment” “feminism” should be called something else - and not be called feminism. I believe much of the “empowerment” movement is regressive and anti-feminist. In a sense, it’s even conservative, the way it wants nothing to change functionally, only to maintain current culture and systems, except without any criticism.

TLDR it’s an honest to god shame that liberal feminism is such a mess and is so individualistic, and it’s fucking weird when people say “radical feminism is white feminism” when we seem to be the only ones concerned with anyone but upper-class white people who have the privilege to seek “empowerment” rather than liberation from oppression

[hadesoftheladies]

the fact that men believe feminism (or anything feminist-esque) is about being anti-man (like men are such neutral, benevolent, benign creatures) tells me all i need to know about who men are

if you're mad at feminism for shedding light on rapists, domestic violence, pedophiles, porn-head predators, groomers, autogynephiles, sex slavery and human trafficking, the exploitation of women and girls, fgm, medical malpractice against women and girls, religious burnings, torture of females, femicide . . . all of which NO OTHER MOVEMENT HAS DONE ON NEARLY THE SAME SCALE BTW . . .

guess what that makes you?

[demiurgeua]

Морські піхотинці ЗСУ за допомогою ПТРК Javelin і дронів знищили штурмову групу рашистів на Курщині

With help of the FGM-148 Javelin portable anti-tank system and drones, marines of the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed the assault group of the russian-nazis invaders in the Kursk region of the so-called russian federation. «Джавелін вирішує»: російська БМП розлетілась по Курщині – АрміяInform https://armyinform.com.ua/2024/11/04/dzhavelin-vyrishuye-rosijska-bmp-rozletilas-po-kurshhyni/ БМП…

[sissa-arrows]

In regards to Muslim migrants in Europe, I heard people talking about religiously conservative beliefs and questionable practices like homophobia, harming blasphemers (Charlie Hebdo and Rushdie), anti-Semitism, arranged marriages, FGM. The people who mention it hint that Muslims are uniquely problematic at integrating into Europe. Assuming these aren’t just replacement theory BS, what can be done about some of those harmful beliefs? Or alternatively, are they all just non-issues exaggerated by racist right-wingers?

These are wildly exaggerated by right wingers.

Homophobia: It exists but attacks are very rare to non existant. Whenever I hear about homophobic attacks they ain’t from Muslims or immigrants. On top of it queer Muslims exist we’re not imaginary creatures.

Harming blasphemers: there is no denying that it did happen and that it’s horrific, but compared to the amount of times nothing happened it’s quite stupid to pretend these acts are generalized.

Antisemitism: Again every accusation of antisemitism I see are from people confusing antizionism with antisemitism on purpose. Europe needs a reminds that it’s not the Muslims who put Jewish people in gas chambers instead of trying to blame us all the time.

Arranged marriage: arranged marriage and forced marriage are not the same thing people need to learn the difference. There is nothing wrong with an arranged marriage.

FGM: Has absolutely nothing to do with Islam it’s based on certain cultures (and within the countries where it happens it’s more common in rural poor families who have less religious education). For example FGM is more present in France than in Algeria, where it’s considered to be basically inexistant, because the populations who practice it are present in France but not in Algeria. Yet Algeria is a Muslim country but France is not. You find more cases of FGM among Ethiopian Jews (30%) and Coptic Egyptians (70%) than among Nigerian Muslims (2%). Some animist group in Africa do it while it’s not a thing in any Tunisian Muslim group.

Lastly and more importantly… All these fucked up things exist within the Muslim community just like they exist within the Jewish community and the Christian community. And guess what they exist among atheists as well. All humans are capable of these horrors, regardless of their faith or lack of faith.

An effective way to fight against all these things is to stop pretending that it’s a uniquely Muslim problem when it’s far from it. People who attribute these things to Muslims or to PoC only or to immigrants only actually don’t want to fight against these things they want to be able to blame Muslims and to feel superior.