To cut or not to cut? Infibulate?   Is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) an OK practice anywhere? Ms. Illan Omar refuses to answer.
How free are you when others can cut into your body as a young child? Bodily integrity is a basic human freedom.
FGM is overwhelmingly practiced in Somalia. Rep. Illam Omar, from Somalia, probably knows family and others  who have experienced the practice.
Ms. Omar was born and lived in Somalia until age ten. Overwhelmingly, 98% of the population in Somalia practices Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).  Young girls in Somalia are routinely  infibulated (female circumcision).
What Rep. Omar thinks of Female Genital Mutilation and other issues matters to plenty of women, voters and people in general.  Though illegal in the USA since 1997, it’s a cultural practice common throughout much of the Muslim world. Roughly 100 – 140 million woman world wide have experienced FGM.
When asked whether she condemns the practice Ms. Omar said the question was “absurd”. Omar questioned the question rather than answer. Ms. Omar engaged in non-speak.
Some facts on  Female Genital Mutilation:
Islam is currently the largest single religious group in which the practice is widespread. Â
In-depth research has been done on FTM in Somalia. Â
“These studies confirmed that FGM/C is a deeply rooted and widely supported practice that is sustained through many cultural justifications that reinforce its continuation.
The three main reasons cited were that FGM/C is a Somali tradition, that it is an Islamic requirement, and that it enforces the cultural value of sexual purity in females by controlling female sexual desires, thereby ensuring virginity before marriage and fidelity throughout a woman’s life.
The studies showed that there is a fear of women “running wild†and becoming promiscuous if they are not circumcised and infibulated.  FGM/C is erroneously
seen as a way of complying with the Islamic requirement of chastity and morality, and is also believed to enhance women’s ritual cleanliness to enable them to pray.
The perceived Islamic requirement is a major justification for FGM/C in practicing Muslim communities such as the Somali.”
Aptos Psychologist: What kind of men support FGM? Those men, probably Muslim, who say to themselves ‘it’s always been done, it’s religious tradition and …. it ensures one can marry a chaste woman.’ FGM is all about control of women.  Yes  – Rep. Illan Omar should answer the question, ‘Do you condemn the practise of FGM?
written 7/26/2019 by Cameron Jackson  JAJ48@aol.com
