Female Genital Mutilation comes to Ireland with third world immigrants

Well, really all of Western Europe and the US too.   And, according to this article in Women News Network, one of the big problems is that the general public doesn’t know much about the horrific cultural practice and those who come in contact with immigrant children are basically unaware and untrained to recognize signs that a child is suffering.

From Women News Network:

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a topic that has been rarely associated with Western Europe, yet due to the arrival of immigrants and refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Asia, female circumcision has become a specific Western concern. It is estimated that in the European Union alone, 500,000 girls and women live with FGM and every year another 180,000 are at risk of being circumcised.

[….]

Therein lies one of the greatest challenges surrounding FGM in Europe, according to Leye [Dr Els Leye, a scientist at the International Centre for Reproductive Health at the university of Ghent (Belgium)]: “Those people that are most likely to come in to contact with FGM victims – teachers, health care staff, police, childcare workers – are not aware that FGM is a real problem nor are they trained to recognize the symptoms.”

A Somali woman in Ireland is fighting the practice there.

Ifrah Ahmed (23) was circumcised in Somalia when she was eight years old. “I don’t remember much. We were a whole group of girls being circumcised together.” Ifrah was circumcised a second time when she was thirteen. “I was circumcised by a doctor so I was one of the ‘lucky’ ones; I know of girls that were circumcised with broken glass.

What I still don’t understand is how a doctor – an educated man – can do such things to young girls.”

Ifrah fled to Ireland five years ago, when she was just seventeen. Today, she is a vocal opponent of FGM and one of the main faces of the European ‘Ending Female Genital Mutilation’ campaign. “I don’t want other girls to go through what I went through, no matter where they were born or where they live,” she says.

Even in Ireland, the Somali community has ostracized Ifrah for her stand against FGM and the social pressure to conform to tradition, also abroad, cannot be ignored. “Somali men here have told me that I should stop attacking things which are part of our culture and Somali women tell me that it will be my fault if girls can’t find a husband because they have not been circumcised. I have received threats, yes. I have even gone to the police with certain voice-mails and have had to leave Dublin because I am so outspoken about FGM.”

Despite her personal ordeal and the opposition she faces from her own community, Ahmed continues her campaign and remains optimistic. Ireland recently passed legislation outlawing FGM. Will imposing a law provide the answer, I ask her? “Certainly imposing a law will help, but we still have a long way to go,” she admits. “What is more important is that the law is enforced. Without follow-up, any legislation becomes meaningless.”

So where is the US campaign against FGM (you know its happening here too!)?

I’m heartened to see and to report that the National Organization for Women (NOW) has a campaign against the “barbaric” practice.

Update on the legal case surrounding the so-called Maryland “Dream Act”

Since there has been so much in the news lately about Governor Rick Perry and his support for taxpayer subsidized educations for illegal aliens, I thought some readers here at RRW might want to know that the issue is one of the hottest political issues in Maryland these days.

Briefly, the State Legislature narrowly passed a bill to give in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens and Democratic Governor Martin O’Malley signed the bill into law.  A grassroots, largely Tea Party, campaign got underway to put the law on the 2012 ballot as a referendum and let voters decide if they wish to spend their tax dollars this way.  Referendum petitioners succeeded beyond their wildest dreams to get enough signatures.  Then CASA de Maryland,* with the help of the Democratic National Committee’s former head honcho lawyer filed suit to stop the ballot initiative.  Here is a post at my other blog describing how Joseph E. Sandler brought suit (and who he is!).

Now, Judicial Watch has stepped in to defend the citizens right to be heard and the story is growing, here, at Big Government.

* Learn more about the multi-million dollar immigrant advocacy group CASA de Maryland, here, at Accuracy in Media.

Manchester, NH seeks to solve its poor school test scores by not testing the immigrant kids!

Many states that are overloaded with new “Americans” are suffering with the same problem—-how can their kids possibly do well under the federal ‘No Child Left Behind’ testing requirements when many get here from their home countries with little or no schooling.  Manchester, NH is going to buck the feds and not test those kids.

From the Union Leader(hat tip: Jay):

MANCHESTER — The Board of School Committee voted on Monday to end the federally mandated standardized testing of newly arrived immigrants with poor English skills.

The proposal passed unanimously and without debate. It is a policy board members have said in the past they support.

Students enrolled in Manchester schools who have recently arrived from another country will not be required for two years to take the annual standardized tests required under the No Child Left Behind law. If those same students had never been to school before — in the United States or their native country— then they would not have to take the test for five years.

[….]

It is still uncertain what consequences Manchester will face for not following federal guidelines mandating testing of all students, said Brennan, but he hopes working with the state Department of Education will ease the path toward a compromise.

Manchester has already been labeled a district “in need of improvement” under the NCLB law because of standardized test scores.

Next thing you know we will be paying for separate but equal school systems for immigrant kids. Oh, yes!  Dekalb County, Georgia is already doing that, here.   What a coincidence, that county is the setting for the novel “Outcasts United.”

As is so often the case, the comments to this story at the Union Leader are more interesting than the story!  Check them out!