HEALTH COACH - 3 American women share the horrors of female genital mutilation

HEALTH COACH -

 3 American women share the horrors of female genital mutilation  
 Almost six decades later, the head of the Christian church and the mother of three girls are at home in this Midwestern city and wonder. 
 
 What would be the small One piece of skin was designed for his life? Was childbirth different? Did she miss a deeper level of intimacy with her 40-year-old husband? 
 
 "I'm sure it affected my feeling," said CNN Aron, 58. "If it was not cut, maybe I would have enjoyed what I would have liked." This is a very sensitive area. So if this is cut off, imagine me , Imagine what I miss. " Rahel Musa Aron poses with his daughters in the mid-1990s. The FGM survivor has not subjected his children to the practice, as his wife and her husband have been living in the area for many years. 
 
 
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 When his own daughters were born, Aron decided the custom endured by his mother and his grandmother would be dying with her 
 
 "What I believe, If (the clitoris) was not needed, God would not have put it there, "said Aron, a deaconess at St. Luke Lutheran in Lansing, Mich." If this does not happen, Was not important, he would not have been there, it is part of our body, it is there for a reason. "
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 Aron scars are not as severe as those borne by many 200 million women and girls worldwide - nearly a quarter of them elderly Under 15 years of age - who has undergone the practice, doubled with FGM or, for some survivors who do not eat this phrase, the female ritual cut. 
 
 The procedure in which the genitals are altered or injured for Non-medical reasons for suppressing sexuality, long regarded as a violation of human rights.It is practiced at all levels of education and social classes and among people of many religions, including Muslims and Christians, although no religious text calls him. 
 
 Although often undertaken as a custom of cleansing, experts agree thoroughly without medical benefits - and results in a myriad of health risks, from childbirth and menstrual complications to serious infections, post- Traumatic, or even death. 
 
 Yet, the practice persists, mainly in the countries of Africa and the Middle East - and in the United States, where the estimated number of girls and women who Experienced or at risk has tripled since 1990 to more than 500,000. The increase reflects the rapid growth of immigration in countries where FGM is frequent. 
 
 While anti-shrink supporters are trying to hold offenders accountable, this case also raises questions about whether the accused - all members of the Dawoodi Bohra sect Shiite Islam - are targeted because of their faith. Meanwhile, some fear that large-scale prosecutions may push the practice further down the ground, endangering the girls and women the law aims to protect. 
 
 As the issue has attracted attention, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI have opened national checklists where anyone can report their experience or suspicions . But as many lawyers have told CNN, the most important conversations can occur in homes and places of worship, as survivors share their stories and work to end FGM. 
 
 
 
 "This thing", said Aron, "must be spoken" 
 Examine the case of the Detroit area in October when researchers learned that female genital mutilation was performed at the Burhani Medical Clinic. Investigators in February learned that two 7-year-old girls from Minnesota went to the clinic with their mothers for a "special trip for girls" that they should not talk about. A girl told the FBI that their mothers had taken them to the clinic because "our wounded bellies" and a doctor "would emit the germs". 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 There were three people in The office, "one to clean and two to hold hands (the child 's hands)," said the girl to the investigators. The FBI said they were the local emergency room physician, Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, the director of the clinic, Dr. Fakhruddin Attar and his wife, Farida Attar, who headed the office in Livonia , Michigan, in court records. 
 
 Removed his pants and his underwear and laid on an examination table with his knees near his chest and legs apart, show the documents. Nagarwala then gave him a "small pinch" in the area where we pee. She said the doctor told her that she and her friend "no bikes and no split for three days", and the day after the procedure, the region "hurt". 
 
 The girl said that she and her girlfriend got a cake after, because "they were doing good," show the documents. One examination revealed that the minora lips of the girl were removed or altered, her clitoral hood appeared abnormal, plus a scar tissue and small curative cuts, show the court records. 
 
 The Attars and Nagarwala face two counts of female genital mutilation, a conspiracy account for committing female genital mutilation and a conspiracy account to hinder formal proceedings. Doctors could be sentenced to death in prison alive. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
" This brutal practice is being carried out on girls for a reason: to control them as women, "Daniel Lemisch, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, said in a statement:" FGM will not Not tolerated in the United States. "
 
 But the accused's lawyers say that their clients are being persecuted for practicing their religion. Nagarwala pleaded not guilty to all charges The Attars did not plead, but their lawyers claim that they are not guilty of all charges. 
 
 
 Nagarwala admits to have carried out a procedure on the two girls, said the ritual of cleaning is not illegal, the lawyer said 
 
 Shannon Smith, his lawyer. But this was not female genital mutilation, she said, according to the court document Ents; It was a non-invasive religious cleansing ritual in the tradition of Dawoodi Bohra, rooted in India. 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 Nagarwala , Who completed his work at Henry Ford Health System in light of this case, claims to have used a long wiper tool to wipe a small part of the Clitoris girls' mucus membrane and then put the membrane on the gauze so their parents Buried, said Smith, adding that his client refused to remove the tissue and said there was no blood, documents show. 
 
 The political environment Surrounding the federal prosecution concerns Dina Francesca Haynes, a human rights lawyer who has worked on hundreds of cases of MGF. 
 
 "At a time when vigilanism and xenophobia are high, the likelihood that particular national doctors are targeted appears to be also an additional risk," Haynes told CNN. "It makes me feel uncomfortable that the first prosecution seems to focus on a particular community of people." 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 Haynes does not like when "my human rights problems are being used for a bigger agenda," she said. 
 
 The leaders of the Dawoodi Bohra mosque in Michigan, one of the many hubs of the sect in the United States, said in a statement that they offered to help the investigators. 
 
 "Any violation of American law is contrary to the instructions of members of our community," they said. "It is an important rule of Dawoodi Bohras that we respect the laws of the earth, wherever we live, and this is precisely what we have been doing for several generations in America. obligations." 
 
 
 
 
 This case has attracted attention from the defendants. 
 
 
 
 Survivors of FGM across the country, who share a common history: they were cut off at a young age and said not to talk about it. 
 
 In 1947, Renee Bergstrom was 3 years old, lived with his integral Christian family and integrated in rural Minnesota. When her mother saw her toddler touching herself, she was worried. 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 Now, Bergstrom is associated with another survivor in Minnesota, a Somali woman, to educate the large Somali community in the region. They give pamphlets to pregnant mothers who survived Procedure so that they can help their doctors understand the delivery options. 
 
 While she works to help immigrants from a country where FGM Is almost universal and where Islam is the law, Bergstrom said that it is concerned about the fact That Muslims be targeted in the United States about the practice. 
 
 "This was done (for me) in white America by a fundamentalist Christian doctor who practiced his religion with a scalpel," she said. "I am disturbed by anti-Muslim sentiment throughout the United States, and I did not want this to be another form of discrimination against Muslims." 
 
 
 "Form of complicated violence" 
 
 
 The father of a girl in the federal case told the investigators: "S Knew what would come, it never would have happened, "the documents show. 
 
 None of the parents in this case faces charges - and it is possible that they will never do so. 
 
 
  
 
  
 "I Honestly a great childhood, so it's very difficult for me to talk about that, "she said." I feel that people paint me as an image of a victim, and I hate that. Yes, it was a violent thing that was done to me, but it is also a form of violence as complicated. "
 
 Taher, whose mother and grandmother also suffered a cut, lives in Massachusetts and co-founded Sahiyo, an organization that is working to end the practice in the community of Dawoodi Bohra. It helps women tell their stories - be cut off, decide not to cut, claim to have been cut to fit social media. 
 
 Years later, she may have understood the most personal achievement of her work: she convinced her mother to oppose FGM. 
 
 "We have had ongoing conversations," said Taher. "I have never blamed it."