Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

378 Dorchen A. Leidholdt
FGM is rooted in the patriarchal belief that female sexuality is dangerous to
the stability of families and communities and that women’s genitalia is unclean;
it goes hand-in-hand with the kinds of subjugation of women that breeds severe
and pervasive domestic violence. In counties in which FGM is systematically
practiced, girls and women who have not been cut are considered dirty and
unchaste and are not marriageable. In countries — like Guinea, Mali, and the
Sudan — FGM is demanded not only by families but also by communities and
is often performed while the girl is a baby or toddler. Mothers and other family
members reluctant to have their daughters cut may face enormous community
pressure to accede to the practice, and they must vigilantly guard their daughters
so that they are not spirited away and cut. The severity of FGM varies among
tribes and countries. The most common form of FGM is excision or clitoridectomy,
which involves the removal of the clitoris, and some or all of the labia minora.
The most radical form is full infibulation, in which all of the external genitalia
are excised and most of the vagina is sewn shut. The effects of FGM on adult
women who have survived the practice range from diminished or extinguished
sexual pleasure to excruciating pain and injury during urination, menstruation,
sexual intercourse, and childbirth. Because the procedure is usually performed by
nonmedical personnel, often elderly women who are professional circumcisers,
under unhygienic conditions, many girls subjected to FGM are infected by the
cutting and a number die from infections or unchecked loss of blood. 23
Although FGM is illegal in several of the countries in which it is
systematically practiced, few governments have the resources and political will
to investigate and prosecute crimes of FGM. Indeed, in most such countries,
perpetrators operate freely with impunity. Immigrants, primarily from Africa,
have continued the practice in the Western countries into which they have
immigrated. 24 In the United States evidence has surfaced that FGM has been
practiced in some immigrant communities of major cities, including Atlanta,
Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York, and many states, including New York, 25
have passed legislation specifically criminalizing the practice of FGM. On a
federal level, FGM has been criminalized as a violation of human rights. 26
Lawyers representing immigrant FGM victims have often found that,
remembering their own suffering, they oppose having their daughters cut but
encounter overwhelming pressure from husbands and extended family members
to acquiesce to the ritual. Some daughters are sent to the home country for
vacations and then cut while they are there. 27
Lawyers representing victims of domestic violence from countries or cultural
traditions in which FGM is systematically practiced should warn their clients