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July 1998 |
Letters to the Editor
Derechos,
I am writing too express my unbelievable dismay after reading the Without Impunity newsletter from Derechos. In describing human rights your editors have included a section that includes opinions concerning female genital mutilation that are clearly divisive and not beneficial to children.
To describe female genital mutilation as something some human rights activists approve of as a traditional practice of millions of women is duplicitous and unethical.
The deception described in the phrases stating "conflicts between some civil rights - whose conception has been mostly western in nature - and cultural practices of non-western communities..." and "some (by no means all) human rights activists" is that many AFRICAN women (and even some men) have been fighting genital mutilation for years, often calling it barbaric (their own words). And surely, anyone who does not consider the butchering of a girl's body a violation is not a human rights activist.
The traditional practice by millions of women is merely slaves behaving like slaves. Mutilation was the women's indoctrination into slavery. It was torture. And one day she will be ready and willing to torture her own daughter.
Slavery works best when other slaves are put in charge of certain details. Women are powerless in most of Africa, except for enforcing mutilation. Whether it is Bondo Society women pretending to have great power and enticing girls to submit quietly, or a Somali woman holding her daughter down during a horrific infibulation, the purpose is the same.
Enslavement perpetrated by other slaves. These women are incapable of normal thought process. They have lost their sense of empathy.
To defend mutilation is to defend the indefensible. Derechos has crossed the line of civility. You have sent messages to numerous people containing pro-mutilation proselytizing. You have NOT done the right thing. You have pandered to the arrogance of an Africa that enslaves its daughters. You have made a mockery of decent Africans who struggle against the horror o fmutilation. But worst of all, you may silence people who might speak out against mutilation by telling them that it is a cultural practice that is approved of by human rights activists. You have committed a crime against humanity - against children who are destined to suffer. May you be haunted by the screams of a little girl.
Susan Sylvers
NOTE: Letter edited for brevity. This letter is a response to the following sentences from our June 1998 article "What are Human Rights", by which we stand. "Moreover, the are often conflicts between some civil rights - whose conception has been mostly western in nature - and cultural practices of non-western communities. For example, while some (by no means, all) human rights activists consider female (though usually not male) genital mutilation a violation to the right of physical integrity, it is a traditional practice of millions of women."
