Imam Baba Leigh: "FGM is not a private issue. It is a throughout the world issue"

A prominent Muslim activist and cleric, who was thrown into prison in his property country of The Gambia for speaking out against the government, has come out in help of the Guardian-backed campaign to highlight the plight of females and women in the US who are forced to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM).

Imam Baba Leigh advised the Guardian that he supports a campaign by Jaha Dukureh, a 24-yr-old survivor of FGM, to petition the US government to produce a extensive plan to finish FGM and provide companies to folks who have already been subjected to the practice.

“We all want to support her for the straightforward reality that she is a top witness,” said Leigh, adding that even though he can campaign against it, Dukureh skilled the practice first-hand and is aware of far better than most how it affects people.

Leigh, who now lives in Maryland soon after fleeing The Gambia following his release from prison final yr, stated: “FGM is not a individual issue. It is a throughout the world issue.”

The first stage of Dukureh’s national campaign against FGM is a petition to get the Obama administration to commission a report that would update statistics on the prevalence of women subjected to FGM in the US, which had collected far more than 62,200 signatures by Tuesday afternoon.

While some people associate FGM with Islam and declare the religion condones it, individuals of a number of religions engage in the practice, and it is not supported in the Qur’an. “The bodily harm that it leads to to a younger, innocent woman, cannot be supported by Islam,” Leigh mentioned.

Leigh’s human rights advocacy has manufactured him a government target in The Gambia. He was arrested in December 2012 and held for a lot more than 5 months after publicly condemning the execution of 9 prisoners by the Gambian government. Prior to his arrest, the government threatened Leigh for his criticism of the president and advocacy function on problems such as FGM.

“The practice is cultural, it’s classic, it’s deeply rooted culture but it’s not religious,” Leigh explained. This traditional practice is responsible for the death of his older sister, at the age of 29, an additional key cause he does not assistance FGM.

The Guardian along with Congressman Joe Crowley, UN secretary standard Ban Ki Moon and a lot more than 50,000 folks are backing Dukureh’s campaign to get the US government to commission a report on FGM in the US.

Leigh believes the practice will finish at some point. “I consider it is a matter of time that it will quit, in the sense that much more men and women are sensitized now and folks are much more educated about the side effects of it and it has been witnessed also as a violation of child’s rights,” Leigh stated. “It is a violation of women’s rights. At the finish of the day, it is a violation of human rights because girls are human beings as well.”

Imam Baba Leigh: "FGM is not a private issue. It is a throughout the world issue"

Doctors "failing to report FGM"

Doctors are nonetheless failing to report suspected cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) to the police, a senior Scotland Yard officer has warned.

Detective Superintendent Jason Ashwood, head of Scotland Yard’s FGM group, informed The Times that youthful women who are at chance of or are recovering from cutting are getting allow down simply because “pros” in the public sector are not safeguarding kids.

The latest figures recommend that as a lot of as 66,000 women in England and Wales have undergone FGM and 23,000 women under the age of 15 are “at risk”.

His calls for tougher action mark the United Nation’s yearly day of zero tolerance to FGM.

Mr Ashwood informed The Occasions: “I can hardly think of an illustration of a medical professional calling up to say, “‘I have someone (with FGM) with me in A&ampE, please can you send an officer’. That just does not take place.

“It’s clear when experts are seeing individuals who are survivors or at threat of FGM, it truly is not being referred to police.

“What we require is to get our individuals in the public sector to fulfil their safeguarding responsibilities.

“It truly is child abuse. Police are just at the end of the line of the process. You can only react to what you find, and what you are informed.”

Even so, study by a women’s rights charity suggests one in 5 police forces are neglecting to record honour-based mostly violence incidents appropriately.

The Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) explained the failure to appropriately record abuse such as FGM puts the lives of other younger women at danger, notably sisters and cousins, and stops authorities from knowing the scale of the issue.

A freedom of data request submitted to every police force in the United kingdom by the charity discovered 11 forces failed to follow official advice in reporting incidents of suspected honour-based mostly abuse.

The director of public prosecutions in the United kingdom insisted the Crown Prosecution Service is “raising its game” more than FGM.

There have been no prosecutions for FGM, regardless of it getting banned in the United kingdom because 1985.

Alison Saunders informed The Occasions: “We are actually stepping up what we are doing on FGM. This is not a problem exclusive to London.

“I want to make confident we are there to give tips to the police forces dealing with circumstances, as these are amazingly hard to prosecute.

“This network will share data so that we are raising our game persistently across the nation.”

She additional that the CPS is more and more hunting at proof secured by covert surveillance, to stay away from the require for a youngster to testify in court – often towards a family members membe

Doctors "failing to report FGM"