Birdsong has lived in Africa. Birdsong has represented many people seeking asylum in the United States. Birdsong now teaches his immigration law students that the fear of female circumcision, often referred to as “female genital mutilation,” is a ground upon which women can obtain asylum in the United States.
Until today Birdsong did not know the number of women subjected to female gential mutilation (FGM). The Associated Press reports on August 4, 2008, that “Seventy million girls and women in 27 African and Middle Eastern nations have been circumcised. The controversial age old practice is usually performed on girls ages 4 to 14 but is done on infants in some countries. The process involves removing the clitoris and sometimes external genitalia to supposedly control sexuality, enhance fertility, improve hygiene and initiate womanhood.”
To which Birdsong responds: Holy Cow!
Seventy million is a terrible number of women to suffer from this terrible tradition.
Sadly, there are still people in the West who see female circumcision as an ‘excuse’ to gain entry to the US/UK/Australia – https://jonjayray.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/an-impossible-asylum-claim/ – and want to curtail the rights of women who have been scarred by this practice or face it.