Another one from my blog.

The Jakarta Post reporting today on a new development in female genital mutilation in a piece entitled Police offer reward to stop female circumcision.

This offer is payed in part by the police, and part by the charitable organization Waris Dirie Foundation.

The Waris Dirie Foundation has thus made headlines twice in the past week, the first time being the presentation of the prestigious French award the Chevalier de la Legion d‘honneur to the group’s founder, Somalian model Waris Dirie, by President Sarkozy in recognition of the group’s efforts against female genital mutilation.

These stories demonstrate a big step for the humanitarian cause seeking to stamp out the religious practice which has its roots in North African tribal tradition. The movement, spearheaded by Islamic feminists such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, has found itself stopped by opponents citing the “wall of separation,” between church and state, particularly in a Europe which is continuously being overrun by North African immigrants. Though female genital mutilation (FGM), is illegal in most European Nations as well as the United States, there seems to be a deep unwillingness to prosecute due in part to the already mounting tensions between North African immigrants to Europe, and European society. FGM has been framed as a cultural practice, and a religious practice which cannot feasibly be clamped down upon by the state. (more…)