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no to FGM

Ever since reading 'Infidel' by Ayaan Hirsi Ali I have been occasionally haunted by the thought of hundreds or thousands of small girls having their genitals cut out, right here in the formerly Great Britain, by elderly women wielding razors (* FORWARD suggests 6,500 are at risk annually in the UK). Hence I have made periodic forays into the subject hoping to find out more.

I have written to the Department of Health who replied that they wished to reassure me that: the Government takes this issue seriously and has done so since 1985.. (when the first law outlawing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) was passed) and is continuing to take the issue even more seriously since passing the 2003 Act (which made it illegal to aid, abet, counsel or procure FGM abroad.) I am also amazingly told: the courts would take into account the circumstances of individual offences when sentencing and would no doubt treat FGM on an informed consenting adult as less serious than a child.

I wrote back saying how surprised I was that there were women informed and consenting to FGM and even more surprised that they were up in court as a result!

Jaqui's print

Jacqui Smith says public demand means people will be able to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months.The cards will be available for all from 2012 but she said:
"I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don't want to wait that long."

Phil Booth, national coordinator of the NO2ID campaign, said Jacqui Smith's claim that people were saying they wanted an ID card "beggared belief" and would "come back to haunt her".