http://www.washtimes.com/national/20061027-112930-3201r.htm
Ethiopian's trial focuses on female circumcision
By Doug Gross
ASSOCIATED PRESS
October 28, 2006
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- The trial of an Atlanta-area man accused of circumcising
his 2-year-old daughter with scissors is focusing attention on an ancient
African practice that experts say is slowly becoming more common in the United
States as immigrant communities grow.
Khalid Adem, a 30-year-old immigrant from Ethiopia, is charged with
aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Human rights observers said they
believe this is the first criminal case in the United States involving the
5,000-year-old practice.
Prosecutors say Mr. Adem used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in
their apartment in 2001. The child's mother said she did not discover it until
more than a year later.
"He said he wanted to preserve her virginity," Fortunate Adem, the girl's
mother, testified this week. "He said it was the will of God. I became angry in
my mind. I thought he was crazy."
Mrs. Adem said she may not have noticed the cutting sooner because the girl
regularly developed rashes -- visiting a doctor two dozen times before she was
3. A doctor testified that tissue in the area heals quickly and that the part
of her body that was cut likely would not be checked during a regular exam.
The girl, now 7, also testified, clutching a teddy bear and saying that Mr.
Adem "cut me on my private part." Mr. Adem cried loudly as his daughter left
the courtroom.
Testifying on his own behalf, Mr. Adem said he never circumcised his
daughter or asked anyone else to do so. He said he grew up in Addis Ababa, the
capital of Ethiopia, and considers the practice more prevalent in rural areas.
Mr. Adem, who removed a handkerchief from his pocket and cried at one point
during his testimony, was asked what he thought of someone who believes in the
practice. He replied: "The word I can say is 'mind in the gutter.' He is a
moron."
His attorney, Mark Hill, acknowledged that Mr. Adem's daughter had been
cut. But he implied that Mrs. Adem's family, who immigrated from South Africa
when she was 6, may have had the procedure done.
The Adems divorced in 2003, and Mr. Hill suggested that the couple's
daughter was encouraged to testify against her father by her mother, who has
full custody.
If convicted, Mr. Adem, a clerk at a suburban Atlanta gas station, could
get up to 40 years in prison.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, using figures from the
1990 census, estimated that 168,000 girls and women in the United States have
undergone the procedure or were at risk of being subjected to it.
The State Department estimated that up to 130 million women worldwide had
undergone circumcision as of 2001. Knives, razors or even sharp stones are
usually used, according to a 2001 department report. The tools often are not
sterilized, and often many girls are circumcised at the same ceremony, leading
to infection.
It is unknown how many girls have died from the procedure, either during
the cutting or from infections, or years later in childbirth.
Nightmares, depression, shock and feelings of betrayal are common
psychological side effects, according to the federal report.
The report estimated that 73 percent of women in Ethiopia had undergone the
procedure, based on a 1997 survey.
Taina Bien-Aime, executive director of Equality Now, an international human
rights group, said female circumcision is most widely practiced in a 28-country
swath of Africa. She said more than 90 percent of women in Ethiopia are
believed to have been subjected to the practice, and more in places like Egypt
and Somalia.
"It is a preparation for marriage," Miss Bien-Aime said. "If the girl is
not circumcised, her chances of being married are very slim."
The practice crosses ethnic and cultural lines and is not tied to a
particular religion. Activists say the practice is intended to deny women
sexual pleasure. In its most extreme form, the clitoris and parts of the labia
are removed and the labia that remain are stitched together.
"I had maybe read about it in Reader's Digest or some other journal, but
not really considered it a possibility here," said Dr. Rose Badaruddin, the
pediatrician for the Adems' daughter.
Many refugees from Ethiopia and Somalia come to Georgia through a federal
refugee-resettlement program.
"With immigration, the immigrants travel with their traditions," Miss
Bien-Aime said. "Female genital mutilation is not an exception."
Federal law specifically bans the practice, but many states do not have a
law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of Mrs. Adem, passed an
anti-mutilation law last year. Khalid Adem is not being tried under that law,
since it did not exist when his daughter's cutting reputedly was done.
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