A BBC debate on whether enough is being done to halt female genital mutilation has produced a heart-breaking number of comments from women who endured this brutal practice.

The Urban Feminist has picked out some of these responses, which are as difficult to read as you might expect. There were a number of idiotic, misogynistic responses along the lines of comparing FGM to male circumcision and accusations of cultural imperialism. But this is by far the most troubling one:

I am a Bristish born woman who met and married an Egyptian man many years ago. I underwent female circumcision when I converted to Islam. I have no regrets. I have not suffered as result. Performed under proper conditions as Professor Munir Falsi points out, it brings the same hygenic benefits as male circumcision and focuses intimacy between couples on psychological aspects of devetion to each other rather than erotic. The West’s stance against female circumcison smacks of cultural imperialism.

Really, it just sickens me. I suppose this woman is free to do as she wants, even if it is completely insane, but the concept that an adult decision of this kind is in any way comparable to holding down tiny girls as young as five and cutting off their clitorises, is deeply abhorant in its own special way.

Posted by Jess McCabe on 16 July 2007, at 3:14 PM