Last night I watched a doco on FGM in Tanzania. Apparently they have what's called 'a cutting season' which is the entire month of December. There are ongoing attempt to change the culture and the practice itself, and when young girls are told they're going to be cut, some of them run away to a Safe House until it's safe to return home in the NY. And even then, some were cut 'out of season', as it were. A statistic was mentioned that during last December there were 16 instances of FGM, and . . . get this . . . one of them was a week-old child. Another surprising fact which was revealed is that it's always the distaff of the families who insisted on the cutting, and hardly ever the staff members. In fact one father tried to protect his daughter, but was over-ruled by the girl's mother and grandmother. Also it's used as currency; a cut girl can be exchanged for more cows than an un-cut girl. Only in Africa? You can take the man out of the jungle, but you can never take the jungle out of the man,
They are not necessarily uneducated just because you don't believe in their customs. However, if so, I agree that we don't need to the the more than enough uneducated Americans.
