Somali Woman, Mother of 8, Remembers Her Female Circumcision At the Age of Nine Like It Was Yesterday

 Amran Mahamood, who has made a living for 15 years by circumcising young girls, sits next to a girl on February 19, 2014 in Hargeisa. — Photo by AFP

Unbelievable.

It's the 21st century.  Isn't it?

The story comes from DAWN.

Razor cuts, thorn stitches: Somali woman recalls FGM horror



HARGEYSA: Malko Jama, a recently widowed Somali mother of eight, still remembers undergoing genital mutilation three decades ago as vividly as if it were yesterday.

“I was nine. A woman came to the house. They held me down and held my legs apart and she cut me with a razor and stitched me back up with acacia thorns,” Jama, 40, explains as she sits on the concrete floor of a neighbour's house in Hargeisa. She recounts,

Now they have a more modern way for stitching girls back up but at the time they used thorns like pins.

Jama is one of countless women in the Horn of Africa region to have undergone female genital mutilation, a ritual and surgical procedure carried out without anaesthetic and designed to keep women pure.

“She cut out the clitoris and the inner labia and then she cut out the flesh from the outer labia and sewed up the skin that was left,” Jama said as her neighbour's baby slept on a blanket on the floor.

“When it was finished they took a big sheet and a cord and they bound my thighs together... so that I had to stay there with my legs together. They brought me small pieces of bread but refused to allow me water or tea. They said the body had to dry out.”

In too much pain to move and tied up, for the first four days Jama had to urinate where she was sitting.

“After seven days they removed the sheet and the cutter came to inspect me. She said I was completely closed up,” recalled Jama, who is now also a grandmother of three.

“I later realised how lucky I had been because girls considered not to have closed up completely get some more flesh cut out and they get sewn up again,” she said, her face framed in a patterned veil.

Vaginal inspection

“As I grew up my periods weren't coming properly and I had constant abdominal pain and back pain. When I used to tell my mother she would say: 'Take these tablets. It's normal. When you get married everything will be ok,'.”

Jama said she was 15 when she got married and 17 when she gave birth to her first child, even though sex did not involve full penetration — as her vagina was so tightly stitched up.

“When they took me to my husband's house the first thing my mother-in-law did was to open my legs and inspect me. My husband's family wanted to start boiling scissors and cut me open because I was his bride,” she said.

Her own family argued that another operation could harm the baby, so the two families eventually agreed she should not be opened up whilst still pregnant.

“After two months of trying to penetrate me without succeeding my husband went into a depression,” Jama said of her marriage.

She described her own lack of desire matter-of-factly: “Even in the first year of your marriage you're not really interested in sex. There is a sensation but nothing very much,” she shrugged.

Childbirth brought additional complications and entailed three cuts — the undoing of the existing stitches and a slit on either side of the vagina, again without any painkillers.

“The first child is the most painful,” Jama said, adding she chose not to have her daughters go through the same ordeal — although even 30 years on in Somaliland removal of the clitoris is still considered the norm.

Australian Muslim Father Charged With Bringing His 9 Month Old Daughter To Indonesia For Genital Circumcision

From NineMSN via The Religion of Peace.

NSW baby girl circumcised in Indonesia


An Australian father charged with organising to have his baby daughter circumcised allegedly travelled to Indonesia for the procedure.

The NSW man, who cannot be named, took his then nine-month-old girl overseas, where she was circumcised sometime between February and March of 2012, police allege.

But it wasn't until the girl's mother took her to a doctor six months later that authorities were alerted to what had allegedly happened.

Following an investigation, the father was arrested on December 31 last year by officers attached to the Sex Crimes Squad.

He was later charged with aiding, abetting or procuring female genital mutilation.

Police have previously said that it was unclear in what country the alleged procedure took place.

But papers tendered during the father's brief appearance at Manly Local Court on Tuesday state it took place in Jakarta.

The girl had her clitoral tissue removed and underwent a labial fusion, the documents state.

The man said nothing during the appearance in which his lawyer applied for a national suppression order on his identity and that of his wife and daughter.

The court heard the father recently moved to Victoria where he remains on bail.

The father is believed to be the first person to have been charged in NSW with procuring a genital procedure abroad.

However, it is the second prosecution in the state of the practice.

In 2012, eight members of a small religious order in Sydney - including a sheikh, a retired nurse and two parents - were charged over the female genital mutilation of two sisters, aged six and seven.

Their case remains before the courts.

Community Services Minister Pru Goward said earlier this month that anecdotal evidence showed the practice was "more common than the reports would suggest".

She said the crime often only came to light when the child suffered a complication from the procedure or there was a marital breakdown.

The father is due to appear at Downing Centre Local Court in March.

Political Correctness Now Even Hits the Campaign To End Muslim Female Genital Mutilation

Good grief - so now we can't call Muslims who insist on hacking and cutting off the clitoris of their little girls, "barbaric."  So what do we call it?  Icky?  Bad?  A no no?

Are there any people with any spine left in this world?

The story comes from The Clarion Project.

Amnesty Int'l: Don't Call Female Genital Mutilation "Barbaric"


Recently, I penned an article about an Amnesty International initiative: an art project for which the organization had commissioned artists and designers to address the devastating problem of female genital mutilation, or FGM – using 8,000 paper rose petals. The petals had been gathered as part of a petition action to bring attention to – and to end – the practice of FGM, and were each signed by a member of the public who participated in the petition. It was a laudable project, and I said so.

Amnesty responded with great appreciation for my story – but took exception to one detail. I had called FGM “barbaric,” and, said an Amnesty official, “we try not to use this word.” In an e-mail, she explained, “The use of the word ‘barbaric’ suggests that the people who do this are less than human, which isn’t so because they are being led by social pressure which is what needs to be fought. So we avoid using this word to not judge the people.”

Overlooking the fact that “barbaric,” which means simply “uncultured,” “uncivilized,” or “uneducated,” does not quite suggest “less than human,” I could not help but wonder about the “not to judge them” part. After all, if you set out to change a thing – a behavior, a place, a custom (and especially if you set out to end it) – haven’t you already implicitly expressed a judgment? And how is calling a custom, a practice, “barbaric,” conferring a judgment on the people who perform it?

This is the question that occurred to me soon after this exchange as I read about a similar situation in Canada, where, once again, the term “barbaric,” used to describe FGM – as well as honor killings – came under fire. According to a report in Front Page, “Jinny Sims, the immigration critic of the opposition New Democratic Party of Canada, suggested the word ‘barbaric’ might ‘stigmatize some cultures.’”

Now, perhaps it’s just me, but I can't think of many things more undemocratic than censorship of language; but that, apparently, is precisely what the Canadian “New Democratic Party” seeks.

Hearing of Ms. Sims’ remarks, I was reminded of the words of another, wiser politician: former British Home Secretary Michael Howard, who, in defense of artistic freedom, once remarked, "We are uniquely fortunate in these islands to have the English language. It is no accident that we have had and do have such a profusion of brilliant poets, playwrights, novelist and songwriters.

We must never allow the richness of that language to be diluted by bending the knee to the tyranny of political correctness.” [Emphasis added, A.E.]

What wonderful words.

Yet that is precisely what we keep finding these days: the sacrifice of language on the altar of political correctness. And it isn’t just about “barbaric.” Remember the uproar over the word “savage” to describe Palestinian suicide bombers? Officially, one is no longer to call those who commit terrorist acts in the name of Islam “Islamic terrorists,” either, though those who commit such acts in the name of Left-wing political extremism are still called “Left-wing terrorists,” and there are “Basque terrorists” and “Green terrorists” and “Right wing terrorists,” all of them named for what they are.

Only in the case of “Islamic terrorism” do we censor ourselves, pretend there is no such thing, lest anyone be offended. And so we pretend that certain customs, which happen to be prevalent in Islamic cultures (even if not exclusive to Islamic cultures) are not barbaric. Even when they are.

But okay, suppose we indulge the censors. What word would Amnesty International or the New Canadian Democrats or any of the others prefer in place of the term “barbaric”? How else would they have us describe the mothers and fathers who murder their daughters in so-called “honor killings,” or the practice of FGM, in which a woman’s (or girl’s) labia may be sliced off, or cut and repositioned to form a seal over the vagina?

If, say, a Park Avenue Protestant family carried out FGM on their daughter, that, too, after all, would be barbaric. And anyone would be right to say so. But barring the use of that word, should we use another one, like “different?” But wait – isn’t “different” somewhat alienating, as well? Does it not imply a judgment?

And so on. At this rate, the only workably acceptable term would seem to be “normal” or “okay.”

And it is not.

These are the times I worry that we stand upon a precipice, and fear for the ideas and the ideals that form the fundament of civilization and democracy. We censor words and language, as Howard says, bending our knee to the tyranny of political correctness, concerning ourselves more with the sensitivities of the perpetrators than the lives and safety of the victims.

It was another British Home Secretary, Mike O’Brien, who famously said in 1999, “multicultural sensitivity is no excuse for moral blindness.” They are words we would still do well to heed.

Female genital mutilation on the rise in the United States-report

The story comes from TrustLaw via The Religion of Peace.

Female genital mutilation on the rise in the United States-report


NEW YORK (TrustLaw) - The ancient, brutal practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), once considered primarily a problem of the developing world, is a growing threat to girls and women in the United States, according to a new report.

The United States has longstanding laws against the practice of FGM on U.S. soil and in January, passed a federal law against sending young women outside the country for so-called "vacation cutting". However, girls living in America increasingly are at risk of the procedure both at home and abroad, according to research by Sanctuary for Families.

The New York City-based non-profit organisation, which specialises in gender-based violence, said up to 200,000 girls and women in the United States are at risk of FGM and that the number is growing.

"People in the United States think that FGM only happens to people outside of the United States, but in all actuality, people here all over the country have been through FGM," said Jaha, 23, formerly from Gambia and now a survivor and advocate against FGM.

"Kids that were born in this country are taken back home every summer and undergo this procedure," she was quoted as saying in the report.

The study cited analysis of data from the 2000 census that found between 1990 and 2000 the number of girls and women in the United States at risk of the procedure - which involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia - increased by 35 percent.

SADNESS, EMPTINESS

Most prevalent in immigrant African and Middle Eastern communities, FGM generally originates in the belief by some cultures that it preserves a girl's virginity before marriage and discourages her from promiscuity after she is wed. In many communities, a girl is deemed unfit for marriage if she has not undergone FGM.

The report said FGM has been performed in the United States by health care providers who support FGM or do not want to question families' cultural practices.

Whether performed covertly on U.S. soil or in ceremonies held in ancestral homelands during school vacations, the procedure often is done by traditional practitioners using crude implements, such as razor blades and broken glass. They often operate in unsanitary conditions, far from medical facilities, without anaesthesia, antiseptics or antibiotics.

The physical and psychological effects can be devastating and even fatal. FGM can cause severe pain during sexual intercourse, haemorrhage, shock, complications in childbirth and fistula. It can also lead to depression and anxiety.

"FGM has affected me emotionally throughout my entire life. Those terrible moments stay with me and I just cannot forget them," a 53-year-old woman named Nafissatou, originally from Guinea, told researchers.

"When I went to the hospital to give birth to my children, my experience with FGM was what I remembered most. Every time I shower, I think about it. There is a sadness and emptiness I fell every day because of what FGM took from me," she said.

LACK OF PROSECUTIONS

The United Nations last December called for a global ban on FGM, but, as with laws in the United States, implementation is extremely difficult and, to date, prosecutions have been rare.

The United States has had a law against FGM since 1996 and 20 states have passed their own statutes. But, according to the report, as of 2012, there have been no prosecutions under federal law, and only one criminal case has been brought forward under a state statute.

One problem is that families in the United States, even those who oppose FGM for their daughters, often find themselves under severe pressure from their extended families to subject girls to the procedure.

Another obstacle is a lack of reporting of FGM either by victims, girls at risk or their families. Part of the reason may be due to ignorance of the law, the report found.

"However, reasons for underreporting likely also include reluctance on the part of the girl or her family to come forward, precisely because they know and fear the legal penalties for doing so," it said.

"Many girls fear that innocent family members, especially their mothers, will be considered complicit in their family’s efforts to force them to undergo FGM, or worry that if they report their relatives, they will be arrested, prosecuted, and possibly deported," it added.

The report makes a number of recommendations on ways to prevent FGM in the United States.

Key among them:

--Outreach and education to immigrant communities about the legal, physical and psychological consequences of FGM.

--Encouraging community and religious leaders to educate their communities about the harm and illegality of FGM

--Guidelines and training to assist front-line professions, such as law enforcement agents, teachers and health care workers to identify and protect girls at risk.

--Robust enforcement of laws prohibiting FGM, not only on U.S. soil but in the case of girls sent abroad for the procedure.

Shocking Facts on Female Genital Mutilation

Thank goodness for the gang over at Radical Islam who are not afraid to tell it like it is and not shun any subject.  The more light that is shown on the practices of the minions of Satan, the followers of Mohammed the better we will all be off.

Shocking Facts on Female Genital Mutilation

Last fall, Mohamed Kandeel, a physician and member of the Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research – a partner of the World Health Organization (WHO) – published an article in which he argued for the legalization of the procedure widely called “female genital mutilation” (FGM).

His reasoning? Because it is practiced by Muslim cultures throughout Africa and much of the Middle East, and the Muslim community, he noted, “is the second largest in the world.”

Kandeel’s ideas may be all wrong, but his facts are shockingly correct: The WHO estimates that between 100-140 million women and girls have undergone FGM, with millions more likely to be victimized, and the overwhelming majority of these women and girls are Muslim. (FGM does take place in non-Muslim cultures in Africa and among Coptic Christians in Egypt, but it is by no measure as widespread.)

And it isn’t just in Africa and the Middle East, but in our own neighborhoods as well: According to Emine Bozkurt, a member of the European Parliament in Brussels, “Approximately 180,000 women in Europe undergo or are in danger of undergoing FGM every year.”

In the Netherlands alone, according to a recent Dutch report, about 30,000 women have been circumcised, and another 40-50 girls are expected to undergo genital cutting each year – one a week – despite stringent laws against it.

And all of these women are Muslim, coming largely from Egypt, Somalia and Iraqi Kurdistan – a fact that even Amnesty International prefers to sweep under the rug. A spokeswoman for the organization’s “Stop FGM” project was quick to advise that “FGM is a tribal practice that pre-dates Islam. It isn’t part of Islam and it isn’t in the Koran.”

True or not (the Koran doesn’t call for women to wear hijabs or burqas, either), the Muslim community remains criminally silent about the mutilation and violation of its women and – as with Dr. Kandeel – even goes so far as to endorse it.

Moreover, notes Dr. Phyllis Chesler, a scholar on honor-related violence and the author of Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman, “What began and has remained as an African and tribal practice has been heartily adopted by Muslims and that in the world today, it is practiced by many Muslims either in or from Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, Muslim Nigeria, Sierra Leone and other African non-Muslim countries. It is also practiced in non-Arab Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population.”

Others agree. Thomas von der Osten-Sacken and Thomas Uwer, for instance, writing together in the Middle East Quarterly, have further pointed out that “at the village level, those who commit the practice believe it to be religiously mandated.”

That fact may well explain why immigrants and refugees to Europe from Africa and the Arab region – the bulk of whom come from rural areas – insist on continuing this barbarism even in the face of potential criminal charges, and why some physicians even agree to perform the surgery. (Though some mothers – and it is traditionally mothers and grandmothers who do the cutting – perform the ritual on their kitchen tables, using knives, scissors, or even glass.)

Forms of FGM vary, depending on local culture and traditions, and, in some cases, religious ideology (arguments to the contrary notwithstanding). But in all cases, the practice is not only barbaric; it is devastating to the women. “The pain and trauma of the actual genital mutilation, usually carried out by women, traumatizes a girl forever,” explains Chesler. “But it may also make urination, deflowering, childbirth painful in a torturous way. Hundreds of thousands of women develop fistulas after childbirth and are rejected by their own people because feces and urine just seep out of them. They become pariahs.”

Yet shockingly, as loudly as the West continues to condemn FGM, the Muslim communities even of Western countries remain, for the most part, silent. They do not march in defense of their own women against this practice. Female community leaders do not reach out to educate the families of girls at risk. Imams do not attempt to edify their flocks. This community, which regularly makes death threats against cartoonists for their drawings, has not a word at all to say about the unspeakably inhuman abuses against their own women.

But what these new reports also make clear is that the problem of FGM in the West is larger than most of us realized. And if the Muslim communities won’t step in to stop it, then we must; because what matters isn’t whether it is tradition or religion that began it. What matters is that it end.

Abigail R. Esman, an award-winning writer based in New York and the Netherlands, is the author, most recently, of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West

More Arrests In Female Genital Mutilation Case In New South Wales, Australia

The list of people arrested in the case of the female genital mutilation of two young girls in New South Wales, Australia continues to grow as four women have now been arrested as well.

Isn't it amazing what good things the Muslims have brought to Australia?

The story comes from The Daily Telegraph via The Religion of Peace.

Four more women arrested over female genital mutilation in NSW


FOUR more women have today been arrested and charged in relation to the female genital mutilation of two young girls in NSW.

Detectives with the State Crime Command’s Sex Crimes Squad have been continuing investigations since charging a Sydney sheik, a retired nurse and the parents of the two sisters.

Detectives with Strike Force Longfield said today that they had been working closely with NSW Health and the Department of Family and Community Services.

Earlier today two women were arrested in Sydney and two women in the Wollongong area. They were each charged with prohibition of female genital mutilation.

Police will allege the four women, aged 39, 68, 73 and 77, were each present at one or both of the procedures, also known as female circumcision, performed on the two sisters when they were aged six and seven.

The women have been granted bail to face Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday 7 November 2012.

Investigations by Strike Force Longfield are ongoing, and police continue to appeal for anyone with information about female genital mutilation to come forward.

Sheik Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri, 56, of the Dawoodi Bohra community at Auburn, and Helen Magennis, 68, a retired nurse of Campbelltown, and the children's parents were all previously charged in relation to the alleged acts on the girls.

The girls remain in the care of their parents.

U.S. Dept of Health And Human Services Hides the Connection Between Islam and Female Genital Mutilation

My jaw nearly dropped when I read this quote from the article here at Family Security Matters regarding the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM):

A “Fact Sheet” produced by the US Department of Health and Human Services contains the following passages:

Although many people believe that FGC is associated with Islam, it is not. FGC is not supported by any religion and is condemned by many religious leaders.

No religious text requires or even supports cutting female genitals. In fact, Islamic Shari'a protects children and protects their rights.

As the article goes on to say:

This information is false and had it been produced in a privately produced document it would be considered outright fraud.

Despite what the HHS claims, FGM is in fact associated with Islam, is supported in contemporary interpretation of Islamic scripture and has been endorsed by Islamic religious leaders. Shariah law manuals require and support the practice.

Muslims in America still practice FGM. At least some Muslims justify it based on religious freedom and, in at least one state in which anti-FGM legislation is currently working its way through the legislative process, one legislator reports receiving a phone call from a Muslim constituent urging her to oppose the legislation as “a conspiracy against the Muslim community.”

You know, what this publication by the HHS department reminds me of is the recent statement by the Obama State Department that the violence and slaughter by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria does NOT have anything to do with religion. That's an out and out lie to the American people.

This coordinated effort on behalf of the Obama administration to cover for the sick culture of Islam, to cover up the spread of islamic terror across this world has got to see the light of day. Mr. and Mrs. John Q. American HAVE to find out that Barack Hussein Obama's ties to Islam from his youth are endangering the people of this country.

Misinformation from U.S. Dept Of Health And Human Services About Islam And Female Genital Mutilation


Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), sometimes referred to euphemistically as Female Genital Cutting (FGC) or Female Circumcision, is one of the most barbaric practices in the world today. It is prohibited by law in the USA and many Western countries. Moreover, several US states have outlawed FGM, while legislation is pending in some others.

Not enough is known about FGM in the USA and our federal government has clouded the issue by spreading false information about the practice.

A “Fact Sheet” produced by the US Department of Health and Human Services contains the following passages:

Although many people believe that FGC is associated with Islam, it is not. FGC is not supported by any religion and is condemned by many religious leaders.

No religious text requires or even supports cutting female genitals. In fact, Islamic Shari'a protects children and protects their rights.

http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/female-genital-cutting.cfm#e

This information is false and had it been produced in a privately produced document it would be considered outright fraud.

Despite what the HHS claims, FGM is in fact associated with Islam, is supported in contemporary interpretation of Islamic scripture and has been endorsed by Islamic religious leaders. Shariah law manuals require and support the practice.

Muslims in America still practice FGM. At least some Muslims justify it based on religious freedom and, in at least one state in which anti-FGM legislation is currently working its way through the legislative process, one legislator reports receiving a phone call from a Muslim constituent urging her to oppose the legislation as “a conspiracy against the Muslim community.”

One of the most widely read Shariah law texts is Reliance of the Traveler: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law.

This book was translated into English in 1991. It has been endorsed by the President of the International Institute of Islamic Thought and the President of the Fiqh Council of North America, as well as Al Azhar Research Academy in Cairo, Egypt, the Sunni Islamic world’s foremost educational institution.

On page 59 of Reliance one finds this passage:

e4.3 Circumcision is obligatory (O: for both men and women. For men it consists of removing the prepuce from the penis, and for women, removing the prepuce (Ar. Bazr) of the clitoris (n: not the clitoris itself, as some mistakenly assert). (A: Hanbalis hold that circumcision of women is not obligatory but sunna, while Hanafis consider it a mere courtesy to the husband.)

As an explanation, there are several schools of Shariah jurisprudence, known as “fiqhs.” As the passage above explains, for some female “circumcision” is “obligatory.” For another it is considered “sunna.” For those who are not familiar with the term, sunna in the context of Shariah means a custom or norm established by practice, example, decision or tradition of the prophet Mohammed. As a source of Islamic law, the sunna of the prophet Mohammed is second in importance only to the Quran itself.

And of course, under another Shariah school of jurisprudence, female “circumcision” is seen as a “courtesy to the husband,” whatever that means…

So, despite what the US government’s Department of Health and Human Services says, Shariah texts DO require and support FGM.

But FGM’s grounding in Islam does not end there.

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the Sunni Islamic world’s foremost Shariah scholar. He is the head of the International Association of Muslim Scholars and European Council for Fatwa and Research. He is also chairman of the board of trustees of Islamic American University. Qaradawi, who has been described as the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual and ideological leader, issued a fatwa asserting that "circumcision is better for a woman's health and it enhances her conjugal relation with her husband" and that, "whoever finds it serving the interest of his daughters should do it, and I personally support this under the current circumstances in the modern world.”
The video below depicts in horrible detail this barbaric practice that Qaradawi endorses as “serving the interest of his daughters.” Note that this video is about how the barbaric practice is carried out in GREAT BRITAIN…
WARNING: GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=y0NuCMKaRpY
Sami A. Aldeeb Abu Sahlieh, a Palestinian-Swiss Shariah scholar reveals one of the origins in the practice of FGM in Islam from a Hadith (a saying, story or tradition of the life of Mohhamed):
The most often mentioned narration reports a debate between Muhammed and Um Habibah (or Um 'Atiyyah). This woman, known as an exciser of female slaves, was one of a group of women who had immigrated with Mohammed. Having seen her, Mohammed asked her if she kept practicing her profession. She answered affirmatively, adding: "unless it is forbidden, and you order me to stop doing it." Mohammed replied: "Yes, it is allowed. Come closer so I can teach you: if you cut, do not overdo it, because it brings more radiance to the face, and it is more pleasant for the husband."
Abu Sahlieh also quoted Muhammad as declaring, "Circumcision is a tradition for the men and honorable deed for the women."
To this day, FGM is practiced as a religious rite in Egypt, as explained in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsqEyGdLh8I
Not everyone in Egypt is happy with FGM, as you can imagine. It was the subject of heated debate on Egyptian television:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=rUvrHsPaTSo
With all of this evidence clearly tying the practice of Female Genital Mutilation to Islam, why has the US Department of Health and Human Services used our tax dollars to spread disinformation on the subject?
If sunlight is indeed the best antiseptic, government efforts to conceal the truth only prolong the continued implementation of this barbaric practice.