Wrongly accused of genital cutting, a Muslim mom won't accept 'case closed'

Source: Washington Post

Wrongly accused of genital cutting, a Muslim mom won’t accept ‘case closed’

The family calls the incident on an island off the coast of Washington state an example of the long reach of Islamophobia

By Hannah Allam
February 6, 2022 at 5:58 p.m. EST

SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. — On the afternoon of July 28, the Homeland Security Investigations tip line received a call about a sensitive matter on an island off the coast of Washington state: “the suspected female genital mutilation of an infant by her Turkish mother.”

A babysitter on San Juan Island had seen what she considered an “abnormality” while changing the girl’s diaper, according to law enforcement reports. The sitter enlisted a friend to also inspect the child’s vagina, without the parents’ knowledge or consent. That friend then called the tip line, allegedly telling authorities she was acting on the sitter’s behalf.

The women, according to reports from the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Homeland Security, worried that the girl had undergone female genital mutilation, or FGM, an ancient ritual defined by the United Nations as the removal of external female genitalia for nonmedical reasons. FGM is a federal crime, and women’s advocates across the globe are campaigning to end the practice, which causes trauma and health complications.

When a detective asked the women in separate interviews why they suspected FGM rather than a natural or medical condition for any perceived difference, they each invoked the mother’s background as a Turkish American Muslim, according to the sheriff’s report.

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Read more: https://wapo.st/3oyeTeX

Original WaPo link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/06/genital-mutilation-muslim-wrongly-accused/