irinnews
GOZ BEIDA, 6 January 2010 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Chad is identifying pregnant women in refugee camps who have had their genitalia cut, in order to better prepare for potential complications, according to UNHCR and its medical partners. The exercise is part of efforts in the camps to tackle the health fallout of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) as well as prevent new cutting.
Since September 2009 heath clinic workers at the Djabal camp in eastern Chad started recording how many prenatal patients had been cut; for September it was 22 among 330 women. "This helps us identify at-risk pregnancies because women with closed vaginas [resulting from FGM/C] can tear while giving birth," camp health director Nassourou Drassadou told IRIN.
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Guardian.co.uk
When I was "circumcised" I was five or six, but it happens to girls as young as four. It starts as a ceremony – the girl is bought clothes, gold earrings and bangles. She has henna put on her hands and feet: the preliminaries are regarded as a celebration where she is the centre of attention.
But later they take her and put her in a gadha, which is shaped like a deep dish. They lay her across it and hold her legs open; there are often three people holding her very tight when she's on the gadha, two holding her legs and hands, and one holding her chest and head.
The equipment is handmade: a sharp curved knife which is not sterilised. And the girl is given no anaesthetic. It is usually mostly women in attendance. They leave a little hole for urination. There are no stitches; they treat the wound with herbs, salt and water. It bleeds a lot and the victim is in great pain. I was horribly frightened and crying. The "ceremony" takes as little as 20 minutes or as long as an hour, depending on how much the girl struggles.
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The Australian
POLICE are considering laying a further 24 charges against a NSW doctor who is already facing 69 charges of aggravated sexual assault and female genital mutilation.
Graeme Stephen Reeves, 59, a former obstetrician from Bega on the NSW South Coast, was originally facing 17 charges, including aggravated sexual assault, indecent assault, female genital mutilation, and grievous bodily harm offences, after being charged by police in September 2008.
Last month Sex Crimes Squad detectives laid an additional 52 charges in relation to further allegations of sexual assault, indecent assault, and grievous bodily harm, putting his March trial date for the previous offences in doubt.
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AllAfrica. com
Kigali — Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Lesotho and Sierra Leone have numerous cases of female genital mutilation in Africa.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) sometimes called female circumcision or female genital cutting involves the cutting of the girl's genitals in order to curb their sexual desire and preserve their sexual honour before marriage.
It comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It has no health benefits and harms girls and women in many ways.
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The Independant
This is Hanna Abera. She is seven. Her mother and grandmother wanted to slice off part of her genitals. But she was saved by an extraordinarily brave intervention from her aunt after a British charity launched a programme of education on the consequences of female circumcision – which is still widely practised throughout parts of Africa and the Middle East.
No one knows how many women are subjected to the procedure but it is thought that over two million procedures are performed every year. Amnesty International estimates that over 130 million women worldwide have been affected by some form of what it calls female genital mutilation.
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Joy Online
The girl, Patricia, had practised witchcraft for five years and, practically overturned the fortunes of her family.
She was exorcised by Prophet Michael Osei of the Ebenezer Healing Church, Kasoa, after she delivered a live snake in the presence of hundreds of worshippers during an all-night service at the church's premises last month.
God revealed to the holy man that the spiritual pot belonging to Pat in her hometown, Achiase, would have to be exhumed before the witchcraft spirit allegedly given to her by a grandmother, would be totally off her.
Opposition came from the witches' camps in the area and the evil ones, according to the prophet, mounted a full spiritual and physical attack on him and his prayer warriors who went with him.
"When we reached the town, the first thing I saw was a 10-year-old-boy who was playing with his colleagues in an open space. He was walking about upside down, that is, his head was on the ground, his legs high in the air with fire coming out from his backside (anus).
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cocorioko.net
Article 21 of the African Charter is on the rights and welfare of a child, protecting him/her against harmful social and cultural practices and this includes the elimination of all harmful practices affecting the welfare, dignity normal growth and development of the child.
In Africa about 140 million girls have undergone female genital mutilation (or circumcision as others would want to call it) and 2 million are subjected to it every year. Several basic human rights are violated by the procedure. These primarily include the right of physical integrity, the right to freedom from violence and discrimination and in most severe cases, the right to life.
FGM is an irreversible operation that removes part or all of a girl's external genital organs. It's performed on women but mostly done on girls between the ages of 4 and 12. The practice is performed in various ways which include just the removal of the clitoris; removal of the clitoris and surrounding labia; infibulations –where all the external genitalia are removed and the opening is stitched so that only a small hole remains; a variety of unclassified traumatic procedures of cutting, stretching or piercing performed on the external genitalia, such as cauterization by burning of the clitoris and tissue surrounding the opening of the vagina.
In addition to the above, research done by World Health Organisation involving 30,000 African women found that 'circumcised' women were 31% more likely to have a caesarean delivery, 66% higher chances of having a baby that needed to be revived and 55% more likely to have a child who died before or after birth. In addition to the physical complications, there are psychological and sexual impacts including severe trauma, depression and/or frigidity.
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The Post
The incident took place in a district known for gold mining—Obuasi in the Ashanti Region. The "wizard" in question is a 17-year-old boy I will not name for ethical reasons even though he is named in the news report. Apparently, he was sitting on top of a tree in a forest when a James Ankrah, 37, opened fire on him with a shotgun, wounding him in both hands and his shoulders.
The only evidence of witchcraft was villager suspicion, no more.
But the facts are that the boy is still in hospital and his assailant is cooling his heels in a police cell awaiting trial for attempted murder.
I wondered: what fate awaits the teenager when he returns to his village? For sure, there will be no welcoming committee to drape a garland of flowers round his neck when he is discharged. Instead he might find a lynch mob, which is not uncommon in this part of the world.
In the same edition, The Spectator regaled readers with another bizarre report of an 11-year-old witch who was exorcised by a prophet from the Ebenezer Healing Church to a small village, also in the Ashanti Region. The prophet also exhumed a "spiritual pot" containing a snake which belonged to the girl. According to the report, she'd used the pot to impoverish the village and to cause the businesses of family members to fail.
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aljazeera.net
Dozens of villagers in the Kenyan district of Kisii are falling prey to superstitious groups accusing them of witchcraft.
The poverty-stricken western district, known as Kenya's sorcery belt, has seen an increase in mob attacks on individuals and even killings.
The poor and elderly in particular are being targeted.
Three months ago, a group of youths tortured five suspected witches before setting them on fire.
Joseph Ondiek's 65-year-old mother was one of those killed. He says says he and his family are living in constant fear and cannot even think about getting justice for their mother's killing.
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BERNAMA.COM
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 (Bernama) -- An Al-Arqam follower who is charged with murdering a couple admitted in the High Court here today that he had hit the victims with a piece of wood, crash helmet and mop handle to exorcise them.
The accused Muhammad Ilyas Abdul Razak, said he, however, had no intention of causing death to the couple as they were his uncle and aunt, and was unaware that his action during the exorcism would cause their deaths
"I had hit my uncle with a helmet and a piece of wood from a broken table. He did not protest, cry or say that he was in pain.
"I also asked my aunt to sit on the floor and hit her with a mop handle, the helmet and a detached table until she bled," Muhammad Ilyas said from the dock.
He said after the house had been cleaned of the blood spots, he ordered Muhammad Fauzi to pour hot water over the couple's motionless body to revive them.
"I had no intention of causing the death of my uncle and aunt as they were among the people closest to me and we loved each other. I only wanted to do good for them.
"Nobody, including my uncle and aunt, had restrained me and I only knew that they had died when the police came to arrest me," he said
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Philly.Com
It's often been said that one should never argue over religion.
Just such an argument led Christian Hernandez to use a sawed-off rifle to fatally shoot another man in the head in May, according to a statement he gave to Philadelphia homicide detectives.
Yesterday, Hernandez, 18, was held for trial on first-degree murder by Municipal Judge Patrick F. Dugan.
Santeria is an Afro-Caribbean religion based on the Yoruba beliefs and traditions that originated in West Africa, with Roman Catholic elements added.
Believers of Santeria, which grew out of the slave trade in Cuba, seek to build bonds with powerful spirits through the use of drums, dance, song and animal sacrifice while worshiping, according to various sources.
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The Oregonian
The Beagleys belong to the Followers of Christ, an Oregon City
church that relies solely on spiritual healing and rejects doctors and medicine. The hearing today in Clackamas County Circuit Court will preview some of the prosecution and defense arguments but won't delve into medical evidence.
Attorneys also will revisit issues that arose during the Carl and Raylene Worthington case. The Worthingtons, also Followers of Christ, were accused of manslaughter in the death of their 15-month-old daughter, Ava.
...
Both cases involve questions about the rights of parents to treat their children with faith healing and allegations that church members are targeted for prosecution because of their beliefs.
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CBS
Magalhaes told detectives the woman would enter into trances and give him commands to insert the needles, police inspector Helder Fernandes Santana said. The stepfather told police the rituals happened every few days for a full month, with him inserting several needles during each session.
The lover, Angelina Ribeiro dos Santos, paid to have the needles blessed by a woman who practiced the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomble, Santana said.
Authorities initially estimated the boy had as many as 50 needles were inside the boy. After batteries of tests were performed, doctors now believe there are closer to 30 needles inside, but they don't know for sure.
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CNN Story
"They've picketed the funerals of dozens of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming that God is punishing the United States because of its tolerance for homosexuality."
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