LEADING figures across Greater Manchester are making a stand against female genital mutilation (FGM).
The region-wide pledge against the practice, which has been signed by leaders of Bolton and Bury councils, was launched at Bury Town Hall yesterday.
The scheme was developed by the Greater Manchester Female Genital Mutilation Forum and is aimed at raising awareness and reducing incidents of FGM in Greater Manchester.
The police, health services and all 10 councils in the area have pledged to educate and support those who work with vulnerable children and make them more aware of how they can support victims.
It is estimated that 74,000 women across the UK have undergone FGM, while about 33,000 girls under 16 are at risk of undergoing the procedure.
Greater Manchester police and crime commissioner Tony Lloyd said: “This is a way of saying to women in our society that they don’t have to accept the practice of FGM — the police are there to help them.
“It’s shocking to think that, across Greater Manchester, we are one of the areas in the country with the highest levels of risk, so we have got to take action against this.”
Cllr Mike Connolly, leader of Bury Council, said: “Female genital mutilation is very much a Greater Manchester issue.
It’s happening right on our door step and we all have a role to play in safeguarding victims from this harmful and illegal practice.”
FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genital organs for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.
The practice is particularly common in some Muslim African, Muslim and Middle Eastern communities, but has become increasingly prevalent across the UK.
It is medically unnecessary, extremely painful and has serious health consequences, both at the time when the mutilation is carried out and in later life.
Those found to have practised FGM face a prison sentence of between nine and 14 years, according to Det Insp Jeremy Pidd, the FGM lead for Greater Manchester Police.
He said: “FGM is a harrowing act — such are the cultural pressures to carry it out, that often neither the child nor the adult can say no.
“We understand and appreciate that, and that is why ultimately is why we have to educate more communities about the practice.”
It's ok for the police to say that girls don't have to suffer FGM, but that is easier said than done. Some of these girls are woken up during the night by their Mothers and they are then forced to go through FGM kicking and screaming in the middle of the night, other girls are taken out of the country to have this done, and they have no idea what is about to happen to them, while some girls are taken to the Mosques to have it done.
So really these poor girls can only complain to the police after they have gone through FGM and not before. The only way it can be stopped in the UK is to remove every girl who has not had it done from their family's, and that is not going to happen.
For anyone not aware of what FGM is, it is Female Genital Mutilation, girls as young as four years old up to 16 years old, are made to lie down with legs parted, while either the girls Mother or the iman takes hold of a razor blade and a knife, most of the time the knife is blunt, they then start to cut off the girls clitoris, can you imagine the pain these girls are going through, thousands of girls in the UK are having this done them, and there is nothing they can do about it. Muslims are the most cruel bastards on earth.
The most frightening thing is yet to come. Within the next 15/20 yrs the Muslims will have taken over the UK, the White indigenous people of England are now the minority in their own land, so what the Muslims do take over, then Sharia law will be put in to place, and every none Muslim White girl will also have to suffer FGM as well as hangings, beheadings and people being stoned to death. All this is coming to the UK. The British National Party tried to warn the people about all this, but no one would listen, and now it's almost to late.