FGM: A Distinct Problem

Let me paint a picture for you: a teen-age girl from Kenya having her legs spread by an elder women. A crude operation was then performed on her genitals (I'll spare you the details), and the older girls, already initiated, danced in celebration. In the final frame, the victim sat alone weeping, her legs bound, to recover from a ritual which is performed on an estimated forty million women in Africa and the Middle East.
Opponents of the practice refer to it as ``female genital mutilation'' (or FGM) and are dedicated to eliminating it, as slavery and foot-binding were eliminated more than a century ago. An unknown but significant number of immigrants are flying ``midwives'' to the U.S. to perform FGM, which is still legal in 45 states. All too often, the results are showing up in emergency rooms, obstetric wards, and mortuaries.
Offensive as this practice may be to Americans, female circumcision is defended in many parts of the world, frequently by the women who have had...