Girl Summit 2014 hosted in UK by David Cameron

Can't quite remember what she said but one woman interviewed said that the families 'did it out of love' and that prosecuting the parents would affect whole communities [or something like that]. Well, it's not my idea of love and if it tears apart communities sobeit.

https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/girl-summit-2014

Janeainsworth

Thank you very much.

Barbaric !! Poor girls.

This barbarity has been against the law in this country for 30 years, the first prosecution was only a few months ago (don't know the outcome). Our politicians only come forward to jump on the bandwagon.

They certainly can't win can they.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

I guess I will have to accept the Summit will not be getting the respect it deserved. I wonder what the response would have been had it taken place in say, South Africa and Hillary Clinton had been involved?

It was not a bandwagon, FGM and Arranged Marriage has been spoken of in Parliament and a lot of work has been going on with our politicians and I remain hopeful, they are at least trying.

Progress is being made and not before time. I heard that interview too Tegan and I felt sickened.

It's also about time that the young men spoke out and said they do not want a mutilated wife, as apparently these people think it makes young woman more 'marriageable'

It certainly is barbaric - can you imagine the furore if those practices were being done to men?

I'm glad that people in a position of influence are working very hard to highlight this heinous practice; maybe one day they will be successful.

It is barbaric, and far more of a mutilation than male circumcision, but that doesn't alter the fact Holly that male mutilation in the form of male circumcision goes on every day within the law and with barely a whisper of opposition.

I have been reading all I can about this POGS as it incenses me too and I am proud that Britain is brave enough to make a stand. I think there has been too much pandering to so called cultural considerations and too much fear of offending. These are children and we would do well to remember that. These girls and women who are speaking out are brave and potentially putting themselves and their families at risk, and the least we can do is take them seriously. I applaud the proposal of criminal charges being made against parents who fail to prevent FGM. Maybe it is prudery because female genitalia are being discussed openly, but if the cultural requirement was for say, a girl ( or a boy) to have an ear cut off, or their nostrils slit as part of a marriage ritual imagine the fuss! So what is the difference? Well done William Hague, for tackling this sensitive subject.

It's good that the UK has finally started to act on the demands to protect girls from being mutilated in this terrible way. The 'End FGM' campaign has been active for some time. You can receive email updates, join the campaign, and enter discussions on Facebook or Twitter to spread the word. Here's the campaign website:

www.endfgm.eu/en/

This is a peak time of year for girls being whisked out of the country to undergo FGM and communities can help by reporting concerns to the police. The aim is to eventually raise awareness in advance of it happening, so pupils and teachers, neighbours, friends who suspect it's about to happen can alert the authorities.

My second husband was circumcised nightowl - not for religious reasons, some medical problem when he was a baby (to do with peeing difficulties I think) but it didn't affect him in any way (not that he ever told me about).

There had been talk of school nurses examing girls that they think this may have happened to - is that still going ahead?

How many schools have nurses these days? And surely parents would have to give their permission for such an examination, which they're hardly likely to do if the child has already undergone the procedure.

No idea, I'm just repeating what was covered on BBC news item about it and wondering if they are still planning on doing that.

Of course male circumcision has to be available for medical reasons Holly and for freely consenting adult men. I just object to baby boys being circumcised before they can consent, without anaesthetic or pain relief, to satisfy pseudo religious or cultural reasons.

Sorry if this is off topic but I think once we start to examine FGM It must make us reconsider our attitudes to male circumcision. I believe there is a growing lobby against this by men in the US where the practice has been mainstream for a long time.

My husband was circumcised when he was about 8 for medical reasons. I've always felt that he has some psychological hang ups about it, but I imagine that's because he was old enough to be aware of what was happening, but didn't have the sort of family who would explain much to him.