Call the Midwife - FGM

[Littlepiglittlepig3letmeIN]

At first I thought the programe makers were doing a good job at highlighting how wrong this practice is, and yet at the last moment, they normalized it by making out it's tradition.
I felt they missed a good opportunity to get through to the right people.

The programme makers can try and dress it up however they want - trying to make out it's tradition and it's the women that facilitate it.
Women may carry it out, but
It's men who are behind it.

It's heartbreaking to think that even in this day and age, little girls are still being butchered and disfigured by these barbaric animals.

I thought they dealt with it well and appropriately for the time in which the series is set.

It's only relatively recently that fgm has been recognised as the barbaric procedure it is. Back then it wasn't understood and women's rights were still pretty non existant.

Yes, you're right.
I doubt whether the people who perform this crime watch Call the Midwife, so it wouldn't make any difference.

That poor little girl.
What animal sends a child off to be disfigured like that?

They have to stay in the right period of time

In those days, and even nowdays, women believed it was something they had to do to get a husband.

Even now some women still think that and it's been seen they are taking babies and toddlers abroad to be cut so they avoid detection

It's a barbaric tradition and I think they handled it as well as they could

I love clm but couldn't watch this episode in full. Brutal practise.

I think it has be set at the time and I think they did that though.

It made me angry the way they turned it round at the last minute and tried to make out it was 'the womens choice' and not something that was being done to them

It's sending out the wrong message.

They were presenting it as it was seen in the sixties, ie virtually unknown to the staff. The professionals were horrified but helpless.

It was well done, but horrific

The thing is it is the women's choice to some extent

The MOTHERS are the one who take their daughters to the hut. Hold them down whilst they scream and teach them after care

It's not the father. It's the mother

I fucking missed Call the midwife!

But fgm is done by women to women they see it as a proud cultural tradition which is why the mother was disgusted that the nurse even entertained the idea she wouldn't send her sister home to have it done

They were presenting the problem that the women themselves were actually perpetuating the tradition out of ignorance rather than protecting their children. Unfortunately this is an accurate portrayal of an abhorrent practice.

We are fifty years on and still this continues.

its a rubbish tv drama....not required to send out any message! why would you assume it was a vessel for relaying messages

That's probably how it was back then.
The women were brainwashed into thinking it was their choice and it's good that the programe reflected that.
However, I felt they missed a trick.

There may be some women who watch CTM that may have been influenced by the program.

There again, I suppose CTM is under no obligation to try and influence or change certain groups of people's attitudes

It's how it STILL IS!

If a child in this country is seen to have had this done, do Social Services take the child away?
They should.
But do they?

Gotta catch em first

And it's still done by women. Some women still think they won't get married if they don't have it done. That it's dirty

Until they are completely reeducated, nothing is going to change

The week before a boy with Down's syndrome was happily ensconced in an institution for life and nobody seemed that shocked that he or the poor sods in the asylum where there. I assume we all thought they were expressing the thoughts of the time????

But times have changed. Very few people with Downs syndrome are instituionalised these days, I imagagine.
However, FGM is still happening on a huge scale. Under our noses.
They seem to get away with it, because there's a grey area concerning tradtion and cultural practices.

I would like to know how many children are taken into care because of FGM.
Very little I expect. Which is shocking.

They dealt with it brilliantly I thought. Having worked on labour ward for 10 years and seen a fair few myself I found the writers addressed the issue with sensitivity and tact. I am very glad it has been highlighted and I especially loved how at the end the writers incorporated how the appauling act is generally caries out by the young girls mothers.

They are just differently. Supported living schemes.

It also is still very much COMMON PRACTICE AND STILL HAPPENS TO THIS DAY !!!

If the men didn't think uncut women were 'dirty' the mothers wouldn't have to perform it.
It's still all about the men.
Men are doing it.
Women may be the means of doing it, but at the end of the day, if it weren't for the men, there would be no need.

Education is the way to go.

Visiting DMiL and we watched it together, she had no idea about it so we had a long discussion about it and that it still goes on. It's a conversation that would never have happened without CTM. Education is never a waste.

DH has just sat through CTM with this look on his face. He knew nothing about FGM, nothing about episiotomy and nothing about postulants.

Given that I went to a convent school and had a forceps delivery and episiotomy with DS1 his ignorance is somewhat surprising. He's been googling all three unknowns for the past half hour.

There wasn't enough made of FGM being more of a regional than religious custom in the story - only mentioned briefly. I think there should be more awareness of that.