Ban on female mutilation dubbed neocolonial

Inconceivable and witless even by today’s standards of reality-twisting – the Journal for Medical Ethics no less has printed a 9000 word essay from global academics proclaiming that objections to female genital mutilation are misplaced. It claims that laws banning FGM are “stigmatising” towards migrant communities and global efforts to end FGM are based on “racialised stereotypes” and “western sensationalism”. Neo-colonial is bandied about; with a suggestion that girls who have been forcibly mutilated are being “objectified as victims”.  

There has been a furious response from survivors, doctors and midwives outraged that a medical journal would minimise the massively-documented harms FGM causes which they fear could set back decades of progress.

More than 230 million girls and women around the world have had their genitalia mutilated, mostly in Africa, but also in parts of Asia and the Middle East, usually on historic religious or cultural grounds.

It is a barbaric and misogynistic practice aimed to remove sexual pleasure from women (and presumably thereby preventing them from straying from their controlling husband) and usually performed on young girls without anaesthetic.

  The Journal of Medical Ethics, founded in 1975 is part of the British Medical Journal Group whose first issue was published on 3 October 1840.

 The 1840 chart has a Leo Sun conjunct Alphard (the water serpent brings honours and danger by poisoning) with both conjunct the South Node. The Aquarius North Node will give it a tendency towards activism. There is also a bleak, can-be-cruel Fire Grand Trine of Mars South Node trine Saturn trine Pluto in Aries giving self-confidence and a hint of self-righteousness.

 At the moment there is a Solar Arc Jupiter square Mars with Solar Arc Neptune square the Jupiter. Mars Jupiter can be opportunistic, extremist and has a tendency to glorify fighting crusades to gain social approval. Jupiter Neptune is scandal-prone, tending to impractical idealism, lacking in discrimination.

  The BMJ midpoints hint at a nerve-stretched and turbulent few months ahead. Which is the least of what they deserve.

  It may not be quite as damaging a scandal as the Lancet in 1998 publishing Andrew Wakefield’s article linking the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and autism which set off more than two decades of distorted thinking about vaccines despite his findings being exposed as bogus.

 The Lancet, 5 October 1823, like the BMJ has a Libra Sun and Mars in Leo and similarly Jupiter Neptune aspects = purports to be balanced but blows its own trumpet without stopping to double check.

 When that scandal blew up their Solar Arc Neptune was square Pluto and their SA Uranus opposing Neptune.  So some similarities.

12 thoughts on “Ban on female mutilation dubbed neocolonial”

  1. This comment may come across as racist and in that case, Marjorie, please delete it.

    We in the Western world have been hoist by our own petard. In the past few decades, we have expanded the definition of equality so broadly and in so many ways that now some argue that disagreeing with the values of a community or group is inherently racist and that if all of us are equal, then all values are inherently equal.

    So now, we in the West need to look at whether all values, including ones that we think of negatively, even evil, are equal and therefore equally legitimate, or whether there is a hierarchy of values, with some more worthy of being upheld and followed, and if so, what is the basis of that hierarchy of values and who decides that hierarchy of values.

    Many commentators on this site have said that Pluto in Aquarius is pro-women and pro-minorities. But if the minorities are anti-women, which side will Pluto-in-Aquarius favour in that mini-battle?

    • Two quotes which I tend to hang onto:
      Either John Stuart Miil or Hobbes – “in a fair and decent society there is a ring fence of freedom which extends only in so far as it does not impinge on the rights of others.”
      Joan Bakewell at the time of Salman Rushdie’s fatwa – “it is the problem when a basically tolerant society takes in intolerant elements. It does not know what to do with them.”
      Falling over backwards to be tolerant of practices which run against the grain of the general culture is asking for trouble. As is being overly precious about speaking out.
      All cultures have had their barbarous practices. We used to hang, draw and quarter people and put their heads on spikes. We stopped doing such things. Got more civilized. It’s called progress. Some of the misogynistic beliefs of tribal cultures from elsewhere and certain Muslim ones as well, would have delighted the mediaeval Vatican.
      It is not racist to speak out against mistreatment or to point out that certain other cultures have beliefs that are backwards – AND NEED TO CATCH UP.

  4. I just simply do not understand how humanity needs to take these steps back, and how does it happen in the minds?
    I saw a photo series on female mutilation back in the nineties as part of a World Press Photo exhibition. I am not squeamish, but I nearly collapsed upon sawing those pictures, actually a friend of mine had to step in and support me physically. Not long after this I read Waris Dirie´s book “Desert Rose” which discussed the subject of female mutilation in great detail, as she is a victim of this barbarity. Dirie (21. October. 1965 – Gaalkayo) has Mars-Venus in conjunction with BMJ´s Saturn. Her Venus-Mars conjunction is the focal point of her chart, the focal point of a half-grand-square activating her Chiron, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto and possibly her Moon too.

  5. In today’s world genital mutilation is regarded as human rights violation, based on my experiences and researchers, in some parts of Africa where it was practised and still practised even today, though it is not common like before, it was done for the purpose of women to stick to their partner and not cheat. Though in Astrology it doesn’t make sense as each of every human being love life is controlled by planets and house placements. It was believed that women with bigger clitoris were easily sexually stimulated and were more likely to be unfaithful in their marriage, girls used to marry at young age then. Even now in some parts of the world there are some cultures that still practice forced marriages. Some of these women who have been mutilated, the ones I know, usually have lots of children.

    I know one couple who had quadruplets and the husband ran away. I wonder what scared him. Genital mutilation should be abolished, it is no longer viable in today’s world, cost of living is too high for people to have too many children. In Astrology genitals and sex are governed by Scorpio, Pluto is the ruler of Scorpio is in Aquarius which will enhance technology, it will probably eliminate that old practice of genital mutilation.

  6. Thanks Marjorie. I was reading about this today. Beyond belief they could publish such cruel, toxic rubbish. FGM has several manifestations, some more severe than others. All forms cause problems, and girls are being taken from the UK to have it done in other countries. It is illegal here. The NHS website has a page on this. It also says:

    “There are no health benefits to FGM and it can cause serious harm, including:

    constant pain
    pain and difficulty having sex
    repeated infections, which can lead to infertility
    bleeding, cysts and abscesses
    problems peeing or holding pee in (incontinence)
    depression, flashbacks and self-harm
    problems during labour and childbirth, which can be life threatening for mother and baby
    Some girls die from blood loss or infection as a direct result of the procedure.”

    https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/female-genital-mutilation-fgm/

    The academic paper suggested to me links with the many debates about banning suttee in 19th century colonial India.

    “The self-immolation of recently bereaved wives on their husbands’ funeral pyres confronted the British in India with central questions about the obligations of the colonizer to the colonized, respect for other cultures, and questions of gender that had important implications for British women.” victorianweb.org

    It was banned in 1829. That year has a (not exact) sextile between Pluto in Aries and Uranus in Aquarius. The Nodes were in Libra/Aries, and in August Saturn in Leo trined Pluto in Aries. The Nodes had then entered Virgo/Pisces. The presence of fire signs seems obviously symbolic, and that fire/air theme will soon be repeated in society. I hope it results in the absolute no-holds-barred quashing of this insane argument to somehow ‘preserve’ FGM.

    • There is a famous quote, typically attributed to Sir Charles Napier (who had a way with words), a British military general based in India.

      When some people resonated with him about sati being tradition, he is said to have responded,
      “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs” (Napier 35)

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