Archive for January, 2015

Non-therapeutic circumcision of male children ‘significantly harms’ them, the nation’s top family judge has ruled in a landmark case. However, the practice is a far cry from the ‘great evil’ of female genital mutilation (FGM) and is ‘tolerated’ by the law on cultural and religious grounds. Sir James Munby, the President of the Family Division, said that the case was the first in which issues relating to FGM had been raised in care proceedings. He was giving his judgment on the case of a three-year-old girl who social workers suspected had been subjected to FGM by her Muslim parents. Leeds City Council had taken the girl into foster care after her mother ‘seemingly abandoned’ her in the street. Exonerating the parents, Sir James said that a single genital scar did not prove that the girl had been subjected to FGM and ... Read more