The Guardian: Female genital mutilation is never a ‘minor practice’
Assita Kanko, author and politician

“One month after the Economist justified some forms of female genital mutilation (FGM), I still feel horrified. … By supporting the absurd idea of a compromise between culture and law, proposing to tolerate what [the authors] call a ‘least nasty version’ of FGM, the Economist lets millions of girls down. … No compromise is desirable or justifiable because there is no such thing as ‘light FGM.’ The cultural relativism which they clearly demonstrate through their writing is unbearable. The fact that they have the intellectual or medical background to know better is as amazing as hopeless. This choice is pure cowardice, and a betrayal of medicine, science, and law. It is also a disregard for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because in their eyes, we are not born free and equal in law. I salute all those who have the courage to fight every day, despite the unfathomable selfishness of people like the supporters of this so called ‘light FGM.’ Any kind of FGM must stop…” (7/22).