Female genital mutilation is a life—altering barbaric practice, which has no place in America. Thank goodness a Georgia jury handed down a "guilty" verdict and a judge imposed a ten year sentence on a father who assaulted his own two year old daughter in the name of Islam. The AP speculates that this may be the first such conviction in the USA.

Khalid Adem, 30, was found guilty of aggravated battery and cruelty to children. Prosecutors said he used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in his family's Atlanta—area apartment in 2001. The child's mother, Fortunate Adem, said she did not discover it until more than a year later.

Adem, who had no criminal record, could have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. He held his face in his hands and wept loudly after the jury's verdict was read.

During her father's trial, the girl, now 7, clutched a teddy bear as she testified on videotape that her father "cut me on my private part."

Federal law specifically bans the practice of genital mutilation, but many states do not have a law addressing it. Georgia lawmakers, with the support of the girl's mother, passed an anti—mutilation law last year. But Adem was not tried under that law since it did not exist when his daughter was cut.

Every state should adopt such laws. Freedom of religion is no excuse for such acts, nor is it an excuse to deny public accommodations, such as taxi drivers refusing to transport passengers carrying alcohol. Georgia, unlike the Metropolitan Airports Commission in Minneapolis—St. Paul, has common sense. The rest of America would do well to model laws on Georgia's.

If any readers can direct me to any feminist groups protesting female genital mutilation and advocating the passage of laws against it at the state level, please email editor@americanthinker.com.

Hat tip: Jack Kemp

Thomas Lifson   11 2 06