Female circumcision: A reality in 21st century Britain

London, Jan 3 (UNI) The barbaric act of female circumcision is destroying the lives of thousands of British-African girls in the country.

As many as 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated, a volunteer organisation funded by the Department of Health found, the Daily Mail reported.

The figure has been accepted by the Metropolitan Police.

Thousands more girls are at imminent risk as families club together to fly professional ''cutters'' from Africa to perform the crude operation for up to 40 pounds a time, often on kitchen tables or floors, without anaesthetic, using filthy, blunt knives, razor blades or scalpels.

Female genital mutilation (FGM), female circumcision, or simply ''cutting'', involves removing part or all of the clitoris, the surrounding labia (the outer part of the vagina) and sometimes the sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstrual blood.

Appallingly outdated reasons are given for the heinous crime.

Attempts are also made to justify this iniquitous practice on religious grounds.

Detective Inspector Carol Hamilton, head of special unit of Metropolitan Police, investigating the dastardly act, said, ''We are all becoming very culturally sensitive. People are a bit frightened of saying 'You can't do this here' because people shoot back with 'But it's our culture'.

''But it's not: this is just plain cruel. I won't be put off by the politically correct argument. We have to be strong on this,'' she said.

Under the 2003 Female Genital Mutilation Act, those involved could be jailed for 14 years, yet none has been prosecuted so far.

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