In response to ongoing abuses of women's rights in the name of fundamentalist Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her supporters established the AHA Foundation in 2007 to help protect and defend the rights of women in the West against militant Islam.

Through education, outreach and the dissemination of knowledge, the Foundation aims to combat several types of crimes against women, including female genital mutilation, forced marriages, honor violence, and honor killings.

The Foundation is opposed to the adoption of dual legal systems to adjudicate family disputes in religious families and supports the separation of all religions and the State.

The AHA Foundation works to reinforce the following basic rights: the rights of women and girls to security and control of their own bodies, the rights of women and girls to an education, the rights of women to work outside the home and to control their own income, the rights of women and girls to freedom of expression and association, and the rights of women and girls to other basic civil rights of citizens and residents defined under the laws of Western democracies and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, regardless of sexual identification.


WHAT DO WE KNOW? Click here to download facts and figures on the circumstances affecting Muslim girls and women in the United States.

Oeditor wrote:The stinking rot of cultural relativism. If other people were cutting bits off little girls, in the USA or the UK, they'd be hunted down remorselessly and thrown in to gaol where they belong.

The most often mentioned narration reports a debate between Muhammed and Um Habibah (or Um ‘Atiyyah). This woman, known as an exciser of female slaves, was one of a group of women who had immigrated with Muhammed. Having seen her, Muhammad asked her if she kept practicing her profession. She answered affirmatively, adding: "unless it is forbidden, and you order me to stop doing it." Muhammed replied: "Yes, it is allowed. Come closer so I can teach you: if you cut, do not overdo it, because it brings more radiance to the face, and it is more pleasant for the husband."

Oeditor wrote:Apologists claim that female genital mutilation is a cultural rather than religious thing and an African rather than middle-Eastern culture at that.

The stinking rot of cultural relativism. If other people were cutting bits off little girls, in the USA or the UK, they'd be hunted down remorselessly and thrown in to gaol where they belong.

Oeditor wrote:Apologists claim that female genital mutilation is a cultural rather than religious thing and an African rather than middle-Eastern culture at that. This article says not, that it's a Muslim thing and much more widespread than is realised or admitted.

The traditional cultural practices of FGC predate Christianity and Islam. A Greek papyrus from 163 B.C. mentions girls in Egypt undergoing circumcision and it is widely accepted to have originated in Egypt and the Nile valley at the time of the Pharaohs.

katja z wrote:I don't know how a practice being "cultural" rather than "religious" is any grounds for excusing it though.

Oeditor wrote:

katja z wrote:I don't know how a practice being "cultural" rather than "religious" is any grounds for excusing it though.

Not my excuse, the apologists' and not so much an excuse as a diversion.

It's evidently more complicated (what isn't?) than I realised but the article I cited said that a lot of Muslims think that it's a practice required by Islam. That it turns out to have originated with pagans should cause Muslims to ban it instantly. Which would be a good thing done for the wrong reasons.