Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the ritual removal of some or all of
the external female genitalia. Typically conducted by a traditional
circumciser using a razor blade or knife (with or without anaesthesia),
FGM is concentrated in 27 African countries, Yemen and Iraqi Kurdistan,
and is also found elsewhere in Asia, the Middle East and among diaspora
communities around the world. The procedures take place from within days
of birth to puberty, and include removal of the clitoral glans, removal
of the inner labia and, in the most severe form, removal of the inner
and outer labia and closure of the vulva. In this last procedure, a
small hole is left for the passage of urine and menstrual blood, and the
vagina is opened for intercourse and childbirth. Health effects can
include infections, cysts, childbirth complications and fatal bleeding.
Over 130 million women and girls have undergone FGM in the 29 countries
in which it is concentrated. Rooted in gender inequality, ideas about
female purity and attempts to control women's sexuality, the practice is
usually initiated and carried out by women, who fear that failing to
have their daughters and granddaughters cut will expose the girls to
social exclusion.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1851:
The largest bushfire in a populous region in Australian history
swept across Victoria, resulting in approximately 5 million hectares
burnt.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Thursday_(1851)>
1922:
Britain, France, Japan, Italy and the United States signed the
Washington Naval Treaty to avoid a naval arms race.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Naval_Treaty>
1952:
Elizabeth II ascended to the thrones of the United Kingdom,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand and three other Commonwealth countries
upon the death of her father, George VI.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_VI>
1976:
In testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, Lockheed
president Carl Kotchian admitted that the company had paid out
approximately US$3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime
Minister Kakuei Tanaka.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_bribery_scandals>
2000:
Second Chechen War: Russia captured Grozny, the capital of
Chechnya, forcing the separatist Chechen government into exile.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1999%E2%80%932000)>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
galactagogue:
A substance that induces lactation.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/galactagogue>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We should ask, critically and with appeal to the numbers,
whether the best site for a growing advancing industrial society is
Earth, the Moon, Mars, some other planet, or somewhere else entirely.
Surprisingly, the answer will be inescapable — the best site is
"somewhere else entirely."
--Gerard K. O'Neill
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerard_K._O%27Neill>