There's a right way and a wrong way to do everything.

The right way

From a London Assembly press release:

Recommendations include:

• The Mayor must take a visible lead in tackling FGM. The delivery of the Police and Crime Plan must demonstrate this commitment and drive a multi-agency response to FGM.

• A pan-London campaign to raise awareness of the real dangers of FGM, signposting women and girls to the support they require.

• Communities affected by FGM should be engaged to raise awareness, strengthen community-based prevention work and provide training for professionals.

• The Mayor must support the provision of bespoke training for London’s frontline practitioners.

• Support should be given to the police, health, social care and education services, voluntary organisations and communities.

The wrong way

From Sky News:

Mandatory checks are already law in France, which has had far greater success prosecuting FGM cases. Although it has been illegal in the UK since 1987, there have been no successful prosecutions.

Ms Parker said: "All these measures to combat this despicable crime are already law in France, a country that has a far, far better record than us on FGM. Not only have they proven effective both in protecting girls in France from FGM, they also help provide essential evidence to mount prosecutions where FGM has taken place. It is time the United Kingdom caught up."

MPs attack failure to stop FGM as 'a scandal'

From the Standard

The failure to prevent female genital mutilation in Britain will be condemned by MPs tomorrow as a “national scandal” that has led to thousands of girls suffering barbaric child abuse.

In a hard-hitting report, the Commons home affairs committee will criticise ministers, police, doctors, teachers and other public officials for allowing cutting, and further forms of illegal mutilation, to be inflicted on young victims.

Sorry, but how the hell is this the job of teachers? What are they supposed to be doing? Checking the state of genitals in between geography and German? Are doctors supposed to be inspecting all the kids of Somali or Egyptian origin, or can we assume that they'll then be a racist outrage and every Kirsty, Bethan and Nisha will also be due an inspection? Oh no, because that would be madness, wouldn't it?

It's hard enough to deal with the normal sort of abuse where an adult abuses a child. In the case of FGM, it's not even seen as abuse by the families that carry it out. It's a cultural practice, seen as normal in some countries to the point where you're a minority if you haven't had it done.

It's a pity they couldn't include themselves, for failing to hold government to account over immigration from certain countries in large numbers, and calling anyone who questions it a racist.

Things which happen in every community

Raping young girls

A Muslim community leader has said there is a "problem" of British Pakistani men thinking "white girls are worthless and can be abused". And the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) said it was "investigating why there may be a majority of Asians in these particular kinds of offence".

But police said grooming was "not a racial issue" and MP Keith Vaz also said "no particular race or religion" tended to be involved.

Sex-selective abortions

Dr Tony Falconer, president of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said: "Anecdotally, there are social and cultural reasons for preferring one gender over another and we need to know more about why these occur. The issues are complex. For instance, women may be coerced or threatened with violence into having an abortion. The priority would be to identify who these women are and to provide them with support."

Forced marriages (1)

The charity said it wanted to help overcome "the mistaken assumption that the problem is a cultural one"... Ms Sanghera said: "It is not a cultural problem, it is abuse. The sooner people start to regard forced marriage in the same way they do domestic violence the better it will be for those affected by it."

Forced marriages (2)

"It's uncomfortable for people to think about, but it can't remain this hidden any longer. It's not simply about Muslim families; we also found that it happens among Chinese and African communities too, such as the Somali families. Nor is it something that comes across with new immigrants."

Honour killings

Happen to white girls too, of course.

I'm still trying to track down articles from the BBC or the Guardian in which somebody says that female genital mutilation, marrying your cousin, blowing up Tube trains and postal voting fraud happens "in every community".