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'My daddy cut my private part'
01/11/2006 22:08 - (SA)
Lawrenceville - A jury found an Ethiopian immigrant guilty on Wednesday of the genital mutilation of his two-year-old daughter in what was believed to be the first criminal case in the United States involving the ancient African tradition.
Khalid Adem, 30, was convicted of aggravated battery and cruelty to children. He could get up to 40 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Adem used scissors to remove his daughter's clitoris in his family's Atlanta-area flat in 2001.
The child's mother, Fortunate Adem, said she did not discover it until more than a year later.
During her father's trial, the girl, now seven, testified on videotape while clutching a teddy bear that her father had "cut me on my private part."
He denied it
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 Fortunate Adem, passed an anti-mutilation law last year, but Adem was not tried under that law since it did not exist when his daughter's ordeal allegedly happened.
During the trial, Adem testified he never circumcised his daughter nor asked anyone else to do so.
He said he grew up in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and considered the practice more prevalent in rural areas.
The Adems divorced three years ago, and attorney Mark Hill suggested that the couple's daughter was coached to testify against her father by her mother, who has full custody of the girl.
Adem, who cried throughout the trial and during his testimony, was asked what he thought of someone who believed in the practice.
He replied: "The word I can say is 'mind in the gutter'. He is a moron."
The US department of health and human services, using figures from the 1990 census, has estimated that 168 000 girls and women in the US had undergone the procedure or were at risk of being subjected to it.
The state department estimated that, since 2000, up to 130 million women worldwide had undergone circumcision.
Knives, razors or even sharp stones were usually used, according to a 2001 department report.
The tools often were not sterilised, and many girls were circumcised at one ceremony, leading to infection.
The report estimated that 73% of women in Ethiopia had undergone the procedure, based on a 1997 survey.
The practice crosses ethnic and cultural lines and is not tied to a particular religion.
Activists say the practice is intended to deny women sexual pleasure.
In its most extreme form, the clitoris and parts of the labia are removed and the labia that remain are stitched together.
- AP
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