Clitoral Iraq

The reprehensible practice of genital mutilation is "coming back" in rural Iraq. It's hard to say if this is due to the lack of central authority, or, and I think this is actually more likely, genital mutilation hasn't come back, but was hushed up under Saddam. At the very least, there couldn't possibly have been a study of the practice under the former dictatorship, so we may never know.

At any rate, this would be a great time for feminist and human rights organizations to send information and people to Iraq to argue strongly against genital mutilation, as well as to argue that the practice should be outlawed in the nascent state. Eventually, Iraqis will give it up. The article notes however, and this is incredibly the case everywhere on earth that genital mutilation is practiced: "The biggest obstacle remaining is the older generation of women."

I tell you, Freud could have had a field day with mothers trying to steal away their adolescent daughters' sexuality.