A female individual has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of facilitating the female genital mutilation (FGM) of a three-year-old British girl while on a trip to Kenya.
A woman named Amina Noor, aged 40, was found guilty last year for aiding a Kenyan woman in undergoing a procedure outside the country in 2006. This was the first conviction under the Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2003 for assisting in such harmful acts.
On Friday, Mr Justice Bryan sentenced Noor to seven years at the Old Bailey and characterized the crime as “truly horrific and abhorrent”.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the removal of part or all of the external female genitalia and is recognized as a violation of women’s and girls’ rights. Despite a 2012 UN resolution to prohibit FGM, it remains prevalent in approximately 30 countries.
In 2006, at the age of 22, Noor journeyed from Harrow in north-west London to Kenya with a young child who was later brought to a private residence and underwent FGM.
Several years later, the crime was exposed when the girl, who was 16 at the time, confided in her English teacher. On Friday, the judge expressed his hope that her courage would inspire others to come forward and report similar incidents. The victim, now 21, cannot be named for legal purposes.
In 2019, the only other instance of a successful conviction under the 2003 act occurred when a woman from Uganda living in Walthamstow, east London, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for performing female genital mutilation on a three-year-old girl.
During the court proceedings, the defendant claimed that she believed the procedure was simply an injection and that the girl appeared content and active after. However, a medical examination in 2019 revealed that the girl’s clitoris had been surgically removed.
Based on an initial report, Noor recounted accompanying another woman to a “clinic” where the girl was taken into a room for a procedure. The accused stated that she was invited to join but declined due to feeling “scared and concerned”. Afterward, the girl cried throughout the night and expressed discomfort, as per the report.
The jury was informed that the accused was born in Somalia and relocated to Kenya at the age of eight due to the civil war in Somalia. Upon turning 16, she immigrated to the UK and eventually became a British citizen.
During her trial, Noor testified that she was coerced into participating in FGM by the threat of being ostracized and cursed by her community. However, during a subsequent police interview, Noor denied being threatened prior to the harm of the girl.
Faty Kane, a girls’ rights senior adviser at ActionAid UK, welcomed Friday’s sentencing. “It’s distressing to hear of any young girl going through this act of violence, let alone a three-year-old girl.
Kane stated that in the communities we operate in, such as Kenya, we have witnessed the detrimental physical, emotional, and social effects that FGM/C can have on females for the duration of their lives. We can only hope that the ruling today not only brings justice for the victim but also aids in her ability to manage the trauma and suffering it has inflicted upon her.
Source: theguardian.com
