(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
[circumcision] This summer's big news that as many as 185 Norse-Malay girls should have been circumcised on holiday in their home country has fallen like a bomb in the Somali environment in Norway. NRK Day Review showed 22. June a shocking report from Hargeisa, Somalia. They interviewed women who practice circumcision there, who said they have mutilated 185 Norwegian girls' young girls. Head of the Somali Group in Minority Languages Resource Network (MIR) at Linderud, Nima Diriye Abdi, says that the news has caught fire in dry grass and that there has been a heated discussion among Somalis. But according to Nima Abdi, few believe that the news is true to reality.
- But what interest can the women who perform circumcision in Hargeisa have from lying to NRK's Dagsrevyen?
- I do not know for sure, but the circumcisers may think that they will get more customers from Norway in this way. It may also be that they try to normalize what they do, by saying that Somalis come all the way from Norway to get this done on their daughters, she says.
- Do you not think circumcision takes place at all among Norwegian-Somali families?
- It may be that some uninformed people who come from the rural areas of Somalia may have done this, but I do not think there are very many, Nima D. Abdi answers.
Poor information
- During my eleven years in Norway, I have never met a Somali who has said that they have done this with their daughters. Nor have any of the women I have contact with through MIR been aware of the alleged practice, says Nima Diriye Abdi, and adds that she also does not know any Somalis in Norway who think it is good with circumcision.
- The tradition is common in several African countries, but in Norway the Somalis are constantly highlighted, as if we were the only ones who practiced this practice. I wonder how many Norwegians know that this is also very common in Ethiopia, she says.
Abdi himself was circumcised as a seven-year-old and knows what it entails of pain and complications. Today she is against the practice and wants it to be punishable, but at the same time it is important to provide better information. She herself knew nothing about circumcision in relation to Norwegian law before attending a Somali women's group at Tøyen some years ago.
- If it is true that some Norwegian-Somali girls have really been circumcised in Somalia, I do not think the parents should be punished now. In addition, there has been far too little information about the Norwegian law ban among Somalis. In addition, it becomes difficult to help the young girls, when one threatens to imprison the parents, she explains, and adds that she thinks punishment should come after an information system that works.
- New to me
When asked about circumcision as a topic that has been highlighted at MIR's collections, she answers:
- MIR is first and foremost an offer for children and young people and I do not think we should scare them, but rather inform the parents if there is a real need for it.
- But how can you know about the need if you do not talk to the young people yourself?
- We can not just start talking to them without parental approval. Parents can become very angry and upset if we interfere in family life without first involving them. If we decide to have circumcision as a theme, we will hire resources from outside, and then invite the parents to a meeting about this, says Nima D. Abdi.
Nor does a board member of MIR at Linderud, Naser Joseph Ibrahim, believe that the information from the circumcisions in Hargeisa can match reality. He has never heard of anyone sending their daughters to Somalia to be circumcised.
- This is completely new to me, and besides, everyone I know is against circumcision. I myself am also one hundred percent against. Circumcision of girls is a bad tradition that has nothing to do with the Koran, says Naser Joseph Ibrahim.
