London diary - FGM: Not a rite of passage

The UK has always been known for its defence of human rights, and now London is fast becoming the gender equality capital of the world. Following closely on Angelina Jolie’s rousing effort to focus attention on rape in war-torn areas, this week it was the Girl Summit on the dreaded female genital mutilation or FGM. This is a barbaric practice followed in some parts of Africa and West Asia, in which external female genitalia are cut off after which the girls are stitched up making sexual intercourse and even urinating a painful process. Usually done at a tender age, without anaesthesia, it has already left 125 million young women traumatised, and up to three million women are likely to be victims of FGM every year.

Despite the UK government banning this terrible tradition, it appears that FGM still carries on in the black community with families taking the girls back to Africa to perform the ghastly operation. More than 1,37,000 women and girls in England and Wales are at risk or have been affected by FGM.
While leading campaigners spoke at the summit, so did British Prime Minister David Cameron, lending an official voice to the struggle. The summit, hosted by Unicef as well as the UK government, was attended not only by government representatives, but also by grassroots campaigners as well as survivors of FGM. Even Malala Yousafzai, a feisty survivor in the larger fight for gender justice, has become a vocal supporter.

The summit could not have been more timely with reports that the newly announced ISIS will also force women to undergo FGM, along with other restrictions usually forced upon women by a regressive regime. Our very own Freida Pinto also joined the awareness raising effort, speaking at the summit. Perhaps the Indian government should also take the lead and organise a similar international event against gender violence.

The British spend a lot of their time talking about the weather, especially since it is so mercurial. This week there have been few complaints as the sun provided a warm 30 degrees, encouraging many to take “staycations” instead of vacationing overseas. So the beaches have been full of sun- baked bodies...

But not all have been satisfied with what British beaches have to offer. And so one read the curious case of a “benefits cheat”, Karen Trant, who claimed that she had “agoraphobia” (an intense fear of public spaces). She said she had severe mood swings and anxiety, could not take on a job, and latched onto state support. She had taken around £130,000 from the social security system, before suspicions were aroused. Following a search on her home, government sleuths discovered photographs of her on a Goa beach. It seems that over the years, she had used her claims to regularly fly to Goa where she had even bought a flat for around £15,000. Not only that she had also utilised state largesse for “essentials” like tummy tucks and anti-ageing treatments.

Alas, her exposure has led to a two-year prison term, and she won’t be seen around the beaches of Goa for a while.

Meanwhile, a growing British icon celebrated his first birthday. Going by the adoring comments, Prince George hasn’t lost his ability to win over even the hardest heart among the media scrum. The Royals released three new photographs of the little Prince walking as well as chasing butterflies at the Natural  History Museum for the occasion. His Royal Cuteness, as he is also known, had a quiet birthday celebration at home which included a visit from the Queen. George is now the latest fashion trendsetter as well, with everything he wears flying off the shelves even faster than the clothes his mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, wears.

We are now kept informed of the brands he wears, no doubt an astute marketing gimmick which will push up sales and the British gross domestic product growth. Perhaps never before has so much responsibility been vested in one so little: not only is he cheering us all up, he is also turning the economy around! One just hopes he retains his two main assets, those amazing chubby cheeks.

For many of us it was a very proud moment when the British government decided to put a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Westminster Square. Now, the UK government has appointed Lord Meghnad Desai, economist and Gandhi scholar, to chair the trust to raise funds for this effort. All contributions, national and international, for this historic memorial should be sent to the trust.

Kishwar Desai is an award winning author