Georgia Judge Richard Winegard found 30-year-old Ethiopian immigrant Khalid Adem guilty of aggravated battery and cruelty to children in connection with female genital mutilation (FGM) performed on his daughter. Adem was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In what is believed to be the first FGM criminal case in the United States, prosecuters claimed that Adem removed his daughter's clitoris with scissors in their apartment in 2001. Adem testified that he had not cut his daughter's genitals, rather the act was carried out by her mother.
The United States passed a federal law banning the practice of FGM last year. Adem was not tried under the federal law, since this incident took place before that time.
Compiled from information in the Weekly Feminist Digest.
For more information on FGM and other traditional practices harmful to women, visit UNIFEM's page on these issues.