FRANCE-CULTURE: Excision, Polygamy Among Immigrants Ruffle Society
PARIS, Dic 21 (IPS) - Traditions that immigrants from Africa bring with them to France, like the wearing of Muslim veils or the practices of polygamy and excision challenge some of this society's deepest convictions and have naturally sparked heated debate here.
The response here includes government programmes aimed at integration and health education to warn of the dangers of "female circumcision", but also legal action against imported but incompatible practices.
Critics charge that France is imposing values by forbidding Muslim girls to wear head scarves in school or denying family subsidies to second wives, while at the same time providing for payments to ex-wives and mistresses of Frenchmen.
They also say French officials could combat excision (removal of the clitoris) more effectively if, like the British, they concentrated on health education rather than litigation.
But proponents of French values, especially of women's rights, say legal sanctions are an essential tool in fighting what they see as three prominent examples of the oppression of women.
In the case of excision, severe penalties are the least France can do to save young girls from the suffering of genital mutilation, they contend.
Linda Weil-Curiel, attorney and women's rights advocate, said proposed legislation to intensify penalties for sexual mutilation, including excision, failed in the national assembly for lack of official support.
Weil-Curiel, who has represented the victims in many trials for excision, said the courts have in the past imposed a "dysfunction of justice" -- a suspended sentence rather than the 20 years in prison the new law would have required.
Health information alone will not end the practice as long as the punishment is slight and parents believe their daughters must undergo it to be acceptable to their society, she said.
She asked why there is no campaign against excision, which threatens 100 million women in many countries, like that to end apartheid in South Africa.
An official at the French ministry of social affairs said the government did not support proposed legislative changes because it considers the legal condemnation sufficient."All mutilation, including self-mutilation, is forbidden," she said.
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