USA (und Rest der Welt): Genitalverstümmelung bei Jungen immer stärker in der Kritik

Aus den USA wurde gestern folgendes gemeldet:

Genital integrity activists from across the country are demanding that lawmakers ban the practice of circumcising boys. Popularly known as “intactivists”, these children’s rights advocates submitted the Male Genital Mutilation (MGM) Bill proposal to more than 1,800 legislators this week in an effort to require gender neutrality in federal and state laws that regulate genital cutting.

(...) Ending male circumcision is a goal shared by many women, as well. Shelley Wright-Estevam is a mother and business owner who serves as the group’s state office director in Selbyville, Delaware. “You shouldn’t have to be born female to be protected from genital cutting,” said Wright-Estevam, who has frequently been spotted spreading her message of intactivism on the boardwalk in nearby Rehoboth Beach. “I have heard some people argue that parents should be the ones to make that decision, but violence against a child is not a private matter. Circumcision is not just unnecessary; it also removes a male’s most sensitive body part. It's unethical, painful, harmful, and occasionally even fatal.”

Der Artikel, der darüber berichtet, liefert auch einen hervorragenden Überblick darüber, wie der Kampf gegen männliche Genitalverstümmelung letztes Jahr international an Fahrt gewann:

Male circumcision was one of the top issues for lawmakers around the world in 2012. It started in January when a Helsinki district court convicted a man of assault and battery for circumcising two Muslim boys. The following month, the Swedish Pediatric Society issued a statement calling circumcision an “assault” that should be banned. Then, in June, the Centre Party in Norway called on the Red-Green coalition government to grant boys legal protection from circumcision.

Two months later in August, the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute recommended that the state impose a general prohibition on circumcision while Denmark opened an investigation to determine if circumcision violates its health code. And in October, Finland’s largest opposition party promised to introduce a bill that would criminalize circumcision of boys.

But the biggest news came out of Germany over the summer, when a Cologne district court ruled that circumcision of male children is a crime. Although Germany’s parliament later overrode the decision by passing a new law, the German Pediatric Association called for that law to be rejected, stating that boys have “the same basic constitutional legal rights to physical integrity as girls”.

Dieser plötzliche weltweit wehende Gegenwind für die barbarische Praktik macht die sehr scharfen Reaktionen aus mehreren jüdischen Gruppen erst so richtig erklärbar. Die Rhetorik "ausgerechnet Deutschland" bzw. lediglich ein "Provinzgericht" nähmen mit seinem Widerstand eine bizarre Einzelposition inne, stimmt definitiv nicht. (Beschämend ist allerdings, wie bereitwillig viele Journalisten auf diese Rhetorik eingestiegen sind.) Selbst in den USA, wo Genitalverstümmelung bei Jungen standardmäßig durchgeführt wird, zeigen sich die Kämpfer für das Recht auf körperliche Unversehrtheit mittlerweile höchst optimistisch:

Matthew Hess, president of MGMbill.org, said lawmakers can’t hide from the issue forever. "There are too many people speaking out against circumcision now," said Hess. "What once was a trickle of condemnation has now become a tidal wave. Modern parents are armed with information on the harmful effects of foreskin amputation, and circumcised men are much more willing to speak out against what was done to them as infants. I think the days of legalized childhood circumcision in this country are numbered."

Dieser Eindruck scheint zu stimmen: Wenn selbst das Bundesforum Männer ankündigt, darüber zu diskutieren, ob man es eventuell MANNdat gleichtun und sich stärker gegen die Genitalverstümmelung von Jungen engagieren sollte, dann findet hier tatsächlich gerade ein Umbruch statt.