Writer's stand against mutilation

WOMEN who immigrate to Australia from the Horn of Africa should be forced to present their daughters for annual gynaecological check-ups to ensure the girls are not being mutilated, according to the celebrated Somali writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

WOMEN who immigrate to Australia from the Horn of Africa should be forced to present their daughters for annual gynaecological check-ups to ensure the girls are not being mutilated, according to the celebrated Somali writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Ali, who was herself mutilated as a child, said the practice of genital mutilation - involving the removal of clitoris and labia - continues among immigrants from Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Egypt.

Girls are cut in backyard operations, or taken back to Africa for the procedure, which often leaves them unable to urinate, menstruate or give birth.

Ali, who has renounced her Muslim faith, also objects to the widespread Australian custom of allowing immigrants from the Horn of Africa to live together "in little colonies, in suburban ghettos that become larger".

Australia has over the past decade accepted more than 25,000 immigrants from the Horn of Africa. Ali says the immigrants should be forced to sign "a contract with your country" to abide by Australian values "and to do no harm to the country, or to individuals, especially girls".

"Somali girls, Sudanese girls, who have not been mutilated, are now in the process of being mutilated," Ali said.

"You find out in different ways that it's happening. If a girl is born in Australia, and she later presents with a problem urinating because she has been sewn up, that's an indication that it is happening here, and happening to other girls.

"I propose an annual check for girls to the age of 16. And then comes the argument about discrimination, because not all immigrants cut their girls, so you must choose to examine those immigrants who do, and people will say it's racism."

Ali, who is in Australia as part of the Sydney Writers Festival, has upset other Muslims with her attacks on the faith.

Successful Pakistani novelist and fellow festival author Mohsin Hamid yesterday said Ali's description of Islamic culture as inferior to Western culture was verging on racism.

The author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist told The Australian that Ali should be supported for highlighting the mistreatment of women in the Muslim world but not for making such accusations about Islam.

"It seems to me that she commits the error with associating those abuses with something fundamental to Islam and therefore to the 1.2 billion people around the world who practise Islam," he said.

"That kind of blunt generalisation and over-simplification is to me a crude form of racism."

Ali said Australia should examine its refugee policy to ensure new arrivals were willing to assimilate. "My advice would be, instead of taking people based only on need, to say to them, right now you are desperate and you are needy, and we choose you to settle, but we want you to sign a contract to have Australian values, and you will assimilate," she said.

"You should have a position where you have one Chinese, one Somali, one Iraqi, none of them speaking English, all together, trying to assimilate. It should not be that they all come from the same country, or the same tribe, and they are all cousins."

Ali, whose autobiography Infidel is an international bestseller, will give the keynote address at the close of the festival on Sunday.