As he continued working conscientiously through the last days of his term, former President of the United States, His Excellency Donald Trump, signed the STOP FGM Act of 2020, which strengthens measures to stop female genital mutilation in the US. The Act allows federal law enforcement to prosecute those who perform the dangerous and violent procedure, while also increasing the prison sentence from five to ten years. Government agencies are also required to report on what they are doing to end the practice in the country, where about 513,000 young individuals have been affected or are at risk.
His Excellency is a Shining World Peace Leader Award laureate, and he and the US Congress are both Shining World Leadership Award for Compassion laureates. Our gratefulness, Your Excellency Donald Trump and US Congress. In Heaven’s benevolence, may such cruel and unnecessary practices end worldwide for the protection of innocent lives.
In a 1994 lecture given in Thailand, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke about female circumcision, which is inflicted on millions of girls and women globally each year.
“You heard about circumcision of the boy. They do the same and the worst to the girl. And as I read on the newspaper, I think they don’t use any anesthetic injection. And when they do that, they make the girl suffer so much. Small girl, from six to eleven years old. Because they believe that will cut off the sexual desire of the girl and that makes them faithful to their husband, etc. Sometimes they do it on the street corner, like a kiosk selling cigarettes or something, in the corner. And they just do that, regardless of the little girl’s feeling and suffering. And then the mother stands around and sings, and that’s all there is. And this experience the girls will never forget as long as they live. They do have difficulty in labor, in giving birth to the children, as well. Sometimes after the circumcision, they bleed, they have hemorrhage. And then sometimes they die of that, the girls. At least they will lay in bed for many weeks, suffering. Terrible. It hurt me so much, I wanted to scream. I don’t know how can parents do this kind of thing to their children. I don’t care what benefit they get out of it. It’s obviously no benefit. How can people do this? How can? And even educated people blindly follow this kind of tradition. It is not God! It’s the devil’s working. There is no such statement in the Qur’an. No such thing! Such an inhuman action and doing that to little girls. Some children die after that. What benefit? What benefit if they die? I don’t know how can a human heart bear this, stand around and look at that – the parents – look at your own children suffer for nothing! Some people are so blind and so, so stupid, and so inhuman, I cannot believe it. Because they learn bad things, they learn the bad way. So you can see how a wrong theory, a wrong teaching can make suffering to other people. Sometimes just one person goes wrong, leading a big group of people to go wrong; and that group of people will lead a bigger group of people to go wrong. And then it continues like this. So that’s why we can never afford to have our thought, deeds, and actions impure. We must always check, control, and must do things only for positive, and only for love, and only to avoid suffering. Never we can relax on controlling our thinking and our actions.”
