Excellent news in fight against FGM with conviction of doctor

From the Liberal Democrat website:

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone has said the conviction of an Egyptian doctor who performed an illegal female genital mutilation operation on a 13 year-old is a step forward in ending FGM across the world.

The doctor was … convicted of manslaughter after Suhair al-Bataa died following the operation in 2013.

Commenting Lynne said:

“This is a hugely important step forward in the international campaign to end FGM. I wholeheartedly congratulate those tireless campaigners working in Egypt, Britain and across the rest of the world.

“Today’s landmark ruling shows we are one step closer to ending FGM within a generation.”

At both the Department for International Development and at the Home Office, Lynne Featherstone has been extremely effective at working with others to get FGM firmly up the policing and political agendas, with much more attention paid to it than in the past.

Understandably,* the absence of convictions in the UK previously has been a major concern, which makes this landmark ruling a particularly welcome sign of wider progress as well as a welcome piece of justice in its own right.

* In some cases at least. In other cases the ‘oh but you’re clearly not taking it seriously if there’s not already been a conviction’ type response, almost all in the cases I’ve seen from men on the left of the political spectrum (both parts of which are significant I think), has been more a case of insular tribalist negativity in search of a superficial excuse.