Patricia Schroeder: “Mr. Chairman, this is very historic, in that it is the first time this body will speak out and say that our government…”

“Mr. Chairman, this is very historic, in that it is the first time this body will speak out and say that our government should recognize female genital mutilation as a major health risk to women and a major human rights violation, and we also should do everything we can to make sure that countries do not allow this practice to continue. This was important. I had wanted to target this to Egypt, since we give so much aid to Egypt and since this practice is so rampant there, and especially since their government has recently tried to medicalize it rather than condemn it. This is a more generic form, but I approve it, and I think very much all of my colleagues who worked very hard to take this very, very important step of saying violations against women are also human rights violations and not just cultural violations. There has never been any religious reason for this. There has never been any reason except cultural, and we are making a great progressive step today.”