Hi Tim,
This is completely off-topic, but I feel as though I should say something...
tim hall wrote:
Carotinho wrote:
Example: female mutilations in Africa. They are practiced sometimes
by mothers to their own daughters, since they thinks it's right.
Should they be _free_ to think,
I think you've just insulted their culture.
I think that we have to draw a line somewhere between things which are
simply cultural differences, and things which shouldn't be allowed,
regardless of culture.
Sometimes a culture needs to change.
As a much-abused example, one might have argued that slavery was once
part of the culture of many places. However, this simply isn't reason
enough to allow the slavery to continue.
Similarly, people frequently use the argument "But it's traditional" to
support all sorts of things (in particular, I'm thinking of fox hunting
in south-west England).
Personally, I love history and tradition, but I do not think that this
argument automatically outweighs others.
Genital mutilation is
horrible in my opinion, but how about we consider male circumcision or
purdah.
Male circumcision isn't the same thing as "female circumcision".
The genital mutilation inflicted on girls is often nothing less than
barbaric. This link seems relevant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_circumcision
Regards,
Michael
