I find it ironic that FGM is a vile sin, while cutting a penis off is liberation.
It has recently come to light that the Metropolitan Police have an information page about breast
ironing, which is a practice carried out mainly by female relatives of pubescent girls in countries and societies where men are often openly predatory on young girls with little come-back, and where child marriage is common. The idea is to retain the girls' pre-pubescent shape and so reduce the likelihood of male attention, so that they can continue to attend school. This is classed as child abuse, and teachers are advised how to look out for it in girls in their classes and how to report it. (Of course, the practice called "breast ironing" is one associated with BAME groups.)
It turns out that on that page, where the procedures used to accomplish the goal of stopping breast growth are detailed, one of the things said is that it's not only "ironing" by pummelling the breasts with stones, or whatever, some people use tight wrappings or tape to achieve the effect. This is lumped in with the rest as a form of child abuse, because as they so rightly say, it's harmful. It causes difficulty breathing, broken ribs, damage to breast tissue and pain.
The page also points out that the people who do this to girls are not monsters, they are motivated by good intentions, that is reducing the chance of the girls being sexually abused. But despite the good intentions, it's still child abuse. It also points out that some of the girls affected will have requested the procedure themselves, because they believe it will indeed protect them from sexual abuse. But it's still child abuse, even if the child wants it to be done.
It has finally been pointed out to the police that "binders" as touted to white western girls as a means of compressing their breasts and stopping breast growth, are exactly the same thing. (And it is quite likely that the underyling motivation for the girls wanting these things is the same as the breast ironing - to prevent male interest in the developing breast tissue.) And that it's already been established that good intentions on the part of the person enabling the child, or consent or even desire on the part of the child to have it done, are not defences against child abuse.
Someone actually seems to have taken note of this, and it seems to be related to the inquiry that's being started into the practices of Mermaids, the charity for trans children, which is known to provide binders to girls as young as 13 or 14 behind parents' backs and against parents' wishes.
Mermaids' practices quite openly encourage and groom confused children into deciding that they're trans. They've had stalls at Pride events where they say, we have puppies, we have sweets, come and visit our stall. I mean it's like something out of the Brothers Grimm. There is text from one of their chat-rooms showing a moderator congratulating a girl who had just announced that she was trans and wanted all the hormones and all the surgeries.
What is being done is utterly horrific, and the only thing that distinguishes the genital surgery from FGM-type practices is that anaesthetic is used. One day sane people are going to wake up to this and wonder what the hell is going on and how it got that way. This thread indicates that it's likely to take some time, and why.