Author: Chris Alto

  Dr. Jim Henderson, medical director for Siloam Health Care Services, Inc., uses the terms “female circumcision” and female genital mutilation (FGM) interchangeably, responding to questions from The Tennessee Star about the state’s female FGM reporting law. Except, “female circumcision” has been rejected as an accurate description of the barbaric FGM practice by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the National Organization for Women, human rights organizations and perhaps most importantly, by anti-FGM activists  who were mutilated in their home countries like Jaha Dukureh, founder of Safe Hands For Girls: As an infant growing up in Gambia, I experienced Female Genital Mutilation. It took away a part of my femininity, my ownership to my body. Some girls, including my half-sister who died from complications from being cut, even lose their lives. Siloam Health serves as the Statewide Refugee Screening Coordinator for Tennessee and a primary care provider for refugees: As you may know, every refugee that’s resettled in Nashville passes through the doors of Siloam Health for his or her initial medical screening exams. Many of these refugees eventually become our primary care patients, and it is our privilege to get to know them over time as they become a vital part of…

Twenty-five “integration practitioners” from Germany will visit several U.S. cities in May, including Nashville, as part of the Welcoming Communities Transatlantic Exchange program to learn how immigrants  and refugees are welcomed and integrated (as opposed to assimilated) in these locations. As part of the exchange program, representatives from the U.S. will pay a reciprocal visit to Germany in November. As in Tennessee, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is illegal in Germany. However, increased and virtually unrestrained immigration to Germany from countries where FGM is commonly practiced, has, in two short years, resulted in a 40% increase in the number of women living in Germany who have been victimized by FGM. The government’s report notes that while most of the immigrants were mutilated before entering Germany, “the government highlighted an increased risk of the operations happening on home soil. According to the data, as many as 5,700 girls per year could be mutilated under current conditions.” Germany’s data shows that most of the FGM victims come from Eritrea, Somalia, Egypt, Ethiopia or Iraq, some of the same high prevalence FGM countries of the refugees brought to Nashville, the primary resettlement location for refugees in Tennessee. Data assembled by the Population Reference Bureau that shows…