The Moscow clinic proposed to make “female circumcision” to girls under 12 years old for religious motives. This procedure is crippling

Attention . The text contains a detailed description of the surgical operation on the genitals.

The Best Clinic Center offered on the site the service of “female circumcision” - an operation for girls, which is done “for religious or ritual motives”

Not far from the Baumanskaya metro station, in a two -story extension to the warehouses of the 19th century, recently converted to loft, there is a multidisciplinary medical center "Best Clinic". It works under the slogan “Clinic that inspires trust” - and the examination there can be passed in most medical directions: from dentistry and psychotherapy to surgical and cosmetic operations.

Among other services, on the site of the Medusa clinic, I found a clitorectomy - an operation on the so -called “female circumcision”. “There is no medical indication for this operation, intervention is carried out for religious or ritual motives,” the center’s website reported and added that since the operation is “crippling”, it is “necessary not at home, but in a medical clinic.” ("Best Clinic" is a network, but such a service was only on the center of the Center on Baumanskaya; it belongs to Classicus, which is owned by Marina Strokina and Dmitry Afonin.)

Three types of clitorectomy were proposed on the Center’s website: removing the clitoris hood, removing the clitoris along with the hood and small labia and infibulation. Infibulation, the purpose of which is to create obstacles to sexual intercourse (this practice is especially common in some African countries) - was described as follows: “The clitoris with a hood, small labia, and large are sewn, only the opportunity for urination and menstruation remains.”

On November 18, Medusa came a letter from an anonymous reader who spoke about the service and attached screenshots of the site with descriptions of the operation (he did not answer letters from Medusa). The next day, November 19, in the description of the procedure on the Best Clinic website, the text was changed (the screenshots of the original page are at the disposal of Medusa). In particular, from there they removed the phrase “Cl healing of the clitoris is carried out for girls before the beginning of puberty, usually at the age of 5 to 12 years” - and changed the description of the preparation of the operation. The words “child” and “girl” (for example, in the phrase “the girl does not feel the lower half of the body, but is conscious, can talk”) everywhere replaced the word “patient”.

The methods described in the description of the procedure on the Best Clinic website are classified as crippled, painful and traumatic.

“Female circumcision” is common in Africa, in Russia - in Dagestan. Experts consider it harmful practice and form of violence

The World Health Organization, as well as the United Nations and Human Rights Office, consider “female circumcision” to a barbaric operation. According to the UN, about 200 million women live in the world, who thus crippled the genitals. Most of them are in African countries (in Egypt and Ethiopia through circumcision have passed to 90% of women under 50); However, such operations underground underground in Western countries - for example, in 2017 in Detroit (USA), a doctor was detained , who for 12 years old made a clitorectomy for girls.

After “circumcision”, women lose their sensitivity; The operation often leads to depression or post -traumatic disorder. There are complications: infections, non -healing wounds, urination problems.

Clitreectomy is widespread in some regions in the south of Russia. In 2016, the organization “Legal Initiative” published a report on the mass practice of female circumcision in Dagestan - it contains evidence of 25 women who, at a young age, went through this operation; They all said that it was very painful - and that they did not understand why they were doing so painfully. Having talked with them and their fellow villagers, experts concluded that the operation was considered a “mandatory ritual through which every girl should pass”. The report also shows an interview with the imams, which indicate that “circumcision” must be done until adulthood - because after the operation the girl “will become a Muslim”, “can pray”, “will become more humble, more moderate”.

A woman conducting underground operations in one of the Dagestan villages said that "she cuts a small spot in order to make a girl a Muslim." “The circumcision with a request comes to me not only from our village, but also from other villages,” she said . - My aunt taught me all this, she and my daughter did it. Cutting I do to girls from three months to ten years. It is advisable to urinate after everything, so the wound heals faster. We have no one in the village who did not do a circumcision, if not done - everyone condemns. ”

The Russian mufti of the North Caucasus Ismail Berdiev commented on the report of the legal initiative as follows: “It is necessary to cut all women so that debauchery is not on earth so that sexuality decreases.”

Human rights activists call clitorectomy “wild and harmful” practice, which “represents the extreme form of discrimination and violence” and violates the right to health and freedom from torture. After the publication of the report “Legal Initiative”, the Ministry of Health called female circumcision with crippling practice, and a bill was introduced to the State Duma, which proposed the introduction of criminal punishment up to ten years in prison for female circumcision, committed for religious motives. The author of the bill, a State Duma deputy, Maksakova, said that in Russia, as in the secular state, "no sacred cults can serve as an excuse for female circumcision." Since August 2016, deputies no longer returned to the bill.

“This manipulation cannot be called medical, this is a crippling procedure,” said Alina Chimbireva, a medical lawyer, the head of the law firm Melegal. - She does not bear any medical evidence. No medical clinic or self -respecting doctor will take up such a procedure. Without medical indications, it can be considered religious circumcision. In the nomenclature of the Ministry of Health, there are operations on the clitoris [and operations on the labia labels], but there are operations in gynecological abnormalities, with medical indications. Here we are talking about a barbaric goal - so that a woman does not come into contact with a man. ”

The Best Clinic said they really offer such a procedure. Then deleted a message about this from the site

On November 22, in chat on the Best Clinic website, Medusa confirmed that they were conducting “female circumcision”. According to consultant Julia (surname is unknown), clitorectomy - along with anesthesia and analyzes - will cost the patient 70 thousand rubles. She added that now in the clinic there is an action for a consultation on this procedure - 1760 rubles instead of 2190 rubles. After that, she recommended signing for the surgeon - and added that, most likely, it would be possible to take an appointment almost immediately.

On the phone with the chief doctor "Best Clinic" Ganipat Gadzhieva "Medusa" refused to connect; When the correspondent arrived at the clinic, the doctor was not in place. The deputy general director of "Best Clinic" Lyubov Aksenova agreed to talk with Medusa.

- Do you really have operations on clitorectomy?

- This, let's say, is a new direction. There are people who need this procedure. Demand gave birth to this proposal.

- What are these people?

- Basically, these are people of a certain religion that has developed for religious reasons.

- Until November 19, it was indicated on your site that operations are carried out for girls from 5 to 12 years old. Is that so?

- No. Perhaps [it was indicated], perhaps our marketing department looked at this moment. Naturally, a person must make such a decision himself. [Site editors] took a stratech from another place and simply embraced it without delving.

Medusa could not find an “article from another place”, which Aksenova spoke of. The most similar in the text was the material on the website of the Radio Says Moscow, retelling the report of the “legal initiative”, which reports that “girls aged 3 to 12 years are subjected to female circumcision.”

- You have indicated that such operations do not need medical indications, only a religious reason.

“Yes, yes,” Aksenova answered.

- Do you know that the UN, WHO and other organizations consider such operations to violence?

- Agree, if I want to enlarge my breasts, will it be my personal decision? And it does not depend on the UN wishes. What kind of violence is it?

Aksenova could not answer the question whether the clitorectomy was already carried out in the clinic. “There were requests: do you [such operations]? We need, ”she explained. “There was a question from one man about minors, we replied that we were not doing.”

After the Medusa correspondent came to the Best Clinic and asked Aksenova questions, a page describing the clitorectomy procedure disappeared from the website of the medical center.

Daniil Turovsky