No, men cannot be victims of female genital mutilation

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the sick practice whereby a girl has her labia and clitoris removed with a knife, before her vagina is effectively sealed, with a small hole left for urination and menstruation. It is carried out in predominantly North African countries – notably Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia – and is done to ensure the girls’ chastity and ‘cleanliness’ prior to marriage. It is a crime in the UK and one of the most repugnant violations on the rights of women and girls. And men, too – according to the College of Policing, that is.

A recent directive on FGM by the College of Policing – the quango that trains and supports police officers in England and Wales – beggars belief. According to the Telegraph, guidance proffered by the college in August declared that ‘trans men and women, with or without a gender-recognition certificate’ are just as threatened by FGM in the UK as ‘women and girls’. It was reportedly offered as part of its advice to officers on ‘honour-based abuse’.

It hardly needs stating that there has never been a single reported case of a ‘transwoman’ (ie, a man) being subjected to FGM in the UK, or indeed in any country on Earth. But the college’s guidance isn’t only an insult to the public’s intelligence. It is deeply offensive to the many thousands of women living in the UK who have been maimed by this barbaric practice. The victims of this crime are the girls trapped in a culture whose attitude towards women hasn’t changed since the medieval period. It is them – not men who think they are women – who should be the unwavering focus of police.

The timing, too, is almost as bad as the message itself. As if we needed another reminder, so soon after the arrest of comedy writer Graham Linehan, that the UK’s police forces have effectively become the Stasi for trans activists. Linehan was arrested by five armed police officers at Heathrow last week for the ‘crime’ of gender-critical tweeting. He was detained and probed by officers for supposedly inciting violence against trans people.

The public’s faith in the police has rarely been at such a low ebb. Shoplifting and drug use, even in public, seem to have been all but decriminalised. Yet instead of policing the streets and focussing on crimes that the public feel threatened by, officers instead focus on what activists are offended by. They should go back to fighting real crime, and leave thin-skinned identitarians to fight their own battles.

Hugo Timms is an editorial assistant at spiked.