World’s Worst Practice Makes Comeback In Russia

Here’s a topic we hoped we wouldn’t have to report in 2016: female genital mutilation. A fierce debate has sparked in Russia, after a civil society group found FGM to be common among Muslims in mountain villages in Dagestan. It also didn’t help that multiple clerics in the North Caucasus began defending the indefensible practice. Regional Muslim leader Ismail Berdiyev suggested all women should undergo FGM but later withdrew the remark, only to be defended by a senior Orthodox Christian priest, Vsevolod Chaplin. But don’t confuse that with the feel-good idea of interfaith dialogue, Chaplin clarified that Orthodox Christian women didn’t require FGM because they are “not promiscuous anyway.”  He also added that “Feminism is a 20th Century lie,” winning the hearts of women everywhere. Mufti Berdiyev was grateful for such support, emphasizing that “God made woman so that she could give birth and bring up children.” No word yet on whether he confused “woman” for “Russian nesting doll.”