Charles G. Steffen

An unexpectedly engaging and even-handed account of one criminal prosecution of a man accused of cutting his two-year old daughter's clitoris with scissors as an act of female genital cutting. The author argues a compelling case that the defendant was convicted not because of guilt, but because the trial became a showplace for responses built out of negative attitudes toward immigrants from Africa "invading" a white southern suburb, characterizations of Africans as barbarians thoughtlessly reenacting ancient and cruel rituals, and imperial feminists determined to impose their understandings of gender relations upon the world entire. Khalid never stood a chance.… (more)