Former internist and oncologist Jannes Mulder wrote in the medical journal _Medisch Contact’ that girls in the Netherlands are still being circumcised, even though female circumcision is banned in the country. The Dutch Council for Public Health estimates that at least 50 girls undergo the procedure each year, mostly within the Somali community. In his article, Mulder suggests that banning the procedure doesn’t work, but a symbolic form of the practice – a pricking of the clitoral hood – ought to be allowed, and would prevent more serious forms of the procedure. His ideas were dismissed by several medical organizations, saying that no compromise should be made regarding the integrity of a girl’s body.
