Some notes of interest:
- Female circumcision reduces the incidence of HIV.
- Female circumcision is banned in the US.
- The 14th Amendment provides for equal protection under the law, and gender-based exceptions can only be allowed under with “exceedingly persuasive justification.”
- The US Supreme Court held in Prince vs. Massachusetts that religious expression by parents cannot be imposed on children where the state has compelling reason to protect the children.
Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children before they have reached the age of full and legal discretion when they can make that choice for themselves.