Female Circumcision

Re “Women Fleeing Torture Deserve Asylum,” Commentary, April 9: I am disgusted at the judge (male) who demanded that 17-year-old Fauziya Kasinga return to Togo to face the prospect of torture and female mutilation. If it were a male seeking asylum because of the threat of castration without anesthesia, I’m sure this judge would not have acted so callously. I feel this judge is the criminal, and not Fauziya. This courageous woman deserves our compassion and our help.

ELIZABETH IRWIN MD

Torrance

* Ellen Goodman wants asylum for Fauziya Kasinga to escape ritual sexual mutilation in her homeland, and I would agree that women of the world should be protected from the abominable practice somehow. But what about the sexual mutilation of millions of infant boys in this country who are unable to resist or flee and just scream with pain? Has Goodman thought about the greater problem here at home?

JOHN J. BROOKS

Santa Ynez

* I admire the courage and determination of Kasinga in fleeing her country to avoid genital mutilation. I hope that she will be allowed to stay in America. And I grieve for the young women subjected to this awful practice. But I cannot help noting that even for liberal columnist Goodman, multiculturalism ends where her moral code begins. This is as it should be.

Let the multiculturalists drop the hypocrisy of maintaining that they are tolerant of all cultures. (Goodman neatly solves this dilemma by arbitrarily redrawing the definition of “culture” to exclude the parts she dislikes.) And let them stop the cheap-shot accusations of “intolerance” directed at conservatives.

Goodman’s column unintentionally highlights an important idea: That in some matters, a valid moral standard is a higher principle than tolerance. This idea helps to explain the accusations of so-called intolerance often directed at conservative Christians (for example), versus the more subtle intolerance of the accusers.

KIM APEL

San Clemente