A former British police officer has been convicted of posting offensive content on Facebook after he reposted an image mocking Islam, sparking accusations that blasphemy laws have returned to the United Kingdom.
Retired police officer Stephen Gray, 65, has been found guilty by the Newton Aycliffe magistrates’ court of breaching Section 127(1)(a) of the Communications Act 2003 over a post he reshared on Facebook, which was deemed to be “grossly offensive”.
According to The Telegraph, Gray was reported to the Durham Constabulary for two Facebook memes by a non-Muslim neighbour of his, whom Gray had previously been in a separate dispute with.
The first post reported to the police featured the title “time for mass deportations” next to a Middle Eastern man in his 20s or 30s with the words “Children in need”. It was captioned with: “12-year-old Mohammed recently arrived at Dover. Please donate to help him move from a three-star to a five-star hotel, which has a better halal menu, free Wi-Fi, and Sky and is nearer to a girls’ school”.
This post was not deemed by the court to violate the law, as it concerned a political issue that had been debated in Parliament.
The second meme depicted a picture of a man wearing a turban next to some bacon with the caption: “Fun facts about Bacon! People who eat bacon have a lower chance of marrying a 9-year-old!”
As the post was not considered to be a political message, but rather critical of a religion, it was found to be “grossly offensive” by the court. For this, Gray was found guilty of violating the Communications Act and was ordered to pay £1,000 in fines and court costs.
Gray said of the ruling: “I made a joke, an ironic joke, about Islam. That is all it was at the end of the day. A joke. I certainly never, not for one second, thought it would be deemed abusive.”
“Back when I was serving, if I had taken this case to my sergeant or inspector, I would have been on foot beat night shift for the next five years for wasting everybody’s time. It wouldn’t have got past the front door of the police station,” he added.
The former police officer said that he plans to appeal the decision in order to prevent blasphemy from becoming a legal standard in Britain, saying: “I just think it’s a dangerous road that the Government is going down trying to use the justice system to get us to stop criticising a religion that promotes a lot of things people might not agree with.”
Gray is being supported in his case by the Free Speech Union (FSU), which suggested that the ruling was only made because the subject was Islam, rather than other religions.
FSU General Secretary Lord Young of Acton said: “Prosecuting people for making jokes about Islam, particularly if they contain a kernel of truth, is a new low.
“No one making a similar joke about Jesus would face prosecution. Blasphemy laws were abolished in England 18 years ago and should not be resurrected by the courts and applied to just one religion.”
“If Labour wants to make it a criminal offence to offend Muslims, but not Christians, Hindus, Sikhs or Buddhists, Andy Burnham should include that in the next King’s Speech. Good luck getting it through Parliament.”
The Labour government is currently working on instituting an official definition of Islamophobia, which critics have warned would create a de facto blasphemy law for the Islamic faith. As a party, Labour has already backed the definition of Islamophobia laid out by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims, which claims that examples of “classic Islamophobia” include: “Muhammed being a paedophile, claims of Muslims spreading Islam by the sword or subjugating minority groups under their rule.”
The NCF Panel, NCF Senior Fellow Dr. Philip Kiszely, Dr. Ben Jones of the Free Speech Union, political commentator Alice Grant and podcaster John Gillam discuss the imposition of migrants onto English villages.
A veteran University worker in Brazil has been sentenced to 1 year in prison for “misgendering” a trans-identified male student. Luís Adripaulo Mendes Barros was charged under the nation’s notorious “social racism” law after a trans-identified male student reported him to police for “transphobia.”
The incident occurred on October 14 of 2022 at the Federal University of Paraíba, one of the two main public Universities in the coastal eastern state of Paraíba, Brazil. That day, a male student named Odara Moraes entered one of the women’s washrooms on campus only to be confronted by a female janitor who challenged his presence in the women’s facilities.
Speaking to Reduxx last year, the female janitor noted that she was initially confused by Moraes, seeing him as a biological male wearing a “crop top and mini skirt.” But the janitor, whose name Reduxx is withholding for her privacy, politely informed him that he was not in the correct washroom, a statement she said had not been intended to cause offense.
Odara Moraes, the trans-identified male student at FUP who reported two University workers to police for misgendering him. Photo: Instagram
“I didn’t mean to offend or hurt anyone. I just spoke to him politely, and I was politely bothered. Because it was a female space, not a male one. I was simply speaking about a fact, about a right — my right as a woman to defend our space, a female space. I had never seen anything like that before — a man using a women’s bathroom,” she says. But Moraes immediately became combative, pulling out his phone to begin filming her and calling her “transphobic.” He also demanded that she refer to him with feminine pronouns.
Upon realizing that the janitor was a contracted employee at the University, he demanded to speak with campus administration. Unsure of what else to do, the janitor brought Moraes to the office of Luís Adripaulo Mendes Barros, the school’s administrative director. During the short journey to the office, Moraes continued to lambast the female janitor, calling her names and accusing her repeatedly of transphobia.
Barros attempted to de-escalate the situation, but Moraes refused and instead repeatedly asserted that he would call the police and press charges against the janitor for “transphobia” – a criminal offense in Brazil.
Unsure of what to do, Barros asked Moraes if he had any documents proving he was legally a woman, but Moraes responded that his “word” should simply be enough. As Moraes continued to insist he was a ‘woman,’ Barros attempted to calmly clarify: “You are trans, not a woman.”
Moraes then stormed out of the office screaming that he had been “discriminated against.”
Four days later, both the janitor and Barros were contacted by police, informing them they were under investigation for criminal transphobia.
Barros, who had been working at the University for nearly 40 years, says he began to struggle with anxiety around this time.
“I came to work feeling discouraged, almost angry, struggling to avoid depression and not pass on the psychological and emotional pressure I was experiencing to my subordinates. I became distracted from my work activities and fell behind on many tasks,” he told Reduxx.
Barros proudly standing outside of his office. Photo Supplied.
After learning about the incident, trans activists on campus, likely under the instruction of Moraes, began targeting Barros directly. Graffiti was spray-painted outside of his office, and he was labeled a “fascist” by other students.
The female janitor ultimately lost her job after the school refused to renew her contract, and she was left unemployed after almost more than a decade. After being made aware of their situation, MATRIA Brazil, a women’s rights organization, stepped in to offer legal assistance to the two workers and launched a fundraiser to assist the janitor support her family.
Both the janitor and Barros were formally charged in October of last year with aggravated prejudice under the classification of “social racism,” an offense created by Brazil’s Supreme Court in 2019 when it found that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity was in fact covered under already pre-existing anti-discrimination laws relating to race or national origin. The trial itself began in March of 2025, and concluded in June of 2026.
Reduxx has now been provided with a copy of court records detailing the final outcome of the case.
The female janitor was acquitted of her charges, with Judge Manuel Maia de Vasconcelos Neto determining that he was unsatisfied that her conduct, in her particular role and circumstances, met the standard for criminal conviction.
Barros, however, was found guilty because the court determined that he knowingly and authoritatively denied the transgender student’s “right to use the bathroom” corresponding to his self-declared gender identity, and rejected his explanations that he was merely protecting women or following his duties.
Judge Vasconcelos Neto ruled that even Barros’ attempt to verify Moraes’ self-declared gender identity constituted a criminally discriminatory act.
“The requirement of ‘documentary proof’ of femininity […] constitutes, in itself, a discriminatory act,” the Judge wrote in his ruling. “By demanding documentation and repeatedly stating that [Moraes] ‘was not a woman,’ Luís Adripaulo was not acting to repel any aggression, but to deny a right.”
From the judgement against Adripaulo.
The court imposed a one-year custodial sentence in the initial “open” regime, but substituted imprisonment with a restriction-of-rights penalty, meaning he would not serve the sentence in prison. The judgment also imposed 10 day-fines, calculated at 1/30 of the minimum wage applicable in October 2022 for each day-fine, but did not specify the total.
Speaking to Reduxx, Barros said he was “deeply shaken” by the verdict, and turned to his deeply-held faith for solace.
“There is a battle going on in my mind as I try to understand, above all, God’s plan for me. God had already prepared me for all of this, but when it actually happens, it is different,” he says, speaking through a translator provided by MATRIA Brazil.
“I do not want to feel sorry for myself; that is not what this is about. But I have fallen out of my normal routine because, when I go through something I never planned for and did nothing to bring about, it really disrupts my life. My mind is not functioning properly. I am normally an avid reader, and I have not been reading. I have not been sleeping well, and I have been worried about my children.”
While Barros has not lost his job at the University, he was effectively demoted and stripped of a leadership role he had held for 13 years following his conviction. The demotion came with a severe blow to his income.
“I try to protect my family — my wife and my children — from the emotional impact of all this. I try to show strength, to find strength, so that these things do not psychologically affect the people closest to me. When I hear people saying that they want to destroy my family, there is an immense perversity of heart in that,” he expresses. “And then I see the justice system supporting it. Judges have families, members of Congress have families, everyone has a family. When an agenda like this is supported, where do I turn?”
Barros has filed an appeal and intends to try and fight the verdict.
Throughout the case, Barros was supported by MATRIA Brazil, an independent women’s rights organization which regularly lends support to those impacted by Brazil’s extreme gender identity laws.
Clarice Saadi, a representative of MATRIA, expressed outrage at the verdict and anger towards the state of freedom of speech in Brazil.
“It seems like every week now we are dealing with someone being sentenced to jail time for recognizing a man is a man. The situation in Brazil is extreme right now,” Saadi says.
“[Luís] was convicted for seeing a man in front of his eyes and referring to him accordingly, in the masculine form, as is usual in Portuguese. Ironically, both the judge and the federal prosecutor did the same during the hearings but, according to the judgement handed down, it is ‘very different’ in their case, as they ‘slipped’ and had no intent to disrespect,” she explains.
“The ‘clearly hateful’ intent attributed by the judge to Mr. Barros comes from him having stood his ground, saying to ‘Odara’ Moraes: ‘you are trans. Not a woman.’ We seem to be living a nightmare, where the truth doesn’t matter anymore and the courts are convicting people for supposedly hurting men’s feelings.”
The news of Barros’ conviction comes just days after another ruling in Brazil saw influencer Bianca Barreto sentenced to two years in prison for “criminal transphobia.”
As previously reported by Reduxx, Barreto received her sentence from the 9th Criminal Court of Salvador on July 29, after she was found guilty of the “intentional and pejorative use of the gender opposite… [to a] self-declared identity.”
The sentence followed a lengthy case stemming from a 2024 video posted to social media by Barreto. In the video, she criticized Duda Salabert, a member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies. Salabert is a member of the left-wing Socialism and Liberty Party, and was one of the first openly trans-identified people to be elected to the Chamber.
In her video, Barreto described Salabert as “a guy who says he’s a trans woman, but he’s married to a woman and has a son or daughter.” She continued, saying that whatever “she does in her private life is not my problem. Now, it will always be a problem when these people try to impose things on us that are not real, that are a product of her imagination. By ‘her’ I mean the person, because a man is a man, a woman is a woman, and that’s it.”
Barreto argued in court that her content was legitimate political discourse, and that as a Christian she had the right to advocate for candidates that share her values, but that she was neither encouraging violence against nor hating trans-identified individuals.
But the judge disagreed, claiming that it was a form of “marginalization” to refer to trans-identified males with masculine pronouns. Citing the 2019 Supreme Court “social racism” ruling, the judge argued that the recognition of self-declared gender identity is completely mandatory in Brazil, because it is an “inseparable element of personality rights and the dignity of the human person.” The judge added that “the deliberate use of biological sex at birth to ridicule and disqualify the social identity of a trans woman in a public arena is not merely an exercise of opinion; it is an act that refuses to recognize her citizenship.”
Barreto was ultimately sentenced to two years in prison, to be served in the “open” system, which is similar to house arrest in that her movement will be restricted and she will be required to check in with a police officer or judge regularly. Barreto was also forced to pay damages of R$20,000, which is approximately $3,800 USD.
Moroccan police have blocked another attempted mass crossing into the Spanish territory of Ceuta, two weeks after more than 72,000 migrants surged toward the European enclave.
Hundreds gathered near the Moroccan border town of Fnideq, also known as Castillejos, on Saturday after messages circulated on social media calling for another coordinated attempt to reach Ceuta.
Moroccan authorities deployed riot police and increased security around the frontier, while footage showed groups moving toward the border.
Authorities arrested at least 111 people attempting to reach Ceuta, according to Reuters, including 109 people from sub-Saharan Africa and two Moroccan nationals.
Other reports placed the number detained during the wider security operation significantly higher.
🚨NEWS: A second wave of migrants made their way into Ceuta last night
Riot Police were deployed along the border with Spanish and Moroccan authorities claiming they calmed the surge
The operation followed the appalling events of July 30th, when more than 72,000 migrants descended on Ceuta in the hope of gaining access to Europe.
Dozens of people died during the crossing, while Spanish authorities subsequently returned most of those who entered illegally to Morocco.
Spain and Morocco significantly increased security ahead of Saturday’s invasion.
Madrid deployed hundreds of additional officers to Ceuta, bringing the number of police and Civil Guard personnel in the territory to more than 1,600.
Moroccan authorities also increased patrols and surveillance around the border.
The July influx came weeks after a Spanish court ruling restricted the immediate return of migrants intercepted while reaching Ceuta by sea.
The new arrivals have turned parts of Ceuta into an effective slum, with the beach strewed with litter and human waste while migrants hold “fight clubs” by the water.
Authorities are even concerned about the possibility of a cholera outbreak.
Spain’s leftist government under Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has blamed criminal organizations and “misinformation” circulating on social media for encouraging the July influx.
Authorities also installed a floating barrier off Ceuta in an effort to prevent further crossings by sea.
Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s two territories on the North African coast, constitute the European Union’s only land borders with Africa.
Sven Hüber was a political officer and deputy company chief at the GDR border troops at the end of the 1980s – responsible for bringing border soldiers ideologically into line and ensuring the implementation of the shooting order. His diploma thesis was titled “The Federal Border Protection as an Instrument of Imperialist Power and Dominance Security”. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he made a career in the Federal Border Protection and is now deputy chairman of the Police Union (GdP) and chairman of the main personnel council of the Federal Police. In the event of an AfD government participation in Saxony-Anhalt, Hüber speaks of a possible “internal state of emergency” and that police officers must prepare to restore the constitutional order with federal and riot police. Bernd Baumann, first parliamentary managing director of the AfD parliamentary group, comments on NIUS and accuses Hüber of denigrating the will of millions of citizens as a “seizing of power”. The GdP North Rhine-Westphalia has meanwhile publicly distanced itself from Hüber’s statements: One distances itself “expressly and fully from his choice of words, his comparisons and the legally problematic conclusions drawn from it”. Historian Hubertus Knabe, author of “The Perpetrators Are Among Us” and a proven expert on the reappraisal of the GDR’s past, speaks in an interview about Hüber’s biography and the question of how a former border force officer was able to achieve such an influential position in the Federal Police. AfD leader Alice Weidel also speaks out on X and demands that Hüber must be removed immediately from the police service.
Police union GdP admits to editing Sven Hüber’s Wikipedia entry
The German Police Union (GdP) admits to editing the Wikipedia entry about Sven Hüber. The dispute surrounding Sven Hüber, deputy federal chairman of the German Police Union (GdP), is escalating and is now also sparking discussions about the use of neutral information platforms like Wikipedia. Hüber had previously come under heavy criticism for a post in which he essentially called on police officers in Saxony-Anhalt to resist a potential state government with AfD participation. However, anyone expecting a clear distancing from these controversial statements by the GdP will be disappointed. Despite enormous public pressure, the union leadership under federal chairman Jochen Kopelke is demonstratively standing by its official and continues to refer to him as a “highly valued employee.” Instead of correcting the content of the controversial statements, the GdP leadership is complaining of an alleged smear campaign and massive threats against the author. At the same time, a remarkable admission is causing a stir: The GdP (German Police Union) officially admitted to having intervened in and manipulated the Wikipedia entries about Sven Hüber. According to the union, this was done to correct alleged “untruths or biased claims.” The fact that these cosmetic corrections to Hüber’s biography were made precisely in the context of the current controversy is something the GdP is attempting to justify with an “internal communication deficit.” Kopelke also tried to limit the damage by emphasizing that it is fundamentally not the role of a union to issue election recommendations to its members or to politically instruct them. Nevertheless, the incident demonstrates how sensitive the police union is to criticism of politically active officials within its own ranks and how far it will go to actively shape the online image of its leaders.
Beaches are cluttered with garbage and human waste, leading to fears of a cholera outbreak.
Failing Spanish Prime Minister, the Socialist Pedro Sánchez declared the invasion crisis of Ceuta over, and flew off to vacation in the Canary Islands.
But the reality in the North African enclave is much different.
Thousands upon thousands of invaders are still there – a group almost entirely made of military-aged males, as befits an invasion.
🇪🇸 Ceuta has turned into a slum
Thousands of illegal migrants living on the beach in shacks made of straw and cardboard
Health officials have issued an emergency alert over a severe sanitation crisis, treating cases of scabies, tuberculosis, impetigo and infectious diarrhea pic.twitter.com/BrYfRrxk1K
By the water, the migrants amuse themselves as they can, and huge ‘fight clubs’ have developed, with contenders measuring themselves against each other in the middle of a circle.
Burhan Din has been jailed for 14 years after rapping a teenage girl and filming it | WEST YORKSHIRE POLICE
A rapist who groomed a teenage girl online and filmed when he sexually attacked her has been jailed for 14 years.
Burhan Din, 30, was convicted at Bradford Crown Court of two counts of rape, four offences of sexual activity with a child and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The court was told how Din, of no fixed address, contacted the girl through social media, before he went on a campaign of abuse, during which he filmed himself have sex with her on his phone.
Recorder Jason Pitter KC, said: “In very simple terms you deliberately and cynically groomed her.”
The court was told that he was older than the girl by 12 years when the abuse began and he knew from an early stage that she was a child.
Din also admitted to being in possession of a machete and cannabis.
The rape offences occurred at his flat in Bradford, after he got the teenager drunk, jurors were told.
The victim read a statement to the court in which she detailed the toll the abuse had taken on her life.
She told the court her life has been “nothing but hell” since Din contacted her, and she told the court she felt scared and powerless.
She said that coming forward had taken a great deal of courage, but she was glad to finally have her voice heard.
She continued to say she is a “survivor, not a victim,” adding she was no longer broken as she once felt she had become.
Recorder Pitter praised the teenager for having the courage to read her statement aloud for the court.
He said: “She has very bravely read her impact statement to speak her truth and take back her power.
“She is a credit to herself.”
He also said that the case highlighted the dangers posed to young people by online predators using social media.
The court also heard that Din denied the sexual offences despite the jury’s guilty verdict.
Din will spend the rest of his life on the sex offenders register, as well as being subject to an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
Abdul Khan used the social media platform Snapchat to pose as a 14-year-old boy and groom the girl before arranging to meet her in the Clifton area and attacking her.
Sentencing Khan, His Honour Judge Mark Watson said: “It was certainly your intention that you would go on to have sex with a girl you believed to be 14. The girl gave evidence she did not want this to happen, but allowed it to happen because of what might occur. She was, of course, a 13-year-old girl. You believed in your own mind she was consenting, but it was not a reasonable belief. Your sentence will mean automatic deportation.”
This is Emmanuel Macron’s last summer as French president, and he does seem to be fed-up with the whole governing thing.
What other factor – besides him being an out-of-touch Globalist – can explain the fact that he chose to party in the Riviera while France battles massive wildfires and the angry firefighters have just called for a strike?
And, as if that was not enough, ‘le petit-Roi’ had his image splashed on the cover of a glossy magazine riding a jet-ski like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“The 48-year-old French president was criticized by opposition politicians on Friday after photos from his holiday appeared on the front page of the celebrity magazine Paris Match.
France is experiencing some of the worst forest fires in its history amid near-constant heatwaves.
Pierre Ouzoulias, the communist senator, told Europe 1 that Mr. Macron’s behavior was ‘indecent’, adding: ‘Personally, I would have preferred to see him in a fire truck, helping firefighters put out the blaze. That is where he belonged’.”
“’Last summer at the controls’, Paris Match said on its cover, referring to Macron’s departure from the Elysee palace next year when his second and final term ends.
The magazine also featured photographs of Macron engaging in water sports such as foil surfing, during a summer marked by successive heatwaves and deadly fires in France.
A member of Macron’s entourage said that the photos were not authorised.
‘There have been unauthorised photos of the president every year for the past nine years’, the aide said.”
Somebody need to exp-lain to Macron’s team that the photos are not the outrageous part – the vacations are.
A Swiss politician is seeking to overhaul the nation’s exceptionally lenient identity change protocol after a controversy broke out at a women’s nudist zone. Zurich National Councillor Nina Fehr Düsel has announced she is planning on submitting a motion to abolish simple gender changes in the upcoming autumn session.
“This procedure used to be more complicated. The hurdles were deliberately high. Today, the gender change in the civil status register is far too easy. What was sold to us at the time as liberal progress leads in practice to problems that affect us all. A large part of the population also sees this,” Fehr Düsel wrote. “The consequences are becoming more and more obvious. Women’s spaces have come under pressure.”
In her statement, Fehr Düsel references a recent incident at Bern’s Marzilibad. famous outdoor swimming and riverside bathing area at the Aare River. Marzilibad has a designated, segregated nude area called the “Paradiesli” which is only open to women.
In June, a controversy erupted after a male claiming to be transgender entered the nude area and caused discomfort amongst the female sunbathers.
The man, who was described as having a beard, back hair, and penis, was confronted by multiple patrons who asked him to leave. He claimed he had a right to use the area because of he identified as a woman.
Schluss mit dem Gender-Irrsinn. 👇 Der einfache Geschlechtereintrag soll wieder rückgängig gemacht werden.https://t.co/7gCok56w1C
Female sunbathers then escalated their concerns to the park’s security, which called the regional police after the man continued to refuse to leave. Police arrived and attempted to check the man’s ID for evidence he was “legally” a woman, but the man would not provide it. He was then arrested.
The man was brought to the regional police station where his ID was checked and it was confirmed that he had changed his legal sex marker. He was released shortly after, at which point a local Antifa faction in Bern staged an impromptu “solidarity rally” on his behalf.
The city later issued an apology to the trans-identified male, concluding that he had been “improperly removed” from the women’s area.
“All people who identify themselves as women and live as such have access to the voluntary nudist area Paradiesli,” the city wrote in a statement.
Fehr Düsel highlighted the bizarre situation in her August 10 statement.
“The incident in Bern’s Marzilibad has shown where [gender] policy is leading: A trans woman – a biological man – was in the naked area of the women’s zone. Many women felt harassed by this. The trans woman did not want to identify herself, nor would she follow the instructions of the staff or the police,” Fehr Düsel wrote. “Such conflicts are not a coincidence, but the direct consequence of absurd legislation that simply hides biological facts.”
Fehr Düsel continued: “Women’s rights must again be consistently protected – in changing rooms, on toilets or specific women’s areas. Today’s regulation is a mistake. The 2022 change in the law must be reversed. The SVP will work for this in the coming session. Switzerland finally needs more reason instead of gender ideology.”
France is facing a female genital mutilation (FGM) crisis brought on by mass immigration, warns Mathilda Silva of Collectif Némésis, and in those neighborhoods with the most diversity, the most women are facing the consequences of this brutal practice.
“This morning, I saw a graphic from an association that is absolutely revolting, in which it was written that 1 in 10 women in Seine-Saint-Denis is a victim of female genital mutilation. I don’t know if we realize this madness,” said Silva.
🇫🇷🔴France's female genital mutilation (FGM) crisis is a crisis of mass immigration.
In the most multicultural district of Paris, locals even take their daughters on vacation to their home country to partake in the barbaric practice.
Official data from the MSF-PREVAL pilot study, conducted in 2021 across health facilities and reported by Santé publique France, places the figure at approximately 7.2 percent among women aged 18 to 45 in the Seine-Saint-Denis department—roughly one in 14. This equates to an estimated 22,500 adult women. However, the study indicates that the upper bounds of this number could reach as high as 10 percent, which far exceeding rates in other French departments – around 1 percent in the Rhône and under 1 percent in the Alpes-Maritimes.
Nationally, estimates range from 125,000 to about 139,000 women living with the consequences of FGM.
Silva details that the practice is illegal in France but residents have a way of circumventing this restriction by traveling back to their home countries.
“The process for this is always about the same: parents take their young girl on vacation to their country of origin. So the countries that practice this the most are Sub-Saharan African countries. How strange. And in fact, when the little girls come back, well, they have undergone mutilation,” she warned.
Research confirms that high-risk country origins in Seine-Saint-Denis center on African countries such as Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Guinea. About 24 percent of women surveyed in the department came from such countries, and among them the prevalence reached around 30 percent. Risk drops sharply for those born in France after the mid-1990s, yet cases persist of girls raised in France being taken abroad during holidays for the procedure.
French law is unambiguous. Female genital mutilation is illegal, classified as a serious crime. Silva underscores the human cost.
“I obviously remind you that female genital mutilation is completely illegal in France, that it is an abominable torture, that it is often performed under absolutely deplorable hygienic conditions, that there are women who lose their lives, and above all, these women are traumatized for the rest of their lives by what they experienced.”
Medical literature and survivor accounts detail immediate dangers—severe bleeding, infection, shock—and lifelong effects including chronic pain, complications in childbirth, sexual dysfunction, and profound psychological trauma. Specialized units, such as the one established in 2017 at the André-Grégoire hospital in Montreuil, now provide reconstructive surgery, psychological support, and sexological care to hundreds of women each year. Local maternity data from the same hospital has recorded FGM in about 13 percent of births.
Silva reserves particular criticism for local leadership. “And it’s funny because the mayor of Saint-Denis –so, the largest city in Seine-Saint-Denis – Bally Bagayoko, who has been omnipresent in the media since his election, hasn’t had a single word for these mutilated girls. Yet, this is something that particularly affects his city. I haven’t seen him working with local grassroots organizations, I haven’t seen him run any prevention campaigns.”
Bagayoko, elected mayor of the newly enlarged Saint-Denis in March 2026 under the far-left La France Insoumise-led list, has indeed drawn attention for his controversial stances.
Public records show no prominent statements or dedicated campaigns from the new municipal team specifically targeting FGM prevention in the months following the election. Seine-Saint-Denis, with its significant population originating from high-prevalence regions, remains the clear epicenter within France.
“We are talking about torture inflicted on tens of thousands of women and children, so maybe it’s time to take action,” Silva stated.
