"Recent examples in Iran and Saudi Arabia clearly involved a high level of coercion and degrading treatment". Such concerns have not dimmed the program's popularity.
Referrals by an external agency, on the other hand, may be associated with a higher level of coercion, and even if where the approval of the parents is required, the parents' support for and confidence in the care provided may not be as strong as if the parents had themselves initiated the referral.
According to one strategy, even in a society where the level of coercion on voters is very weak on average, it is reasonable to assume that those who will suffer most from such risk of coercion (given their higher dependence on others) are the least advantaged.
For example, debt bondage -- when a person's labor is demanded in repayment for a loan -- only rises to the level of coercion when the value of the services provided by the laborer "is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not... limited and defined".
In May, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said the brothels had been a "necessary" part of Japan's war effort and questioned the level of coercion involved.
"A lot of it really illustrates some of the things people struggle to understand, like the level of coercion and control the perpetrator can exercise over a victim," she said.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. pressed Mr. Negusie's lawyer, Andrew J. Pincus, to define what level of coercion might justify what level of persecution.
The diplomatic record reveals protracted discussion on the level of coercion used, with Japan implying some women may have gone to brothels voluntarily.The Yomiuri cites the report as evidence that the Kono statement is full of problems.
The U.N. Committee Against Torture urged Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — who has also questioned the level of coercion required — to condemn Hashimoto's comments.
The high level of coercion and severe long-term health consequences separate FGM from other elective surgeries, but the similarities should shine a light again on how just how steeped we are in dictatorial social norms.
