World Savvy Monitor

Female genital mutilation is a rite of initiation into adulthood for some girls living in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.  

• The procedure involves removing all or part of the female genitalia; it may also involve sewing up the vagina to “protect” a girl’s virginity.  

• Societies that practice the tradition cite reasons of “cleanliness” and “purification.”  The chairman of an Indonesian foundation providing free female circumcision has said the procedure is designed to “stabilize a girl’s libido, make her more beautiful in the eyes of her husband, and balance her psychology.”

• The international human rights community (including multiple UN bodies and conventions) defines FGM as “a harmful practice meant to control women’s sexuality.”  Most are working to have it abolished.

• It is estimated that 140 million girls worldwide have undergone the procedure, which is practiced on approximately two million girls per year.  

• The highest rates (90% of girls or more) are found in Indonesia, Egypt, Sudan, Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Somalia.  

• FGM often occurs even where prohibited by law, and is common in immigrant communities from these countries living even in the developed world.

• Critics of FGM often face charges of cultural insensitivity, but most see the practice as a human rights violation. 

• Read about FGM today in Sara Corbett’s New York Times Magazine article

The World Health Organization opposes FGM on health grounds as well.

• In many countries, the procedure may be performed with primitive instruments, including shards of glass. 

• Complications may include infection, bleeding, and life-long pain.  

• Increasingly more FGM procedures are performed by trained medical personnel, which improves the safety of the procedure, but concerns human rights activists who worry that the practice is moving into the mainstream in some countries.

Next:  The Girl Child:  Sexual Predation