Prevalence of female genital mutilation

[14][15][16] The highest known prevalence rates are in 30 African countries, in a band that stretches from Senegal in West Africa to Ethiopia on the east coast, as well as from Egypt in the north to Tanzania in the south.

A 2017 UCLA Fielding School of Public Health study, measuring trends in the prevalence of FGM over the course of three decades, found that they dropped significantly in 17 of the 22 countries surveyed.

Many FGM procedures are performed at a very young age, many cultures feel a taboo about such discussions, and a number of such factors raise the possibility that the validity of survey responses might be incorrect, potentially underreported.

There are reports, but no clear evidence, of a limited incidence in (..) certain Kurdish communities in Iraq.Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C): 1 in 2 young girls (15–24) has experienced FGM/C when they were younger in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah governorates (Kurdistan Region).In July 2003, at its second summit, the African Union adopted the Maputo Protocol promoting women's rights and calling for an end to FGM.

[40] As of 2013, according to a UNICEF report, 24 African countries have legislations or decrees against FGM/C practice; these countries are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria (since 2015[41][42]), Senegal, Somalia, Sudan (some states), Tanzania, Togo and Uganda (see page 9 of the report) and Zambia and South Africa (see page 8).

[44] Although estimates of the prevalence of FGM vary, sources have consistently found the practice to be undergone by the majority of women in the Horn of Africa, in the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso, as well as in Sudan and Egypt.

Infibulation can cause chronic pain and infection, organ damage, prolonged micturition, urinary incontinence, inability to get pregnant, difficulty giving birth, obstetric fistula and fatal bleeding.

[76] FGM is illegal: the law imposes a penalty of two to five years of prison and a fine of 200,000 Congolese francs on any person who violates the "physical or functional integrity" of the genital organs.

Article 333 of the Penal Code provides that persons found guilty of this practice will face a five-year prison term and a fine of one million Djibouti francs (approximately US$5,600).

[40] The ministry's order declared it is "prohibited for any doctors, nurses, or any other person to carry out any cut of, flattening or modification of any natural part of the female reproductive system."

[146] In an announcement on the preliminary report in April 2013, UNICEF in conjunction with the Somali authorities stated that the FGM prevalence rate among 1- to 14-year-old girls in the autonomous northern Puntland and Somaliland regions had dropped to 25% following a social and religious awareness campaign.

[149] British-Somali anti-FGM campaigner Nimco Ali reacted by saying that especially "religious leaders in the Ministry of Religion and Welfare, who may not agree to an outright ban on all types of FGM", were complicating eradication efforts.

The speaker of Parliament Ms Rebecca Kadaga recently gave Sebei sub-region districts ultimatum to produce working plans to end Female Genital Mutilation[permanent dead link‍] in the area.

[citation needed] On May 9, 2017, the Supreme Court of India sought a response from the centre and four states (Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat and Rajasthan) on the validity of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) when Public Interest Litigation by some Bohra women to ban the practice.

[173][174] On July 9, 2018, Attorney General of India K. K. Venugopal reiterated the Indian government's position that FGM was a violation of a person's fundamental rights and that its practice resulted in serious health complications for the girl concerned.

[196] Unlike the Iraqi Kurdistan government, which has implemented a relatively successful anti-FGM campaign, official representatives as well as nationalist individuals or groups tend to deny FGM even exists in Iran.

[194] The issue is rarely discussed in public; the national Shia religious establishment claims it as an exclusively Sunni practice in which it should not get involved, and generally sees no reason to try to end it.

[220] Malaysian women claim religious obligation (82%) as the primary reason for female circumcision, with hygiene (41%) and cultural practice (32%) as other major motivators for FGM prevalence.

"[27] According to a small survey by human rights activist and statistician Habiba Al Hinai conducted in October 2013 and published in January 2014, 78% of 100 women interviewed living in the capital city of Muscat had undergone FGM.

[264] The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (also known as the Istanbul Convention), which came into force on 1 August 2014, defines and criminalises the practice in Article 38:[265][266][267] Article 38 – Female genital mutilation Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that the following intentional conducts are criminalised: In the early 21st century, the increase in immigration for individuals from countries where FGM is commonly practiced has made FGM a noticeable phenomenon in European societies that has raised concerns.

[282] On a Prime Time report on FGM broadcast on 8 February 2018,[283] Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland said "female circumcision" should be allowed with medical approval.

[284] TCD later made Selim redundant on the grounds of course reorganisation and low student demand; in September 2019 the Labour Court awarded him compensation for unfair dismissal.

[294] The Russia Justice Initiative estimated that tens of thousands of Muslim women had undergone FGM, especially in the remote mountain villages of Dagestan, but investigators from the Prosecutor General's office reported they had not found any evidence of the practice.

[299] The prevalence of FGM among immigrant groups in Sweden is unknown, but there have been 46 cases of suspected genital mutilation since the law was introduced in 1982, and two convictions, according to a report published in 2011 by the National Centre for Knowledge on Men's Violence against Women.

[297] In 2014, a Somali-born national coordinator at the County Administrative Board of Östergötland said the problem is not actively being pursued by authorities and the issue is avoided for fear of being perceived as racist or as stigmatising minority ethnic groups.

[311] Khalid Adem, a Muslim who had moved from Ethiopia to Atlanta, Georgia, became the first person to be convicted in the US in an FGM case; he was sentenced to ten years in 2006 for having severed his two-year-old daughter's clitoris with a pair of scissors.

[326] The first indigenous tribe in Latin America known to practice FGM was the Emberá people, living in the Chocó Department of Colombia and across the border in the Panamanian part of the Darién Gap.

[114]: 32 It has been claimed that members of the Emberá people living on the Panamanian side of the border in the Darién region also practice FGM,[330] but the extent to which this is happening was unknown as of 2010 due to a lack of data.

[331]: 111 A 2004 anthropological study by Christine Fielder and Chris King provides a detailed account of a girl's initiation ceremony involving clitoral subincision amongst the Shipibo people, claiming the Conibo and Amahuaca tribes had a similar practice.

[340] Under a 1995 amendment to the Crimes Act, it is illegal to perform "any medical or surgical procedure or mutilation of the vagina or clitoris of any person" for reasons of "culture, religion, custom or practice".