Which Countries Practice Female Genital Mutilation
How many women have
undergone female genital cutting FGC (mutilation) FGM.
More than 200
million girls and women alive today have been cut in 30 countries in Africa,
the Middle East and Asia where female genital mutilation is concentrated. While
the exact number of girls and women. Worldwide who have undergone female
genital mutilation remains unknown.
In what countries
does female genital cutting take place besides Africa?
Data collected in 2015
from household surveys show female genital mutilation exists in Yemen, Iraq,
and Indonesia and in some places in South America such as Colombia, India,
Malaysia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The practice is
also found in pockets of Europe and in Australia and North America. In most of
the countries, the majority of girls were cut after the age of five. In Yemen,
85 percent of girls experienced female genital mutilation within their first
week of life.
Where does organized
religion stand on the practice of female genital cutting?
No written religious
scripts advocate the practice, practitioners often believe the practice has
religious support through tradition and traditional beliefs. Religious leaders
take varying positions with regard to female genital mutilation.
What time of year does female genital mutilation usually take place?
In Northwest Tanzania and Southwest Kenya, December is known as cutting season. Female genital mutilation during the cutting season is illegally performed on girls between infancy and the age of 15, most commonly before puberty starts.
In the Mara Region, residents mainly practice nomadic pastoralism and some farming but tourism is the major economic activity in the district as it is the home of the world-famous Serengeti National Park.
In the Mara Region, residents mainly practice nomadic pastoralism and some farming but tourism is the major economic activity in the district as it is the home of the world-famous Serengeti National Park.
However, around the award-winning beautiful Serengeti National Park greatest wildlife spectacle on earth, small African communities are illegally practicing female genital mutilation.
What is female genital mutilation?
The practice is generally carried out with a knife or a razor blade without anesthesia and in non-sterile conditions. There are four types of Female genital mutilation (FGM):
Type 1
Partial or total removal of the clitoris and/or the prepuce.
Type 2
Partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora, with or without excision of the labia majora.
Type 3
Narrowing of the vaginal orifice with the creation of a covering seal by cutting and repositioning the labia minora and/or the labia majora, with or without excision of the clitoris.
Type 4
All other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, for example, pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization.
FGM is a traditional prerequisite to marriage amongst the Kurya people who live in the area, however, it has been illegal since 1998 but the practice is commonly done in secret. Kenyans living in the villages bordering Tanzania often took their girls to be cut in Tanzania.
There are financial, as well as cultural reasons, why so many parents support the FGM practice. The main reason is parents force girls to undergo FGM because they want dowry.
When girls are circumcised, their parents have already arranged for them to be married. When the girls finish the initiation, their parents introduce them to their husband, whose family gives them cows as dowry.
In some communities in Kenya and Tanzania, women who have not undergone FGM are victims of social exclusion in the belief that a woman who has been cut demands a higher dowry for her parents and she will be more faithful to her husband.
The practice is illegal and the Tanzanian Serengeti government during the cutting season says there are immense challenges to stopping it. One commissioner stated, "The problem is that FGM is done secretly. It's difficult for police officers to safeguard every household to find out if it's happening or not."
When girls are circumcised, their parents have already arranged for them to be married. When the girls finish the initiation, their parents introduce them to their husband, whose family gives them cows as dowry.
In some communities in Kenya and Tanzania, women who have not undergone FGM are victims of social exclusion in the belief that a woman who has been cut demands a higher dowry for her parents and she will be more faithful to her husband.
The practice is illegal and the Tanzanian Serengeti government during the cutting season says there are immense challenges to stopping it. One commissioner stated, "The problem is that FGM is done secretly. It's difficult for police officers to safeguard every household to find out if it's happening or not."
However, in December 2013, approximately 38 women were arrested for carrying out illegal genital mutilation on a group of girls aged from 3 to 15. The women were arrested by the police as they performed a traditional dance around a house where 21 girls, ages 3 to 15, had recently undergone FGM. Sentences for FGM can garner up to 15 years in prison.
Despite the arrests, in recent years, Kurya clan elders have guaranteed that no girl would undergo female genital mutilation, adopting an alternative rite of passage ritual. “We don’t want any problems with the government so we will use maize flour to signify a rite of passage for our girls instead of our normal ritual,” said James Nyamaka, one of the Kurya clan elders in Tarime.
Reported
female genital mutilation Countries
Percentage
of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone female genital mutilation
The
Gambia 56%
Mauritania
54%
Guinea
46%
Eritrea
33%
Sudan
32%
Guinea-Bissau
30%
Ethiopia
24%
Nigeria
17%
Egypt
14%
Burkina
Faso 13%
Sierra
Leone 13%
Senegal
13%
Côte
d’Ivoire 10%
Kenya
3%
Uganda
1%
The
Central African Republic 1%
Ghana
1%
Togo
0.3%
Benin
0.2%
Reported
female genital mutilation Countries
Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49
years who have undergone female genital mutilation
Somalia
98%
Guinea
97%
Djibouti
93%
Sierra
Leone 90%
Mali
89%
Egypt
87%
Sudan
87%
Eritrea
83%
Burkina
Faso 76%
The
Gambia 75%
Ethiopia
74%
Mauritania
69%
Liberia
50%
Guinea-Bissau
45%
Chad
44%
Côte
d’Ivoire 38%
Nigeria
25%
Senegal
25%
The
Central African Republic 24%
Kenya
21%
Tanzania
15%
Benin
9%
Togo
5%
Ghana
4%
Niger
2%
Uganda
1%
Cameroon
1%