Considered since December 2012 as “a violation of human rights and a serious attack on women’s health” by the United Nations General Assembly, female genital mutilation (FGM) includes “all interventions resulting in partial or total removal of female external genitalia and / or any other lesion of female genitalia performed for non-therapeutic purposes ”.
Dangerous for health, these ancestral practices are also devastating from a psychological point of view. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies the consequences of female genital mutilation for women’s health into three categories: immediate risks (pain, bleeding, risk of urinary retention, infections), long-term health risks. term (pelvic infections, infertility, menstrual difficulties, incontinence, problems during pregnancy and childbirth) and additional risks of complications (post-traumatic stress, etc.).
A traditional rather than a religious practice
In a new study, the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) publishes an inventory of FGM in the world. We already learn that in 2016, 200 million women and girls underwent genital mutilation in 30 countries – 27 African states, plus Yemen, Iraq and Indonesia. In addition, experts estimate that 500,000 women and girls are at risk of mutilation in the United States – the figure is the same in Europe. In most countries, FGM is performed before the age of 10, or even before 5 years.
Fortunately, mentalities are changing. For example, in Liberia (where 79% of women are cut), 30% of girls aged 15 to 19 are mutilated, compared to 75% of women aged 45 to 49. In Egypt, 8 out of 10 women aged 15 to 49 said they were “in favor” of excision in 1995, compared to 6 out of 10 in 2008.
A religious question? Not necessarily, according to the INED survey: thus, female genital mutilation is also practiced in communities with a Christian, Jewish, animist and Muslim tradition. “The origin – even uncertain – of these practices dates back to ancient Egypt, that is to say well before the expansion of Islam” advance the specialists, who recall that FGM is a “question of public health and human rights worldwide ”.
Source: Ined press release.
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