Female Genital Mutilation Prevalence Practice Consequences

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Amnesty International estimates that over 130 million women worldwide have been affected by some form of FGM, with over 2 million procedures being performed every year.

United States According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 168,000 women and girls in the United States had either undergone FGC or were at risk for FGC in Of these, 48,000 were girls younger than 18 years old.

What is FGM? Female genital mutilation (FGM), often referred to as 'female circumcision', comprises all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs, whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons. There are different types of female genital mutilation known to be practiced today.

Why is FGM Practiced? Genital cutting is seen as a way of ensuring that a woman is clean, chaste, and ready for marriage; uncut women are associated with promiscuity and lack of social respectability. Deadening the woman's sexual pleasure is a way of guaranteeing her virginity and fidelity. Because it is a valued social rite, most girls are willing to succumb to the pain and the subsequent health problems. But whether they wish to be excised or not, the choice is not theirs. Living in a staunchly patriarchal world, they are dependent on men for social and economic survival.

As a father from the Ivory Coast told the New York Times, “If your daughter has not been excised.... No man in the village will marry her. It is an obligation. We have done it, we do it, and we will continue to do it.... She has no choice. I decide. Her viewpoint is not important.”

It is practiced mainly in Arfican countries. The countries that practice FGM the most are: Somlia, followed by Egypt, Sudan, Ethopia, and Mali. It is also practiced in secrecy in some areas of the Middle East and the US. Prevalence of FGM

Health Consequences Among practicing cultures, FGC is most commonly performed between the ages of four and eight, but can take place at any age from infancy to adolescence. Often, with people who have had no medical training performing the cutting without anesthetic, sterilization, or the use of proper medical instruments. The procedure, when performed without any anesthetic, can lead to death through shock, from immense pain or excessive bleeding.

The failure to use sterile medical instruments may lead to infection and the spread of disease such as HIV, especially when the same instruments are used to perform procedures on multiple women. Other serious long term health effects are also common. These include urinary and reproductive tract infections, caused by obstructed flow of urine and menstrual blood, various forms of scarring and infertility.

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