Stop FGM

FGM stands for "female genital mutilation." Every day at least 6,000 girls/women are subjected to FGM according to United Nations figures, but the actual number is thought to be much larger. It is estimated that about 130 million women and girls are subject to FGM.

It is mostly carried out on girls aged between four and 14. Even it is practiced on infants, girls who are about to get married, women with a first child or who have just given birth.

It is a deep-rooted social practice stretching from Senegal in West Africa to Somalia in East Africa and Yemen in Middle East. The immigrant communities also practice it in Europe, North America and Australia.

The process of FGM involves the removal of all the external or just the part of the female genitalia.
Sunna - The removal of the clitoris.

Excision - The removal of the clitoris and inner labia.

Infibulations - The removal of all or part of the labia minora, the labia majora. This is then stitched up allowing a small hole to remain open to allow for urine and menstrual blood to flow through.

Most of the cases it is done by uneducated midwives and women with unsterilized knives and blades. The girls are tied up and the midwife sits on her chest not allowing her to move and pieces of clothes are put into her mouth so that she doesn't make a sound. The rest of the women sing and dance, marking the importance of this occasion.

This practice leads to the serious health problem such as HIV, abscesses and small benign tumors, hemorrhages, shock, serious infection, clitoral cysts. The long-term effects may include kidney stones, sterility, sexual dysfunction, depression, various urinary tract infections, and various gynecological and obstetric problems.

The FGM societies believe that if this procedure is not done in girls she is like a male, and this procedure will reduce a women's desire for sex and reduce sex outside marriage so that the honor of the family will be saved. They believe that the labia and clitoris are male parts and removal of these parts enhances one's femininity.

They have a superstition that if man touches the clitoris then he will die and also if the baby touches it while birth will die, the breast milk is poisonous. It is believed that an unmutilated female is infertile and that the procedure can prevents vaginal cancer and odors.

Until and unless she is not mutilated nobody drinks or eat the food touched by her. People think if FGM is not administered, it can lead to masturbation or lesbianism.

The international community is taking it as a high form of crime against girls and women.Sweden is the first country to impose a law against this practise.

The United Kingdom, Norway, Australia and New Zealand have enacted legislation against the practice. Specific legislation also exists in Canada and the United States.

The international organization UN works with co-operating with local CBOs (community based organizations) and local NGOs to combat the violence against girls and women. It works under different convention such as the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, UN Child Convention,WHO, CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against women), Convention against torture, inhuman or humiliating treatment or punishment, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Culture rights.
Let's join hands to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and practice of FGM and to increase the community's knowledge and awareness of the danger of FGM and to solicit and sustain community support and to work for the society to become more equal, where men and women are enjoying life on the same basis, to the same human rights, the same social justice and tolerance.