[women-rights] International Day Against Female Genital Mutilation

***Learn more about the International Day Against Female Genital
Mutilation, 6 February 2007:
http://www.hrea.org/feature-events/international-day-against-fgm.php


Message of Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director, UNFPA

06 February 2007 -- Today, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund,
joins people around the world in calling for an end to female genital
mutilation or cutting.

An estimated 120 to 140 million women have been subjected to the practice
and 3 million girls continue to be at risk each year. The practice
violates the basic rights of women and girls and seriously compromises
their health, posing risks during childbirth, and leaving lasting physical
and psychological scars.

Contrary to popular belief, female genital mutilation or cutting is not
required by any religion. In fact, many religious leaders and scholars and
faith-based organizations from around the world have called for the
practice to be banned.

In more than a dozen countries where the practice is widespread, laws have
been passed to make female genital mutilation illegal. And thanks to
rising awareness, an increasing number of women, men and young people now
disapprove of the practice. We even witness a reduction in prevalence in
several countries, such as Kenya, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali and Nigeria.

Today, UNFPA calls for stronger government commitment to fund and
implement programmes to prevent female genital mutilation or cutting. At
UNFPA, we have learned that to make greater progress, laws need to be
enforced, people need to be educated, and communities must be engaged. We
are guided by the knowledge that social change cannot be imposed from the
outside. It needs to be supported from within the community. Through
interventions that foster dialogue, an increasing number of communities
have fully or partially abandoned the practice in favour of alternative
initiation ceremonies, which is a positive trend.

Nonetheless, there are new emerging concerns arising from increased
awareness of the associated health risks that need to be addressed if
progress is to be sustained. They include medicalization of the practice
as more and more parents try to minimize health hazards by turning to
health-care providers to perform the cutting. There is also a trend of
subjecting younger and younger girls to the practice to avoid their
complaints or refusal to participate. And we also see some communities
performing lesser cuts rather than abandoning the practice altogether.

Today, as we commemorate the International Day against Female Genital
Mutilation, UNFPA calls for intensified efforts to stop the practice in
all its forms. And we pledge to increase support for efforts to prevent
female genital mutilation or cutting, and advance gender equality and
human rights, including the right to sexual and reproductive health.

UNFPA Press release