06 February 2012
Girls from a community which has abandoned female genital cutting. Picture: Orchid Project/Julia Lalla-Maharajh
Female genital cutting (also often called mutilation) is a traditional cultural practice that is thought to be at least two thousand years old. It is estimated that 3 million girls undergo cutting each year and 140 million women are living with the consequences.
There are no health benefits to cutting and many girls die from bleeding and infection. Other consequences include psychological damage, painfully difficult urination and menstruation and serious problems during childbirth.
International Development Minister Stephen O'Brien MP spoke at a Parliamentary event today to mark the 2012 International Day Against Female Genital Cutting.
He was joined by Julia Lalla-Maharajh, CEO and founder of the Orchid Project, an organisation that works to end female genital cutting, Lynne Featherstone MP, and Jane Ellison MP. Senegalese hip-hop singer Sister Fa also spoke about her experience of being cut as a child and how she is leading a musical drive to end the practice.
>>> Hear what Sister Fa had to say in our podcast
The chance for real hope
Female genital cutting is a long-neglected issue. The international community has tended to shy away from it – it is a sensitive topic and a deeply embedded tradition in the cultures where it is practised.
However, change is happening. It is being led from within Africa, from communities to parliaments. And there is a role for the UK – and the rest of the international community – to support this change.
The UK government is already working with others to end female genital cutting. For example, we are currently funding a number of NGOs working to end the practice:
- The Plan UK Building Skills for Life programme in Kenya, funded by UK aid, is working with local leaders on reducing female genital cutting and early marriage through raising awareness that these practices mean girls are unable to complete school.
- The Common Ground initiative, also in Kenya, works closely with communities and with the cutters themselves, to develop and promote 'alternative' rituals which don't involve genital mutilation to mark girls' transition into adulthood.
- Through our support to Anti-Slavery International, we provide funding to the NGO Tostan which works closely with communities in Senegal and other countries. It has had considerable success in supporting communities to abandon the practice.
We also provide core funding to the main UN agencies that work on this issue, WHO, UNFPA and UNICEF.
A wave of change
In Somalia, where most women have been cut (98%), things are changing. To mark the 2012 Day Against Female Genital Cutting, events are being organised across the country – led by local groups, and supported by DFID, UNICEF, UNFPA and others.
There will be a live radio call-in show, an open panel discussion on TV with decision makers, community elders and local leaders, posters, leaflets in local languages and many other activities all across the country.
There is real hope in Somalia, and across Africa, that this is the beginning of the end.
Facts and stats
- The most common type of cutting is excision of the clitoris and the labia minora, accounting for up to 80% of all cases. The most extreme form is infibulation, where the girls' external genitals are removed and she is sewn up.
- In Sudan, where 89% of women and girls have been cut, DFID will look to support efforts to combat female genital cutting by working with communities, government, and the UN, and with national and international civil society organisations and the media.
- The UK government has a clear position that this practice needs to end. It is a painful, damaging and often disabling practice for girls and women. However, efforts to end the practice are unlikely to be effective if they don't start from an understanding of why it happens. It is hard to understand from our perspective that this cutting is not done to girls as an act of violence. It is a practice that is over 2000 years old and is done because families believe it is in their daughters best interest – because in their cultures girls have not been able to get married without it.