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MADRID, Espana – 2018/02/03: A woman with a placard that reads "200 1000000 victims" protesting confronting female genital mutilation. Photo past Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images
  • The death of a young girl within 24 hours of female genital mutilation (FGM) has led to a united call to stop the practice from women's groups worldwide.
  • Despite years of campaigning, the practice is still widespread.
  • A moderate decline in the do is not enough to prevent a significant rise in women and girls undergoing the procedure due to population growth.
  • An estimated 200 million women and girls accept undergone FGM in over 30 countries.

The death of 21-year-quondam Maseray Sei from bleeding and daze the solar day after undergoing FGM in Sierra Leone has again shone the spotlight on the practice.

FGM, also known as cutting (FGM/C) involves any and all procedures involving the removal of external female genitalia or injury to female person genital organs for non-medical reasons. FGMC/C is considered a grade of violence against women and girls that violates their human rights. The African Union has condemned FGM/C as a harmful practice that affects the man rights of women in its Maputo Protocol in 2003.

The Earth Wellness Organization (WHO) describes four different types of FGM/C:

  • Blazon 1 is the fractional or total removal of the clitoris and the surrounding fold of skin.
  • Type 2 is the removal of the clitoris, the surrounding fold of skin, and the inner folds of the vulva. This is washed with or without removing the outer folds of the vulva.
  • Type iii is the creation of a narrowing of the vaginal opening, also known every bit infibulation.
  • Blazon iv includes piercing, incising, and all other harmful nonmedical procedures.

At that place has been an overall decline of FGM/C over the past 30 years, but not all countries take made equal progress. Figures published past Unicef evidence a reduction of FGM in girls aged fifteen to 19 years living in Egypt from 97% in 1985 to seventy% in 2015. Like trends were noted around neighboring countries.

In Africa, Sierra Leone has 1 of the highest rates of FGM — 83% of women and girls accept undergone the practice.

Despite its moderate decline, according to Unicef:

"Current progress is insufficient to keep up with increasing population growth. If trends continue, the number of girls and women undergoing FGM/C will rise significantly over the next 15 years."

The exact figures of women and girls who have undergone FGM/C worldwide are estimated to be at to the lowest degree 200 million in over 30 unlike countries, with an estimated 44 meg under the age of fifteen.

FGM/C is more than commonplace in Indonesia, Arab republic of egypt, and Ethiopia, but it is adept worldwide. There are an estimated 41,000 girls and women living with FGM/C in the Netherlands, and according to the CDC, as many equally "one-half a million girls and women in the United States have undergone FGM/C in the by or may be at run a risk for undergoing FGM/C in the hereafter."

A mix of sociocultural reasons is thought to be behind the do, which will vary depending on the land and region. In near places where FGM/C takes identify information technology is excused as a cultural tradition, for reasons which can include:

  • The fear of community rejection and the social pressure to arrange.
  • It may be viewed every bit a way to prepare a girl for adulthood and marriage.
  • To ensure premarital virginity and marital allegiance — it can increase marriageability in certain cultures and countries.
  • It is associated with femininity, modesty, cleanliness, and dazzler.


In many countries, the governments, regime, and rulers have the ability to finish the do simply do non take the volition. Indeed, in Sierra Leone, FGM is not prohibited, and despite existing protection laws for women and girls, at that place have been no known FGM-related prosecutions. In fact, there take been contempo reports of a member of parliament in Sierra Leone paying for 150 girls to undergo FGM.

There are no health benefits associated with FGM/C, rather the removal of healthy tissue gives ascension to lifelong complications.

Immediate complications associated with FGM include severe bleeding and hemorrhage, fever, infections, shock, and death.

Longer-term, life-altering complications can include; pain urinating, urinary tract infections, painful periods, difficulty passing menstrual blood, sexual problems through to childbirth complications and newborn deaths, the need for repeated surgery, and mental health weather condition such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Equality At present, an international homo rights arrangement that focuses on changing the constabulary to protect and promote the rights of women and girls globally is calling for the criminalization of FGM, and more specifically for the government of Sierra Leone "to enact and enforce a comprehensive anti-FGM law to guarantee the protection of its women and girls."

According to Asenath Mwithigah, the Cease Harmful Practices global lead at Equality Now, "130 women rights groups effectually the earth have signed the @equalitynow open up alphabetic character" to date.

With directly reference to Maseray Sei, Asenath Mwithigah has called on the government of Sierra Leone "to honour its delivery to eliminate FGM in line with 'Colonnade viii on Gender and Women'south Empowerment' in its agenda for prosperity and obligations in line with CEDAW and the Maputo Protocol."

"We farther need a comprehensive and swift police investigation and prosecution of all those responsible for the tragic death of this immature adult female. It is vital that justice is served so that it can be a deterrent to others."

– Asenath Mwithigah

At the recent "Investing in strategic partnerships and grassroots actors to end FGM" meeting, held on the February x, 2022, she went on to say: "We need potent, bold innovations to promote the agency of women and girls who are affected and at take a chance of FGM."

She explains, "Today, our mutual goal to #EndFGM and partnership are more than always necessary, and our efforts must be reinforced."

The Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon. Dr. Abass Chernor Bundu, has responded that he shares the concerns almost FGM and that "FGM be outlawed." He says, "good traditions needed to exist preserved while discarding bad ones."

Furthermore, he has agreed to present the letter to parliament on behalf of anti-FGM campaigners.