Female genital mutilation

Road sign near Kapchorwa, Uganda, 2004
Definition	Defined in 1997 by the WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA as the "partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."[1]
Areas	Estimated in 2013 to be most common in 27 countries in Africa, as well as in Yemen and Iraqi Kurdistan[2]
Numbers	133 million in those countries as of 2014[3]
Age	Days after birth to puberty[4]

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is cutting off part or all of the female genitals that are outside of the body. FGM is also called female genital cutting and female circumcision. It is done for traditional reasons, as part of a ritual, not for medical reasons.

FGM is most common in 27 African countries, as well as Yemen and Iraqi Kurdistan. However, it also happens in other countries in Asia, the Middle East and around the world.^[5] Usually, FGM is not done by a doctor or in a hospital.^[6] It is often done with a razor blade or other sharp instruments, in many cases without anesthesia.

Different ethnic groups do different kinds of FGM. They also do FGM at different ages. Some groups do FGM when infants are only a few days old. Others do it when girls reach puberty, or are older. In about half the countries where FGM happens, most girls have FGM before they are five years old.^[4]

FGM can cause serious health problems, like infections, chronic pain, trouble getting pregnant and giving birth, bleeding so bad that it can kill.^[7] FGM does not make a person's health better in any way.^[8]

FGM is illegal in most of the countries where it happens.^[9] However, these laws are often ignored.^[10] Since the 1970s, many countries have tried to stop FGM. In 2012, the United Nations General Assembly said that FGM is a human rights problem, and voted to try harder to stop it.^[11] The World Health Organization and the "Maputo Protocol" to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights also say that FGM must be stopped.

1. ↑ "Classification of female genital mutilation". The World Health Organization. 2016. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
2. ↑ Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Statistical Overview and Exploration of the Dynamics of Change Archived 2015-04-05 at the Wayback Machine, New York: United Nations Children's Fund, July 2013 (hereafter UNICEF 2013), pp. 5, 26–27.
3. ↑ Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: What Might the Future Hold?, New York: UNICEF, 22 July 2014 (hereafter UNICEF 2014), pp. 3, 6.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} UNICEF 2013 Archived 2015-04-05 at the Wayback Machine, p. 50.
5. ↑ UNICEF 2013 Archived 2015-04-05 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 2, 26-27
6. ↑ UNICEF 2013 Archived 2015-04-05 at the Wayback Machine, pp. 2, 44–46
7. ↑ Jasmine Abdulcadira, et al, "Care of women with female genital mutilation/cutting" Archived 2016-07-18 at the Wayback Machine, Swiss Medical Weekly, 6(14), January 2011. doi:10.4414/smw.2011.13137 PMID 21213149
8. ↑ "Female genital mutilation", New York: World Health Organization, February 2014.
9. ↑ UNICEF 2013 Archived 2015-04-05 at the Wayback Machine, p. 8
10. ↑ UNFPA–UNICEF 2012, p. 48.
11. ↑ "67/146. Intensifying global efforts for the elimination of female genital mutilation", United Nations General Assembly, adopted 20 December 2012.