(CNN)According to UNICEF, 30 million women worldwide are likely to endure female genital mutilation (FGM) within the next eight years. And a new report suggests that the problem is widespread in the UK.
FGM, or cutting, which is illegal in the UK, is a procedure where the female genital organs are partially or fully removed or injured, but without medical reason.
It is usually carried out on girls from infancy up to the age of 15, but older women can also be subjected to it. The research states that in certain cultures, the practice is believed to restrain a female’s sexual appetite and prepare her for marriage.
The female can end up with severe bleeding, problems urinating, cysts, infections, infertility, complications in childbirth, increased risk of newborn deaths as well as emotional scars. Their own lives are also at risk.
An estimated 137,000 women and girls, aged from infancy to above 50, who have gone through FGM and were born in countries where it is practiced were permanent residents in England and Wales in 2011, according to the latest research carried out in 2014. And there are significantly high rates in London.
Although the figures are based on interim findings by London’s City University and the NGO Equality Now, the highest numbers were found in London boroughs, with 47.4 per 1,000 women in Southwark in the south of the city and 38.9 per 1,000 in Brent in the north west, compared to 0.5% in England and Wales as a whole.
Read Now: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/22/europe/fgm-uk-report/index.html
Tags: child brides, child exploitation, Child Marriage, female genital organs, FGM, forced marriage unit, halo project
