Female genital mutilation is a performed on more than 200 million girls and women worldwide, and more than 3 million girls are at risk annually in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. FGM is a global concern.
FGM involves the partial or total
removal of the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. Immediate complications can include severe pain, excessive
bleeding, genital tissue swelling, fever, infections,
tetanus, urinary problems, wound healing problems, injury
to surrounding genital tissue, shock,
and even death.
Long-term complications of FGM can
include infections, bleeding, urinary, vaginal, and menstrual problems, the need
for later surgeries, the sealing or narrowing of the vaginal opening may lead
to the practice of cutting open the sealed vagina later to allow for sexual intercourse
and childbirth.
Women can go through repeated opening
and closing procedures, further increasing risks. Sexual
problems - including pain during intercourse, decreased satisfaction, and increased
risk of childbirth complications including difficult delivery, excessive
bleeding, caesarean section, need to resuscitate the baby, newborn deaths, and psychological
problems including severe depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder,
low self-esteem, and others can occur. Chronic health
conditions can occur throughout life.
Reasons to perform FGM include
social pressure to conform, fear of rejection by the community, considering it a
way to prepare girls for adulthood and marriage, associating it with cultural
ideals of femininity and modesty including the idea that girls are clean and
beautiful after removal of body parts. The
real reason is supremacy: of men over women.
“The position
of the United Nations World Health Organization is clear: there is no
justification – medical or otherwise – for carrying out female genital
mutilation. It only causes harm and is a grave violation of human rights.”
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