Female Genital Mutilation is a harmful traditional practice that involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia and is illegal in the UK
Nearly 200 cases of female genital mutilation are being reported every week in England,new figures have revealed.
More than 1,200 patients were treated between January and March – the equivalent of almost 14 women a day.
Figures released today reveal there were 1,242 newly-reported cases of FGM in England – a slight decrease from 1,316 between October and December last year.
And at least seven of the women and girls reported the procedure had been carried out illegally in the UK.
FGM is a harmful traditional practice that involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia.
The practise is illegal in the UK and it is also illegal to take a female abroad for the purposes of FGM with a maximum jail term for carrying out or enabling FGM of 14 years.
Since April 2014, the NHS has been required to collect data on female genital mutilation (FGM) from women attending hospitals, GP surgeries and mental health centres.
Other key findings from the Health and Social Care Information Centre report includes:
- Of the 1,242 new cases, 29 females were aged under 18 when they were first seen
- 11 women or girls affected were reported to have been born in the UK
- London accounts for more than half (52 per cent) of newly recorded cases and 60 per cent of total attendances
- Somalia, in Eastern Africa, accounts for more than a third of all newly recorded women and girls with a known country of birth
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Women and girls were most likely to self-report that they had suffered FGM with almost three-quarters presenting themselves to health professionals.
Some 81 NHS trusts and 12 GP practices submitted data for one or more FGM attendances.
Tanya Barron, CEO of global children’s charity Plan UK, which works to combat FGM worldwide, says the new statistics highlight the extent of the problem in England.
‘These latest figures show we still have a way to go in the struggle to end FGM.
‘Much progress has been made, not least at community level, in changing attitudes around the world and helping tackle the problem where it occurs.
‘But more needs to be done both here in the UK and abroad to stop this fundamental human rights abuse.
‘Only by empowering millions of girls and young women globally with quality education and other support will we end FGM.’
Supermodel Waris Dirie, who was circumcised and had her vagina sewn up, campaigns against FGM
Last year, Home Secretary Theresa May said that in the UK, 137,000 women are living with the consequences of FGM and a 60,000 are at risk.
The figures she cited, from a report from City University London in collaboration with Equality Now, estimated that 10,000 girls aged under 15 who migrated to England and Wales are likely to have undergone FGM.
Last July, the Government launched a £1.4 million programme to tackle FGM, with the aim of ending the practice within a generation.
This included bringing in laws to prosecute parents if they fail to prevent their daughters being cut.
It also requires collecting data about FGM in hospitals in England and training both health professionals and police officers to respond appropriately to cases of FGM.
WHAT IS FGM?
Female genital mutilation is the practice in which some or all of the female genitals are removed, typically with a blade or a razor and sometimes without anaesthesia.
This includes removing the clitoral and the fold of skin above it, and removing labia – the inner ‘lips’ of the vagina.
In the most severe form, the inner and outer labia are removed and the opening of the vagina is closed with a small hole so the woman can pass urine and menstrual blood.
Sometimes the vagina is then cut open for sex or childbirth.
Women sometimes bleed to death or can be left with horrifying health effects, such as infections, chronic pain, cysts, infertility and problems giving birth.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), FGM is carried out for social and religious reasons and is an ‘extreme form of discrimination against women’.
FGM is estimated to lead to an extra one or two baby deaths per 100 deliveries worldwide.
Women with FGM also have increased risk of stillbirth, infants that need resuscitation and low birth weight babies.
The World Health Organisation recognises FGM as a ‘violation of the human rights of girls and women’.
‘It reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes, and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women,’ the agency said.
‘The practice violates a person’s rights to health, security and physical integrity, the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life when the procedure results in death.’
It is estimated that between 100 and 140 million girls and women around the world have undergone genital mutilation.
Each year around three million women are thought to be at risk.
FGM ranges from the partial or total removal of the clitoris, to the removal of the entire clitoris and the cutting of the labia minora.
In its most extreme form, all external genitalia is removed and the two sides of a woman or girl’s vulva are stitched together.
FGM is generally done without anaesthetic, and can have lifelong health consequences including chronic infection, severe pain during urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse, and childbirth and psychological trauma.
FGM has been a crime in the UK for 30 years, but there have been no convictions for the practice.