More Than 21,000 Girls Younger Than Age 15 In England, Wales At Risk Of Genital Cutting, Study Says

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 12 Oct 2007 - 10:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

More than 21,000 girls younger than age 15 in England and Wales are at risk of undergoing genital cutting -- sometimes referred to as female circumcision or female genital mutilation -- according to a study funded by the United Kingdom Department of Health and conducted by the not-for-profit group Forward, London's Guardian reports (Williams, Guardian, 10/10).

Female genital cutting is a practice in which there is a partial or full removal of the labia, clitoris or both. About 6,000 girls undergo the genital cutting, and the World Health Organization estimates that 100 million to 140 million women worldwide have undergone the practice. At least 90% of women who undergo genital cutting live in developing countries -- such as Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan -- while almost no women undergo the procedure in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, according to UNICEF (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 9/21).

A 2003 U.K. law bans conducting the procedure in the country or abroad, and being convicted of conducting the procedure is punishable by up to 14 years in prison, but there have been no prosecutions under the measure. London's Metropolitan Police in July launched a campaign that aims to eradicate female genital cutting in the United Kingdom by highlighting the practice as a crime. Detective Chief Superintendent Alastair Jeffrey said the police is offering a $40,000 reward for information that leads to the country's first prosecution for the practice (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/12).

Researchers from Forward, City University-London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine used 2001 census records of women and girls who had immigrated to the United Kingdom from 29 countries known to practice female genital cutting, including Ethiopia, Senegal, Somalia and Sudan. An estimated 11,000 girls older than age eight in England and Wales have undergone the procedure, and the number of infants born to women who have undergone genital cutting increased from 6,000 in 2001 to about 9,000 in 2004, according to the study (Guardian, 10/10). The estimate of the number of girls at risk of genital cutting likely is low because many women are unwilling to discuss the practice, Forward said.

Reaction
Forward said that health workers and local officials should do more to stop the practice. "We expect that on the ground at local authority level, the health professionals and the schools would be alert to it so they would actually mainstream the prevention into what they do," Efua Dorkenoo, Forward's founder, said (BBC News, 10/9). Dorkenoo added that the study "represents a major first stop to fill the gap in available data" on the practice.

Programs should be implemented in schools to make teachers aware of the practice and signs that might indicate a girl has undergone or is at risk of undergoing the procedure, Maureen Salmon, Forward's interim director, said, adding that such programs also should provide a list of agencies teachers can contact if they believe a student has been exposed to the practice (Guardian, 10/10).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

• Additional
• References
• Citations