An estimated 145 women & girls are victims of FGM each year in Coventry alone…

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) also known as ‘cutting’ or female circumcision affects nearly 140 million women in the world, over 20,000 girls in the UK each year and an estimated 145 women and girls in Coventry. It is a severe form of child abuse – often promoted by loving parents under pressure from their communities or because they think it is the right thing to do.

The World Health Organisation defines it as all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The most extreme form of FGM (which is carried out on 90% of girls in Somalia) involves cutting out all the external genitalia and sewing up the girl’s vagina.

Girls are cut open, often with a razor blade by the mother-in-law, on the marriage night to enable sexual penetration. In some countries FGM is carried out on newborns, and in others during adolescence. FGM results in severe pain, serious problems in childbirth, physical disability and psychological damage. In the worst cases, it can result in death.

It can be committed on girls from any age but the most common ages are between 5 and 8 years old. It is traditionally carried out by women with no medical training using a knives, scissors, scalpels, pieces of glass or razor blades with no anaesthetic. It is practised in up to 28 African countries and some countries in Asia and the Middle East.

FGM is a very serious form of child abuse and has been illegal in the UK since 1985. There is no cultural or religious justification for FGM. The current Government has committed to work to eradicate FGM within a generation.

FGM is practised for a number of different reasons and different communities practice for different reasons. Professor Hazel Barratt of Coventry University has recently received funding from the European Union for her Replace 2 project. It aims to continue the work of the successful Replace 1 project working with representatives from organisations in six European nations: UK, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands sharing knowledge and training expertise at supporting people wishing to end FGM by understanding why people practise it and the different perspectives of men and women from practising communities.

For more information about FGM visit: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/female-genital-mutilation-fgm/what-is-fgm/

Michelle Lowe with Public Health Minister, Jane Ellison MP, who chaired the all-party Parliamentary Group on FGM and is 100% committed to ending the practice within a generation.