6 February – International Day against Female Genital Mutilation

Female Genital Mutilation is a form of violence that tramples on the rights of girls and young women, putting their physical and psychological health at risk, and that must see us all engaged in a battle that is not just about women but has to do with the development of the entire human race. At least 200 million girls and women in the world today live with the scars of some form of genital mutilation suffered in the course of their lives.

Genital mutilation is mainly performed on girls between the ages of 4 and 14. However, in some countries, girls younger than one year of age are operated on, as is the case in 44% of cases in Eritrea and 29% of cases in Mali, or even infants just a few days old, as in Yemen. The practice can cause short-, medium- and long-term complications, including chronic pain, infection, increased risk of HIV transmission, anxiety and depression, birth complications, infertility and, in the worst cases, death”.

(Source: Italian Ministry of Health)

According to the UN Secretary General’s recent report on the implementation of the Beijing Declaration on the Rights of Women and its Platform for Action, by 2030 more than one in three girls will be born in regions where this abhorrent practice is prevalent, with the result that at least 68 million girls will be at risk.

(Source: Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Estimates for Italy

The migratory flows that have affected Italy in recent decades have brought the issue of FGM to the forefront in our country as well. For this reason, at different times and with different methodologies, different estimates have been made on the number of excision women and the prevalence among some of the most numerous female origins. The latest survey conducted during 2019 reveals the presence of 87,600 excision women on 1 January 2018, of which 7600 were minors.