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Yemen National Plan to accelerate FGM eradication
"It is perhaps the single most social, brutal procedure surviving the 21st century that can be inflicted on a female. Internationally recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), or ‘khitan’ as it is known in Arabic, includes procedures that intentionally alter or damage female genital organs for non-medical reasons. In Yemen, women and children continue to suffer from harmful traditional practices, including FGM.
"The procedure, often performed with nothing more technologically advanced than a razor blade, has absolutely no health benefits. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 100 to 140 million girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of FGM.
"Ritual cutting and alteration of the genitalia of female infants, some as young as 80 days old, girls, and adolescents has been a tradition since antiquity. It persists today primarily in Africa and among small communities in the Middle East and Asia. The spectrum of these genital procedures has been termed female circumcision, or more frequently, Female Genital Mutilation as a collective name to describe and emphasize the physical disfigurement associated with the practice. In Africa alone, about three million girls are at risk for FGM annually. [...]
To read the complete article: http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1208&p=health&a=1
Source: Yemen Times (Yemen), by Salma Ismail, November 18, 2008
Posted at: 2008-11-18
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