200 million women and girls across the world have undergone female genital mutilation. Today, half of these FGM survivors live in only three countries: Indonesia, Egypt and Ethiopia.
It’s easy to get lost in all the statistics, as every individual case of FGM is a violation of a woman or girl’s rights. Yet the new figure is striking because it reveals how far previous calculations underestimated the prevalence of FGM around the world. In reality, 70 million more women and girls have experienced FGM than studies estimated in 2014.
This means FGM is more widespread and entrenched than once believed. The latest numbers appeared in a new report from UNICEF, launched to mark International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM.
The report’s findings include new data from Indonesia, where accurate research on FGM had not previously been conducted, which accounts for the sharp rise. Although Indonesia outlawed FGM in 2006, it is still one of the countries where FGM is most pervasive.
The figures are stark, but the report does not have to spell bad news. The new information helps paint a clearer picture of the problem, equipping organisations and individuals fighting FGM with information to understand the scale of the challenge.
“Determining the magnitude of female genital mutilation is essential to eliminating the practice,” says Unicef Deputy Executive Director Dr. Geeta Rao Gupta.
It will take intervention on a global and local level to end the practice once and for all.
In some countries, FGM is the norm. 98% of women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 in Somalia have been cut. Across the world, the majority of girls forced to undergo this procedure are under the age of 5, powerless in the face of a brutal act that will have long term consequences on their health and wellbeing. After FGM, women often experience difficulty while menstruating or urinating, pain during sex, and are at higher risk of maternal or infant mortality. On top of this, the trauma of ritual cutting leaves mental as well as physical scars.
Still, the world is changing. More and more countries are outlawing FGM, and while the stats show this does not mean the procedure is wiped out in reality, it reflects an important shift in attitudes towards ritual cutting. Doctors and midwives across the world are offering reconstructive surgery to reverse the physical effects of FGM through reconstructive surgery. And FGM survivors are speaking out against the practice in their own communities, challenging cultural assumptions passed down through generations so that younger girls do not have to suffer the same fate.
While the numbers seem daunting at first glance, they are a forceful reminder of the work that still needs to be done -- building momentum for a worldwide drive to end FGM for good.