Let’s talk circumcision. Everyone’s favorite topic right? Ha ha ha….

Let’s focus though specifically on female genital mutilation (FGM). I know it’s not a fun topic to talk about, but there’s some great news for girls and women that deserves to be shared. Not only has Nigeria officially banned FGM country-wide, but Egypt is pushing a campaign to end FGM once and for all.

Egypt banned FGM in 2008 but that doesn’t mean that the practice has stopped. The traditional beliefs behind circumcising women are that it will keep girls virgins until marriage and keep married women faithful to their husbands. The problem is that this belief is rooted in the culture of these countries, so as long as the society still accepts the practice, law won’t do much to stop it. That’s the major concern with Nigeria’s ruling too: it will take more than a law to abolish FGM- there needs to be a cultural shift as well.

But I said good news right? Well these are major steps forward towards ending this practice of controlling women’s sexuality. The campaign from Egypt’s government is pushing for this campaign to decrease FGM by 10-15% in the next five years. Currently 90% of the female population suffers from FGM, so I’d say it’s a good start!

The campaign includes mobilizing doctors and judges against the practice so that more people say “no” to fathers and husbands that want to bring their daughters and wives in for the surgery.

A commercial is launching that features a father saying saying no to having FGM performed on his daughter. It will be targeted specifically in rural areas where the problem is worse.

Hopefully this campaign will be promising enough to become an example for other countries--like Nigeria--that want to see an end to FGM.

There’s still a lot of work to go but it’s important to focus on the good moments when there is one. Government officials are finally taking a stand on violence against women and are committed to ending FGM.