FGM kills 44000 girls a year

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1758

' FGM kills 44 000 girls each year according to recent research, which analysed 15 African countries.1 This means that FGM is a bigger cause of death than malnutrition, measles, meningitis, HIV/Aids, and many other health threats for girls in the 15 countries studied.1 Yet, no major foundation prioritises funding to end FGM'
...
'We know that over three quarters of the FGM that is happening in Egypt or Sudan is carried out by medical professionals and the medicalisation trend is getting worse.4
This “medicalisation” of FGM is a dangerous trend because it can give the false impression that this violence can somehow be performed in a “safer” way.56 Medicalising FGM does not reduce the harm, it legitimises it. FGM is an act of torture that cannot be made safe no matter who performs it or in what setting it is performed.

That generally doesn't apply if there's a risk of harm, though?

But it wasn't direct. We weren't in a patient setting. This was purely for education. That is what I was told when I tentatively bought it up with the tutor the following week, at least!

I dont know if I could listen to someone admit they had that done to their kids in the UK and not see what steps I could take to report them.

Those statistics are truly horrifying.

Safeguarding law doesn't work like that. And procuring FGM for a child is also a criminal act. No professional should offer confidentiality for this. Its a complete breach of the law.
It's also given a worrying message to others on the course that it's OK to keep abuse of children a secret for ... reasons....

The irony being the tutor was teaching us Ethics and Law, too!
This was 2015 though so I don't know if things were different legally back then. I was worried but they all got their degrees and no one seemed to think they shouldn't despite their very wild views on what abuse (across the board) meant.

There's a statutory responsibility to report known cases of FGM in under 18s.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mandatory-reporting-of-female-genital-mutilation-procedural-information/mandatory-reporting-of-female-genital-mutilation-procedural-information-accessible-version

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/multi-agency-statutory-guidance-on-female-genital-mutilation

The links I provided were updated in 2020 but FGM has been a criminal offence in the UK since 1985.

Not having a go at you btw - just horrified at the institution failings

Yes I knew it was illegal at the time, however just from them discussing it we didn't have proof as specified there
"‘Known’ cases are those where either a girl informs the person that an act of FGM – however described – has been carried out on her, or where the person observes physical signs on a girl..."

I suppose its different from other abuse in a way, like if someone you worked with told you they tortured or beat up their kids you would do what you could do get the police involved, but I guess with that it had already happened. But what if they had more kids?

I'll tell you what annoys me!
It's when men and boys make out that FGM is just the equivalent of circ'ing a boy.
OMG
"How many boys does circ'ing kill?", I ask
"Well I don't know the exact figures", they say.
"I'll tell you", I say, "ONE - 20 years ago!".

Yes, exactly. I mean they were both in 40s so unlikely to have more kids, but I did think it should have been flagged somewhere at the very least. They know the groups that perform it in UK, so you'd think someone would want to discover what they knew to crack down on it. I think the lecturer wasn't 100% sure on their role in this instance with balancing inclusivity and trust within their lectures. I do think of their kids often though and wonder how they've navigated their teens and twenties here.

My god, "first do no harm" 😭

The numbers are staggering (& horrifying)

This annoys me too. Someone has just brought up circumcision as if there was an equivalence to FGM. It isn't.

I am truly horrified at the scale of this, which has shocked me. As has the medicalisation of this abhorrent practice. I could weep for these poor girls.

I know.
Cutting the foreskin of a tiny boy's penis may SOUND nasty but it actually is just that, just a snip, and it helps hygiene and helps PREVENT illnesses in both the boy and any future partners.
FGM is NOTHING like that. It is unnecessary, barbaric, can cause the girl untold problems (particularly with regards her urethra) and is done to have power over the female sex which shouldn't be had anyway.

A friend of mine did a dissertation on this very practice and found …. What is more horrifying this practice is encouraged and usually arranged , by mothers and matriarchs whom have had this carried out on themselves. Yet they believe it is the only way a girl/woman can remain ‘pure’. Men especially husbands and fathers in the Uk and other countries, fear for their daughters lives while at work or simply not at home
This should never be medicalised, however money talks!!!

Don't they remember their own pain?

Desperately sad.

Circumcision is no more necessary than FGM. It's not cleaner if you wash properly and not necessary to prevent illness. It also comes with it's own risks.

Horrific numbers OP. Quite unbelievable.

Surely they must but you wouldnt have thought it.

It may be no more "necessary" (tho some doctors may argue otherwise for hygienic reasons) but it isn't killing thousands of babies.

""How many boys does circ'ing kill?", I ask"

worldwide? who knows.

in one tribal community in south africa, dozens per year:

"The 2025 tribal 'initiation ceremony' where teenage males in South Africa undergo agonising circumcision has ended – with 39 deaths and dozens more boys mutilated.
Despite a target being set by the Government of zero fatalities this year, the figure is still a huge drop on last year where 93 died, while a total of 361 boys have died in the last five years."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14958121/Mass-circumcision-ceremony-South-Africa.html

Please can we not let the thread get sidetracked by male circumcision?

Its a whole other subject for a whole other thread.

Sometimes it is medically necessary if the foreskin won’t retract properly.