Prevalence of female genital mutilation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting (FGC), female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision,[2] is practiced in 30 countries in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa,[3] in parts of the Middle East[4][5] and Asia,[6][7] and within some immigrant communities in Europe, North America and Australia.[3][8][9] The WHO defines the practice as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."[10]
In a 2013 UNICEF report covering 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, Egypt had the region's highest total number of women that have undergone FGM (27.2 million), while Somalia had the highest percentage (prevalence) of FGM (98%).[11]
The world's first known campaign against FGM took place in Egypt in the 1920s.[11] FGM prevalence in Egypt in 1995 was still at least as high as Somalia's 2013 world record (98%), despite dropping significantly since then among young women.[12] Estimates of the prevalence of FGM vary according to source.