UK: Uphill Battle in Fight Against FGM
More than 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are believed to be at high risk of FGM in England and Wales this year alone, according to government estimates.
UK: Uphill Battle in Fight Against FGM
Soeren Kern | Gatestone Institute | July 1, 2014
Thousands of schoolgirls in the United Kingdom are at high risk of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) during this year’s summer break, according to the British government, which is actively promoting several nationwide campaigns aimed at raising awareness of the spiraling problem.
The summer holiday—often referred to as the “cutting season”—is an especially dangerous time for at-risk girls, anti-FGM activists warn. Many families consider the summer to be a convenient time to carry out the procedure because there is time for the girls to heal before they return to school in the fall.
British girls are often sent abroad during the summer to be mutilated by “house doctors” in their ancestral countries. Others are being sent to Dubai and Singapore for a more “medicalized” form of FGM. But equally large numbers of girls are being cut in Britain, according to London’s Metropolitan Police Service.
More than 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are believed to be at high risk of FGM in England and Wales this year alone, according to government estimates.
Britain’s FGM problem is massive and growing, but observers say the solutions implemented so far to reverse the trend have been largely ineffective. Despite years of private and public sector efforts aimed at stopping the practice, there is now a very real sense that the UK’s fight against FGM is failing to gain traction.
