FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION: A New Generation Calls for Ending an Old Practice

FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION, A PRACTICE PERSISTING FOR CENTURIES, IS BECOMING LESS COMMON

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is becoming less common in countries where it was once universal, and in countries where it only occurred in a few communities

Percentage of adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years who have undergone FGM, in countries with a decline

Djibouti

Egypt

Sierra Leone

Eritrea

Sudan

Burkina Faso

Ethiopia

Mauritania

Liberia

Côte d’Ivoire

Kenya

Maldives

Central African Republic

Nigeria

Yemen

United Republic of Tanzania

Benin

Iraq

98

97

96

93

92

89

79

73

66

42

41

38

34

31

23

19

18

9

88

70

64

69

82

58

47

63

26

27

11

1

18

14

16

5

2

3

30 years ago Today

Percentage of adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years who have undergone FGM

Notes: Geographical boundaries, names and designations used on these maps do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. Trend data are not available for Indonesia. The geography of the Maldives does not allow subnational trends to be visualized at this scale. For some subnational regions which would otherwise not have sufficient sample size to produce reliable estimates, data have been merged to show an age group larger than the standard five-year cohort.

Notes: Countries included in this chart have a significantly lower prevalence of FGM today compared to 30 years ago. The chart excludes countries with a national prevalence below 5 per cent. Trend data are not available for Indonesia.

Areas where FGM is concentrated are shrinking

30 years ago

Above 80%51%–80%26%–50% 10%–25% Less than 10%

No data/FGM is not concentrated in these areas

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Today

WHILE CHANGE IS HAPPENING, PROGRESS IS NOT UNIVERSAL AND NOT FAST ENOUGH

Even in countries where the practice has become less common, progress would need to be at least 10 times faster to meet the global target of elimination by 2030

In some countries, the practice remains universal; in others, it is as common today as it was three decades ago

Percentage of adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years who have undergone FGM, in countries with a universal prevalence and/or without a decline

Percentage of adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years who have undergone FGM in countries with a decline in prevalence, observed, projected and required for elimination

Notes: This chart includes countries without a significant decline in the prevalence, and those for which the prevalence among the cohort aged 15 to 19 years is 90 per cent or higher. This chart excludes countries with a national prevalence below 5 per cent.

Notes: The trend line represents a population-weighted average of the prevalence in countries with at least a 5 per cent prevalence and that have seen a decline in the past 30 years. The acceleration required for elimination is compared to progress observed in the past 15 years. For statistical purposes, ‘elimination’ is defined as a prevalence of less than 1 per cent.

Progress must be at least 10 times faster

Somalia

Guinea

Mali

Gambia

Guinea-Bissau

Chad

Senegal

30 years ago

Today

2030

99

98

89

74

45

39

26

97

92

86

75

42

32

21

30 years ago Today

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ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE PRACTICE ARE SHIFTING. ADOLESCENT GIRLS CAN LEAD THE WAY TO ABANDONMENT OF THE PRACTICE

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard of FGM and think the practice should stop, in high-prevalence countries

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard of FGM and think the practice should stop, in high-prevalence countries, by age

Note: In high-prevalence countries, at least 50 per cent of girls and women have undergone FGM. Note: In high-prevalence countries, at least 50 per cent of girls and women have undergone FGM.

Notes: In Egypt and Somalia, attitudes towards FGM were calculated among all girls and women, since respondents were not first asked whether they had heard of the practice. Data for Liberia are not presented here since only girls and women who had undergone FGM were asked about their attitudes towards the practice. Data on attitudes towards FGM are not available for Indonesia.

Opposition is building, propelling momentum to abandon FGM. In the last two decades, the proportion of girls and women in high-prevalence countries who want the practice to stop has doubled

Adolescent girls are more likely than older women to oppose FGM. In Egypt, Guinea and Sierra Leone, adolescent girls are at least 50 per cent more likely than older women to oppose the practice

Burkina Faso

Eritrea

Ethiopia

Djibouti

Sudan

Gambia

Egypt

Mauritania

Somalia

Sierra Leone

Guinea

Mali

Total in high-prevalence

countriesAround 2000 Around 2007 Today

27%

44%

54%

0 10 5030 70 9020 6040 80 100

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard of FGM and think the practice should stop, total and among those who have undergone FGM

In countries affected by FGM, 7 in 10 girls and women think the practice should end. Even among communities that practise FGM, there is a notable level of opposition. Among girls and women who themselves have been cut, 5 in 10 think the practice should end

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Su

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Djib

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Eg

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So

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Sie

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Leo

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Gu

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Mal

i

Bu

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a Fa

so

Eth

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ia

Mau

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nia

Gam

bia

Gu

inea

-Bis

sau

Cô

te d

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ire

Ch

ad

Ken

ya

Sen

egal

Yem

en

Nig

eria

Mal

div

es

Tog

o

Iraq

Gh

ana

Ben

in

Cam

ero

on

Uga

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Nig

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Tota

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Above 80%FGM

prevalence: 51%–80% 26%–50% 10%–25% Less than 10%

0

10

50

30

70

20

60

40

80

90

100

Total Among those who have undergone FGM

15–19 years 45–49 years

Cen

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Afr

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R

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FGM has become increasingly medicalized. Around one in four girls and women who have undergone it (26 per cent or 52 million) were cut by health personnel. This proportion is twice as high among adolescents (34 per cent among those aged 15 to 19 years) compared to older women (16 per cent among those aged 45 to 49 years). Medicalization is extremely common in Egypt, where almost 80 per cent of girls who have undergone FGM were cut by medical personnel compared to 17 per cent of women aged 45 to 49 years.

There is no medical justification for FGM. Trained health professionals who perform the practice violate girls’ rights to life, physical integrity and health. Medicalizing the practice does not make it safer, as it still removes and damages healthy, normal tissue, and interferes with the natural functions of girls’ bodies. Further, if medical professionals are seen to perform and uphold the practice, this may strengthen its legitimacy and the social expectation that it will and should continue.

1 Cappa, Claudia, Luk Van Baelen and Els Leye, ‘The Practice of Female Genital Mutilation Across the World: Data availability and approaches to measurement’, Global Public Health, vol. 14, no. 8, 2019, pp. 1139–1152.

AN EMERGING TREND

At least 200 million girls and women have been subjected to FGM. New data from the Maldives add this country to the list of those with nationally representative data on the practice, bringing the total to 31. Additionally, local and small-scale research studies indicate that the practice exists in communities in over 20 countries across Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and South-eastern Asia,1 as well as among immigrant communities in Australia, North America and Western Europe. The exact number of girls and women who have undergone FGM in these places remains largely unknown.

A GLOBAL CONCERN

FGM is a violation of human rights. Every girl and woman has the right to be protected from this harmful practice, a manifestation of entrenched gender inequality with devastating consequences. FGM is now firmly on the global development agenda, most prominently in Sustainable Development Goal target 5.3, which aims to eliminate the practice by 2030.

A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION

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For information on the data in this brochure:

UNICEF Data and Analytics SectionDivision of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring3 United Nations PlazaNew York, NY 10017, USA

E-mail: data@unicef.orgWebsite: data.unicef.org

Suggested citation:

United Nations Children’s Fund, Female Genital Mutilation: A New Generation Calls for Ending an Old Practice, UNICEF, New York, 2020.

Data sources: UNICEF global databases, 2020, based on Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and other nationally representative surveys, 2004–2018. For detailed source information by country, please see <data.unicef.org>.