10-year-old Girl Dies After Genital Mutilation
Female Genital Mutilation is a popular practice in Somalia that involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia.
A 10-year-old girl has become yet another fallen victim at the hands of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia two days after the circumciser possibly cut an important vein during the procedure according to Hawa Aden Mohamed with the Galkayo Education Center for Peace and Development. Somalia is known to have the largest rate of FGM, and this has been called a rare confirmed death.
Although FGM is prohibited in the nation through its constitution, roughly 98% of females in Somalia undergo FGM according to the United Nations. Mohamed shared that there are no laws or punishments being enforced in an effort to stop these circumcisions. She believes that lawmakers are, “afraid of losing their political clout among the all-powerful conservative traditional and religious groups bent at retaining the practice.”
Due to the secrecy of the ritual, it is not often that deaths due to the procedure are confirmed. An estimated 3.9 million females are subjected to the circumcision annually, and will only increase unless action is taken. However, not everyone is opposed to this practice, as some see it as a religious requirement.
For more information about FGM, click here.
