Report on ender- ased Report on ender- ased

FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING
The international community is paying increased attention to female genital
cutting (FGC), citing the practice as a threat to women’s health and a human
rights violation. The practice (also known as female circumcision and female genital
mutilation) is steeped in tradition in many countries in Africa, as well as in
some Asian, Middle Eastern, European, and North American communities. The
procedure, seen as an impediment to a girl’s sexual enjoyment, varies from the
partial or total removal of external genitalia to the narrowing of the vaginal opening.
The girls are known to experience intense pain, bleeding, painful or abnormal
menstruation, infections, or trauma when they undergo this procedure.
Efforts to end the practice focus on legal initiatives and on improving the status
of women socially and economically to enhance their ability to make choices. As
the following experiences in Uganda illustrate, some community initiatives place
the education of girls at the center of their efforts. FGC has been banned in roughly
one-third of the 28 African countries in which it is practiced.