Somalia: Somali Leaders Push to End Female Genital Mutilation

Somalia: Somali Leaders Push to End Female Genital Mutilation
By AllAfrica, 06 Feb 2014

Education is the only way to protect women and girls from the "barbaric act" of female genital mutilation, Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed said Thursday (February 6th) on the occasion of the 11th anniversary of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. Approximately 6.5 million Somali girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), otherwise known as female circumcision, according to a June 2013 report prepared by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Although support for the practice is waning, 98% of Somali women between the ages of 15 and 49 have been cut or mutilated -- the highest per capita percentage in the world, the report indicated. "FGM is not a religious practice; it is a horrific act that is simply an abuse of a young girl's human rights," Ahmed said in a statement. "Let us be clear it is an absolutely unacceptable practice and an act that will soon be illegal under Somali law, is against the provisional constitution and will be incorporated into our final constitution."
 

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