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There are 30 million girls under the age of 15 years at risk of suffering mutilation, said UN today in the International Day of Zero Tolerance against mutilation. However, the numbers of women that have suffered genital mutilation has decreased in the last years.
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"In 29 countries of Africa and the Middle East, where this practice is more common, 36% of girls between 15 and 19 have been mutilated, compared to 59% of woomen between 45 and 49 years that suffered this practice", declared in a press release the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UNICEF.
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According to UN data, 120 million of girls and women in those 29 countries, live with the consequences of suffering genital mutilation, and 30 million under 15 years old are in risk of suffering this practice.
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Of the 120 million women mutilated, 92 million live in Africa, while a yearly average of 3 million girls are victims of genital mutilation for religious or cultural reasons.
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"This progress shows that it is possible to end this practice. It is something deeply wrong, we can and must stop it so millions of girls and women have a healthy life," said UNICEF's executive director, Anthony Lake.
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However, according to new data given by the UN, this practice, which can have severe consequences for women such as urinary problems, infections, infertility, or birth complication, "is losing prevalence, and the younger generations are less vulnerable to be affected."
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Since 2008, the moment in which the joint program between UNFPA and UNICEF was established, about 10 thousand communitiesof 15 different countries, which represents about 8 million people, have quit this practice.
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In 2012, 1,775 communities in Africa publicly compromised to end female genital mutilation.
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Even in countries where there is a big prevalence of this cases, the attitudes towards this practice is changing.
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For example in Egypt, where 90 per cent of girls and women have been mutilated, the percentage of married women between 15 and 49 years think this practice, which has double between 1995 and 2008, has doubled, going from 13 to 28 per cent in the last year, according to UN.
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"La resolución, que fue adoptada por consenso, no es el final sino el comienzo de los esfuerzos para la eliminación de esta práctica", manifestó el embajador de la Unión Africana (UA) ante Naciones Unidas, Jean-Marie Ehouzou.
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Jean Marie Ehouzou, African union ambassador to the UN said that this practice cannot be justified from a religious point of view, because no religion establishes genital mutilation as a moral obligation.
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Morissanda Kouyate, executive director of Inter-African Committee on Harmful Traditional Practice, pleaded for giving more power to women as the key to break with this cycle of discrimination and violence.
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There are 30 million girls under the age of 15 years at risk of suffering mutilation, said UN today in the International Day of Zero Tolerance against mutilation. However, the numbers of women that have suffered genital mutilation has decreased in the last years.
Photo: Getty Images
