Female genital mutilation in the United Kingdom

Female genital mutilation in the UK refers to the ritual removal of some or all of the external female genitalia of women living in the United Kingdom. Nearly 66,000 women in England and Wales were living with FGM in 2001, according to the only available national estimate.^[1] As of 2014 up to 24,000 girls under the age of 15 are believed to be at risk of FGM in the United Kingdom.^[2] It is an offence in the UK to perform FGM on children or adults. The Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act 1985 outlawed it, and the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 and the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005 made it an offence to arrange it outside the country for British citizens or permanent residents.^[3] Taking a UK citizen or permanent resident abroad for the purpose of FGM is a criminal offence whether or not it is lawful in the country the girl is taken to.^[4]

In 1983 Efua Dorkenoo founded the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development (FORWARD), a British NGO that supports women who have experienced FGM and tries to eliminate the practice.^[5][6]

In November 2013, a coalition of Royal Colleges, trade unions and Equality Now launched a report at the House of Commons titled, "Tackling FGM in the UK: Intercollegiate recommendations for identifying, recording and reporting".^[7] The first prosecutions of FGM in the United Kingdom were brought in March 2014, against a physician, Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena, and another man, after the physician performed FGM on a patient in London who had given birth.^[8][9] A doctor in Birmingham, Ali Mao-Aweys, was struck off the medical register in 2014 after discussing in April 2012 how to arrange FGM with an undercover journalist.^[10] Since April 2014, all NHS hospitals are able to record if a patient has undergone FGM or if there is a family history of this, and since September 2014, all acute hospitals have to report this data to the Department of Health, on a monthly basis.^[11] Also in 2014, Britain's first specialist clinic for child victims of FGM opened in London.^[12]

Also in 2014, 17-year-old Brighton student Fahma Mohamed created an online petition with Change.org on the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (February 6), asking Michael Gove, then the education secretary in the UK, to write to the leaders of all primary and secondary schools in the United Kingdom, encouraging them to be alert to the dangers of FGM.^[2][13] The petition attained more than 230,000 supporters and was one of the fastest growing UK petitions on Change.org.^[2] Michael Gove met with Fahma Mohamed and members of the youth group Integrate Bristol, who have also played a key role in raising awareness of FGM.^[2] He also sent a letter to all headteachers in England informing them of new guidelines on children's safety, including guidance on FGM. These new guidelines marked the first time the safeguarding guidelines included specific mention of FGM and encouraged teachers to be vigilant against it.^[2]

In October 2014 it was announced that, according to the first official figures to be published on the numbers of FGM cases seen by hospitals in England, over 1,700 women and girls who have undergone FGM have been treated by the NHS since April 2014.^[14]

In January 2015, a British doctor, Dhanuson Dharmasena, went on trial accused of performing female genital mutilation on a young mother after she gave birth at the Whittington Hospital in north London, in what is the first prosecution of its kind in the UK.^[15] Dharmasena and another man were found not guilty on 4 February 2015. Dharmasena stated he had performed a single figure-of-eight stitch to stem bleeding following child birth.^[16]

See also

• Comfort Momoh

References