On Sunday, Mayar Mohamed Mousa, a 17-year-old Egyptian girl, died from complications following an illegal female genital mutilation surgery. CNN reports that Mousa and her twin sister were operated on by a registered physician in Egypt’s Suez province. Mousa’s twin sister survived the surgery, but Mayar likely died…
A harrowing new report from UNICEF has found that at least 200 million women and girls in 30 countries have been subjected to full or partial removal of their external genitalia, a bump of 70 million from 2014. New data from Indonesia, where nearly half of all girls under 14 have undergone the procedure, led to the…
At a rally on Monday evening, president of the Gambia Yahya Jammeh officially banned female genital mutilation (FGM) in the country effective immediately, prompting cheers from the crowd.
According to new numbers released by the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), the number of women at risk for female genital mutilation has practically doubled in the last decade. The latest numbers suggest that there are more than a half a million girls and women in the United States that are either at risk of…
After being prosecuted for the death of a 12-year-old girl whom he'd performed a female genital mutilation on, Egyptian doctor Rasdlan Fadl was acquitted of manslaughter in November. The trial was a first for Egypt, which had never before seen someone prosecuted over the controversial practice. The verdict was then…
The devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa has one slim silver lining: it's temporarily putting a stop to the female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone, where the procedure is traditionally performed on most pre-pubescent girls. Bloomberg reports that many FGM practitioners are refusing to do the procedure, because…
Earlier this year, Egypt broke some serious ground by arresting Dr. Raslan Fadl and charging him for manslaughter of Sohair al-Bata'a, a 12-year-old girl who died while he was performing a female genital mutilation (FGM) operation on her. Many hoped the case would deter both family members and doctors from continuing…
According to the United Nations, the radical Sunni Islamist group ISIS currently attempting to take over Iraq and Syria has demanded that those women and girls living in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul be genitally mutilated.
Activists and a few U.S. Representatives are trying to heighten awareness about female genital mutilation, especially regarding American girls in danger of harm during "vacation cutting season."
Though the horrific practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is seeing a global decline, a new report by the United Nations Children's Fund has found that it is "almost universal" in certain countries, with 98 percent of girls and women from ages 15-49 having undergone the torturous "tradition" in Somalia. As many…
A new Facebook game inspired by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof's book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, in which players are tasked with the goal of "raising awareness" of issues like female genital mutilation, child prostitution, and sex trafficking, launches early next…
The United Nations General Assembly's human rights committee unanimously voted to enact a global ban against female circumcision, instructing the UN's 193 member states to take direct action by enacting legislation and leading education campaigns for both young women and men in order to penalize violators and protect…
For years human rights organizations have been working to put an end to the tradition of cutting off a girl's clitoris, which an estimated 92 million African women and girls have been subjected to. Particularly rapid progress is being made in Senegal, thanks to a local movement that addresses the problem with…
San Francisco's municipal ballot this year may include a measure to ban the circumcision of baby boys. Considering some of the other things banned in San Francisco, it might actually have a shot.
Alice Dreger and Ellen K. Feder from Bioethics Forum have unearthed a 2007 study in which a doctor from Cornell University defends the practice of surgically cutting girls' clitorises. Disturbing, but his follow-up treatment is even worse.
Several weeks ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics came out with a revised policy on female genital mutilation in which they suggested doctors be allowed to "nick" girls' clitorises. Today, Ayaan Hirsi Ali responds.
Mrs. Goundo's Daughter is a documentary created by local filmmaking team Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater.
After years of condemning the practice, the American Academy of Pediatrics has rewritten their policy on female genital mutilation, advocating for state laws to allow doctors to give a "ritual nick" to girls' genitalia.
Comparing male circumcision to abortion may seem like a stretch, but Freddie at L'Hote actually has a pretty decent argument.
When Senegalese activist Marietou Diarra began to tell the story of the two daughters she lost to genital mutilation, it didn't matter that almost no one else in the room spoke Wolof. You could have heard a pin drop.
