Instead of declining, rates of female genital mutilation/ cutting rose by 15% in 8 years

Ten years back at the United Nations General Assembly, all world leaders promised to eliminate harmful practice of female genital mutilation/ cutting (SDG-5 target 5.3) by 2030.

- BY SHOBHA SHUKLA - CNS

But instead of declining, female genital mutilation/cutting has increased by 15% over the past 8 years: from 200 million in 2016 to over 230 million in 2024.More than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting in 92 countries mostly in Africa (144 million), the Middle East (6 million), and Asia (80 million) where it is practiced still. Female genital mutilation/cutting is a violation of the human rights of girls and women. Without urgent, accelerated action, an additional 27 million girls are projected to undergo the procedure by 2030.

"We cannot meet SDGs when half the population is harmed, silenced or excluded. Development justice demands that policies centre women's safety, agency, and bodily integrity. Female genital mutilation/cutting is a human rights violation," says Dr Huda Syyed, an Australia-based researcher, Founder of Sahara Sisters' Collective and a key part of Asian Network to end female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C).

The devil of patriarchy ferments such gruesome and shocking practices like female genital mutilation/cutting. After all, patriarchy is all about wrongly 'normalising' male privileges, entitlements and rights (and pleasures) and 'legitimising' their denial to women and girls and other genders.

FGM/C is a gross human rights violation

According to the UN health agency the World Health Organization (WHO), the practice of female genital mutilation/ cutting is recognised internationally as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.