Taking Female Genital Cutting Out of US Shadows

Taking Female Genital Cutting Out of US Shadows

Zehra Patwa, a Connecticut resident and part of the Dawoodi Bohra Shiite Muslim community, is working with a nongovernmental group to support a draft bill in Connecticut’s legislature to criminalize female genital mutilation, or FGM. If passed, Connecticut wold join dozens of other US states to ban what FGM opponents call a “patriarchal” rite that is carried out on women and girls throughout the world to control their sexuality. The practice of …

Female genital mutilation, a human rights violation, is increasingly being performed in health facilities, with some 52 million women and girls having undergone it in medical settings, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned. It is urging them to refuse to perform it and to report its health risks. To this end, the UN health agency has published a code of conduct that expressly prohibits female genital mutilation and other forms of female…