Five things you didn’t know about female genital mutilation/cutting
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More than 125 million women and girls in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East have experienced Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C). UNICEF released a report on FGM/C last year that revealed some thought-provoking attitudes about the practice.
Here are five things about FGM/C that might surprise you:
- Boys and men state strong support for stopping the practice. It’s often presumed that men condone FGM/C and that it is one of the ways that they keep women subservient. This appears not to be the case. In fact, in countries such as Guinea, Sierra Leone and Chad, substantially more men than women want to see FGM/C end.
- Girls and women consistently underestimate the proportion of boys and men who want FGM/C to end. In many countries, a large percentages of both women and men are unaware of what the opposite sex thinks about FGM/C.
- The majority of girls and women want FGM/C to end. Girls’ and women’s attitudes about whether or not FGM/C should continue vary widely across the...
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