Every year, millions of girls and women around the world face the risk of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM). The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines FGM as comprising “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other inquiry to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.
While the customs and traditions that propagate FGM differ from community to community, the practice is generally carried out between infancy and 15 years, and has severe socio-economic, physical, emotional, sexual and health outcomes, including death.