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Who is affected by excision?
More than 28 African countries still carry out excision and infibulation on young girls. Genital mutilation is practised for the most part in sub-Saharan Africa and on the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Oman). On a lesser scale, genital mutilation is also practised by certain groups in the near East (Iraq, Israel), in Asia (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka) and in Latin America (Colombia, Peru).
In the African countries concerned, mutilation is carried out by old women, traditional midwives or barbers, or sometimes by doctors or midwives in a sanitary environment, even though this is forbidden by the WHO.
In western countries where there are communities who originate from these countries, young girls are still victims of excision. The families contact a circumciser from their home country or send their daughter on holidays back to their country where she will undergo excision. The mutilation is generally performed when the child is between 4 and 14 years old, but might also take place when the child is just a few months old or just before marriage, depending on the culture. Although it appears that FGM was originally seen as a "rite of passage" between childhood and adulthood, in more recent years the age for excision has fallen. The reason: the younger the girls, the less they will struggle and the easier it is to operate.
Prevalence of FGM
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