More than 130 million girls and women have
experienced some form of Female Genital Mutilation, FGM in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East
where the harmful practice is most common, the United Nations International Children
Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has said.
NaijaAgroNet
reports that this is coming as UNICEF raised alarm that over 700 million women
alive today were married as children.
The world body made the disclosure in a
statement released today in United Kingdom as the UK government and UNICEF played
host to a first-ever Girl Summit to rally support for much faster progress to
end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage – two practices that
affect millions of girls across the globe.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake
stressed that FGM and child marriage profoundly and permanently harm girls,
denying them their right to make their own decisions and to reach their full
potential. In his words, they (FGM and child marriage) are detriments to the
girls themselves, their families, and their societies. “Girls are not property;
they have the right to determine their destiny. When they do so, everyone
benefits”, he said.
According
to UNICEF, more than 1 in 3 – or some 250 million – were married before 15. The
body believes that girls who marry
before they turn 18 are less likely to remain in school and more likely to
experience domestic violence.
In the report titled: No time to lose: New
UNICEF data show need for urgent action on female genital mutilation and child
marriage , young teenage girls are more likely to die due to complications in
pregnancy and childbirth than women in their 20s; their infants are more likely
to be stillborn or die in the first month of life.
The report discloses that beyond extreme
physical and psychological pain, girls who undergo FGM are at risk of prolonged
bleeding, infection, infertility and death and adds that child marriage is even
more widespread and can lead to a lifetime of disadvantage and deprivation.
“Overall, an adolescent girl today is about
a third less likely to be cut than 30 years ago. Kenya and Tanzania have seen
rates drop to a third of their levels three decades ago through a combination
of community activism and legislation. In the Central African Republic, Iraq,
Liberia and Nigeria, prevalence has dropped by as much as half. Attitudes are
also changing: recent data show that the majority of people in the countries
where FGM is practiced believe it should end, but continue to compel their daughters
to undergo the procedure because of strong social pressure.
But without far more intensive and
sustained action now from all parts of society, hundreds of millions more girls
will suffer profound, permanent, and utterly unnecessary harm”, the statement
said.
The report maintains that if rates of
decline seen in the past three decades are sustained, the impact of population
growth means the number of women married as children (more than 700 million)
will remain flat through 2050; and up to 63 million more girls could be cut by
2050.
The report also argues that doubling the
rate of decline would bring the number of women married as children down to 570
million by 2030 and 450 million by 2050.
“The numbers tell us we must accelerate our
efforts. And let’s not forget that these numbers represent real lives. While
these are problems of a global scale, the solutions must be local, driven by
communities, families and girls themselves to change mindsets and break the
cycles that perpetuate FGM/C and child marriage. We can’t let the staggering
numbers numb us – they must compel us to act”, Lake said.
Chukwudi Obi
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