FGM Victims ‘In Every Part Of England and Wales’

Building on interim findings published in 2014, the updated report offers local prevalence estimates to help authorities plan support services for women effected.

Local authorities must work harder to protect girls at risk of female genital mutilation as research suggests there is no area of England and Wales not affected by the practice.

Last week Bedfordshire police used the UK’s first ever FGM protection order to seize the passports of two young girls who it was thought could be taken to Africa to be mutilated.

Other authorities, including Milton Keynes, Cardiff, Coventry, Sheffield, Reading, Thurrock, Northampton and Oxford had rates of over 0.7%.

The latest report from City University London and Equality Now provides detailed estimates of FGM for each local authority area in England and Wales. The rates there ranged from 1.2% to 1.6%. Southwark also reportedly has the highest percentage of women born to mothers with FGM, at 10.4 per cent of all births (of girls) in Southwark.

The report comes a year after the historic Girl Summit at which David Cameron vowed to crack down on FGM. A consultation on introducing mandatory reporting for professionals in the UK will be launched this week.

FGM, which involves the partial or complete removal of the external genitalia, is considered a necessary pre-marriage ritual for girls in many countries, but it can cause lasting physical and psychological damage and even death.

Report author Prof Alison Macfarlane, of City University London, said: “It is important not to stigmatise women who have undergone FGM, or assume that their daughters are all at risk, as many families have given up FGM on migration and attitudes have changed in some of their countries of origin”. We hope that the UK can become a model for other countries in terms of ending FGM, but psychological, emotional and medical support is still urgently needed for survivors, so we can break the cycle once and for all.

Estimates came from calculating the number of women in Britain who were born in countries where FGM is practiced, how common the practice is in those countries and where the victims live now.

“They suggest that women who have undergone FGM are living in virtually every part of England and Wales”. This is what the law is for – protecting girls, so this extreme form of violence against girls can be eliminated in this generation.

She said this response should include prevention, support for survivors and other measures to ensure work was “joined up and effective at every level”.

Sioned Churchill, director of special initiatives & evaluation at Trust for London, said: “This new data shows that no local authority in England or Wales is likely to be without women and girls who have survived the pain of FGM”.