Excerpt:
Young girls are being subjected to life-threatening genital mutilation at the hands of their own families with police warning they will investigate any suspected cases of the barbaric practice.
A task group of GPs, school nurses and midwives, has now been set up in Bradford to raise awareness of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) – a practice which involves the partial or total removal of the external female genital organs for cultural reasons, sometimes carried out with rusty razors.
FGM is prevalent in 28 African countries and it is estimated more than 20,000 girls under 15 are at high risk of FGM with 66,000 women in the UK, including an estimated 120 women in Bradford being seen by healthcare professionals at Bradford Royal Infirmary in the last 18 months.