Britain is to launch a major campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM) around the world as part of an ambitious effort to wipe out the brutal practice in a generation.
Lynne Featherstone, international development minister responsible for women, is expected to announce a multi-million pound FGM programme on International Women’s Day on Friday. Its aim is to reduce FGM rates by 30 percent in five years.
Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) said the project would contribute to a broader goal of ending the millennia-old ritual in a generation.
Up to 140 million women and girls worldwide are thought to have undergone FGM, which involves the partial or total removal of external genitalia.
The practice, performed by traditional cutters using anything from razor blades to broken glass, is found in 28 African countries, parts of the Middle East and Asia, as well as immigrant populations in the west.
Featherstone says the issue has long been neglected in international development circles because it has been considered too sensitive to tackle.
Practising communities see the ritual as a prerequisite for marriage and often believe it is a religious requirement.
But campaigners say FGM - also called female genital cutting (FGC) - is a grave human rights violation which can cause a host of serious physical and psychological problems. Girls can bleed to death or may have childbirth complications later in life.
“FGC is perhaps the severest manifestation of discrimination against women and girls,” Featherstone told a recent event in London to mark International Day of Zero Tolerance to FGM.
“The time is now. We have a great opportunity to support a generational change. DFID will play its part, and it’s my ambition to help end FGC in a generation.”
DFID could not give further details of the new programme ahead of Friday’s announcement but confirmed that tens of millions of pounds of foreign aid would be allocated to building a global movement against the practice. Activities will include working directly with communities that carry out FGM to change their beliefs.
In December the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on all member states to end FGM. But many campaigners working in countries where FGM is prevalent doubt the practice can be eliminated in a generation.
They point out that FGM is deeply engrained in many communities, predating both Islam and Christianity – neither of which requires or endorses it.