What Are WHO's New Recommendations To End Female Genital Mutilation?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) published new guidelines to curtail the rising 'medicalisation' of female genital mutilation and mobilise health workers to prevent the practice. Although the health sector plays a key role in ending FGM and supporting survivors, evidence suggests the practice is now increasingly performed by health professionals. The new guidelines, titled The Prevention of Female Genital Mutilation and Clinical Management of Complications, provide recommendations to both prevent the practice and ensure evidence-based care for survivors.

As of 2020, an estimated 52 million girls and women were subjected to FGM at the hands of health workers - around 1 in 4 cases. According to the latest available data, at least 4 million girls and women in 30 countries undergo female genital mutilation every year. The new WHO guidelines cover actions for the health sector, governments, and affected communities.

WHO’s new guideline recommends professional codes of conduct that prohibit health workers from performing FGM. It also recognises their respective role within communities, emphasising the need to positively engage and train health workers for prevention. In addition to prevention, the guideline includes several clinical recommendations to help ensure access to empathetic, high-quality medical care for FGM survivors.

WHO on FGM

Dr Pascale Allotey, WHO’s Director for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, said in the report that FGM is a severe violation of girls’ rights and critically endangers their health. “The health sector has an essential role in preventing FGM – health workers must be agents for change rather than perpetrators of this harmful practice, and must also provide high-quality medical care for those suffering its effects," she said. 

Christina Pallitto, a scientist at WHO and United Nations’ Special Programme for Human Reproduction (HRP) led the development of the new guidelines. She said, "Research shows that health workers can be influential opinion leaders in changing attitudes on FGM, and play a crucial role in its prevention. Engaging doctors, nurses and midwives should be a key element in FGM prevention and response, as countries seek to end the practice and protect the health of women and girls.”

The United Nations on FGM

UN Women's Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General, "The cutting and sewing of a young child’s private parts so that she is substantially damaged for the rest of her life, has no sensation during sex except probably pain, and may well face further damage when she gives birth, is to many an obvious and horrifying violation of that child’s rights."

Some facts on FGM

• Globally, it is estimated that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM.
• Girls 14 and younger represent 44 million of those who have been cut, with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age in Gambia at 56 per cent, Mauritania 54 per cent and Indonesia, where around half of girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice.
• Countries with the highest prevalence among girls and women aged 15 to 49 are Somalia, 98 per cent; Guinea, 97 per cent; and Djibouti, 93 per cent.
• FGM is mostly carried out on young girls, aged between infancy and age 15.
• FGM causes severe bleeding and health issues, including cysts, infections, infertility, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
• FGM is a violation of the human rights of girls and women.

To subject a girl to this kind of control from an early age violates her rights and conditions her to stay enslaved under the false blanket of tradition and culture. The countries that observe such practices are also the ones where there are high rates of gender inequality, poor female health, and low education for girls. Women are subjected to more domestic responsibilities, and their free will is out of the question. It should also be noted that girls are more likely to be subjected to if their mothers are uneducated.

A vicious cycle that sees no end is created by such practices in countries that believe in these "traditions". The day is recognised to inform people about the kind of gender control that takes place even today around the world. These are the practices that hinder the process of equality and limit women's empowerment.

The idea that enslavement to oppressive rituals has been happening for years creates a mindset amongst these women who are taught to believe that THIS is normal. And hence comes the importance of this day. It is NOT normal to alter a woman's body without her consent. It is NOT normal to not give her a choice. It is NOT normal to confine her to the four walls of the house and use her as a reproductive machine.

Views expressed by the author are their own.