Female genital mutilation (FGM) continues to plague Guinea-Bissau with more than half of girls and women aged 15 to 49 having been subjected to the practice, reports the Portuguese digital news outlet Notícias ao Minuto.
The Guinean Human Rights League shared the disturbing statistic in a Facebook statement marking the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation last Friday. The NGO echoed UN Women, emphasising that FGM constitutes a serious violation of human rights and a major public health problem, with long-lasting physical, psychological and social consequences.
“It is a practice with no medical or religious basis, which compromises the full development of girls and perpetuates gender inequalities,” the organisation wrote.
FGM includes different forms of intervention on the external genitalia for non-medical reasons, ranging from cuts to the vaginal lips to the removal of the clitoris, anthropologist Alice Frade told the Portuguese news agency Lusa. Procedures are often performed without any form of anaesthesia or proper medical equipment.
More than 230 million girls and women worldwide have been subjected to the brutal practice and an estimated 4.5 million girls – many under the age of 5 – will join their ranks in 2026 alone.
[See more: Guinea-Bissau launches fresh drive to end child marriage]
According to UNICEF, among women and girls in Guinea-Bissau aged 15 to 49, at least 52 percent have undergone the practice, the vast majority (89%) before the age of 5. Factors like living in rural areas (69%), being middle-class (70%), lacking education (72%) and coming from Muslim families (90%) all contribute to the likelihood of undergoing FGM.
Opposition to the practice, which was formally outlawed in 2011, is relatively high with more than three-quarters of people aged 15 to 49 (76%) believing FGM should stop. Even within practicing communities, most women and girls (62%) believe the practice should be discontinued.
One of those women is Fatumata Djau Baldé, who previously served as minister of foreign affairs. Mutilated at the age of 9, Baldé has spent decades working to end FGM, sitting down with Portuguese magazine Máxima last week for a lengthy interview on the subject.
“There are various types of violence perpetrated against women in their daily lives, but consequences like those of FGM accompany the victim for the rest of her life,” the 71-year-old reflected. “A mutilated child will never cease to be one, until death. Every time I talk about the practice, it’s as if I’m being subjected to it again.”
