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Human Rights Watch Report:
IRAQ-KURDISTAN - CALL TO END FGM -
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION - REPORT
16 June 2010
Human Rights Watch has called on authorities in the
autonomous Iraqi region of
A report issued by
the group on Wednesday said the practice was widespread in Iraqi Kurdistan, and
was having a harmful effect on the physical and emotional health of many women.
It called on the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to enact legislation to ban the practice on
young girls or unconsenting adult women.
It also called on
the KRG to launch a public awareness campaign on its damaging and dangerous
consequences.
Female circumcision
is virtually unknown in the rest of
'Sexual urges stifled'
It has no
particular origins in Islam, although some clerics in
There are no
comprehensive statistics, but a number of recent surveys have shown it to be
surprisingly widespread.
One survey carried
out early last year by the KRG's Human Rights Ministry suggested that 40% of
girls and young women had undergone the procedure in the Chamchamal area,
between
An earlier study by
the German-Iraqi NGO Wadi in a broad area between
The cutting is often done by unqualified people in less than hygienic conditions.
It's
time for the
Nadya Khalife is the HRW report author.
The girls, usually
taken along by female relatives, are often unaware of what is about to happen.
Human Rights Watch
entitled its report: "They Took Me and Told Me Nothing."
It said the
operation "served no medical purpose and could lead to serious physical
and emotional consequences".
In 2007, the KRG's
Justice Ministry circulated an order that practitioners of FGM should be
arrested and punished, but Human Rights Watch said there was no evidence it had
ever been heeded.
A draft law banning
the practice was also on the statute books of the
"It's time for
the
"FGM is a
complex issue, but its harm to girls and women is clear."
"Eradicating
it in Iraqi Kurdistan will require strong and dedicated leadership on the part
of the regional government, including a clear message that FGM will no longer
be tolerated."
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