The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act (2011) was passed on 30 September 2011 and enforced on 4 October 2011. Part IV of the Act criminalizes female genital mutilation (FGM). The Act also provides that if FGM is carried out and causes death, the perpetrator will be liable to imprisonment for life.
It is a criminal offence: To excise, infibulate or otherwise mutilate the whole or any part of a girl or woman's labia majora, labia minora or clitoris (section 1 of the 2003 Act) For a person to aid, abet, counsel or procure a girl or woman to carry out FGM on her own genitalia (section 2)
Historically, FGM was a concern in Kenya because of its negative economic effects and impact on population growth. However, today FGM is recognized internationally as a threat to women's human rights and is considered widely as a non-humane practice.
The fight against female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) has been fraught with both success and failure, resistance and acceptance. Since Kenya banned the practice in 2011, FGM/C is now increasingly conducted underground, secretly in homes or in clinics by healthcare providers and workers.
Roughly 475,022 girls are at risk of FGM in Kenya between 2022 and 2030, and 75% of girls undergo the cut between the ages of eight and 14.
It is widely practiced among the Muslims of the northeastern provinces, particularly among the Somalis, Borans and Gabras. In its survey of the four districts, MYWO found that Type I is practiced in Kisii; Type II in Meru and Narok; and Type III in Samburu. The practice is believed to be on the decline.
The practice is almost universal in Somalia, Guinea and Djibouti, with levels above 90 per cent, while it affects no more than 1 per cent of girls and women in Cameroon and Uganda. However, FGM is a human rights issue that affects girls and women worldwide.
Part IV of the Act criminalizes female genital mutilation (FGM). The Act also provides that if FGM is carried out and causes death, the perpetrator will be liable to imprisonment for life. The Act also criminalizes a person who takes another person inside or outside Kenya to perform FGM on her.
FGM is carried out for various cultural, religious and social reasons within families and communities in the mistaken belief that it will benefit the girl in some way (for example, as a preparation for marriage or to preserve her virginity). But there are no acceptable reasons that justify FGM.
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting is a serious crime in Australia. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting is illegal in Australia. This includes sending a person overseas to have a procedure done, or facilitating, supporting or encouraging someone to have this done.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is any procedure that intentionally changes or injures the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. FGM is a crime in Australia. It's also a crime in Australia if performed on an Australian overseas.
On the other hand, some circumcised women report having satisfying sexual relations including sexual desire, pleasure and orgasm. Female genital mutilation does not eliminate sexual pleasure totally for every woman who undergoes the procedure, but it does reduce the likely of orgasm.
FGM is practised predominantly within certain Muslim societies, but it also exists within some adjacent Christian and animist groups. The practice isn't required by most forms of Islam and fatwas have been issued forbidding FGM, favouring it, or leaving the decision to parents but advising against it.
A mother whose daughter underwent female genital mutilation at the age of 3 has become the first person in the UK to be convicted of the practice. The 37 year old woman from Uganda was found guilty after a trial at the Old Bailey in London.
Based on the model described, it is estimated that 53,000 girls and women born elsewhere but living in Australia in 2017 had undergone FGM/C during their lifetime—a rate of 4.3 per 1,000 girls and women in Australia, or 0.4% of Australia's overall female population.
FGM is most often carried out on young girls aged between infancy and 15 years old. It is often referred to as 'cutting', 'female circumcision', 'initiation', 'Sunna' and 'infibulation'.
FGM is often referred to as female circumcision. This term implies a comparable practice to male circumcision. However, the degree of excision and trauma involved in FGM is generally much more extensive, including the actual removal of genital organs.
Both men and women of the Maasai society are traditionally eager to undergo through circumcision. This initiation is performed shortly after puberty.
Traditionally the Turkana, a Nilotic tribe whose cultural practices and way of life has not been diluted by modern influences, do not engage in circumcision as a rite of passage.
“Here, it's very common for FGM to be carried out on girls as young as 9 or 10 years old,” explains Concern Kenya's Education Manager, Agnes Angolo. “In fact, it happens to nearly 100% of the girls here.”
The authors found that the “vast majority of studies” concluded that women prefer circumcised penises. Even in countries where circumcision was not the norm, a majority of women found circumcised men more attractive.