Articles

Understanding Female Genital Cutting in the United Kingdom within Immigrant Communities

Onwu, Christelle N.

The age-old tradition of Female Genital Cutting (FGC), most commonly known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), is a coming-of-age ritual practiced in some countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. It is also practiced in the immigrant communities that migrate from these regions to Western countries. There are a multitude of physical and mental health issues associated with FGC, including chronic infections, infertility, anxiety and depression, complications during childbirth, and death. In 1985, the United Kingdom criminalized the practice of FGC in order to eliminate it. However, evidence suggests that criminalization has been ineffective and that immigrant communities continue to practice FGC without proper medical training and equipment. This paper proposes that replacing criminalization with harm reduction programs will allow policy makers to obtain accurate data on FGC in the UK in order to inform the development of future programs that will ultimately eradicate the practice.

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Also Published In

Title
Columbia Social Work Review
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7916/cswr.v13i1.1865

More About This Work

Academic Units
Social Work
Published Here
September 8, 2015