When a girl is taken, usually by her mother, to a free circumcision event held each spring in Bandung, Indonesia, she is handed over to a small group of women who, swiftly and yet with apparent affection, cut off a small piece of her genitals. Sponsored by the Assalaam Foundation, an Islamic educational and social-services organization, circumcisions take place in a prayer centers or schools.

The procedure takes several minutes. There is little blood involved. Afterward, the girl's genital area is swabbed with the antiseptic Betadine. She is then helped back into her underwear and returned to a waiting area, where she's given a small, celebratory gift — some fruit or a donated piece of clothing — and offered a cup of milk for refreshment. She has now joined a quiet majority in Indonesia, where, according to a 2003 study by the Population Council, an international research group, 96 percent of families surveyed reported that their daughters had undergone some form of circumcision by the time they reached 14.

In Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, a debate over whether to ban female circumcision is in its early stages. The Ministry of Health has issued a decree forbidding medical personnel to practice it, but the decree which has yet to be backed by legislation does not affect traditional circumcisers and birth attendants, who are thought to do most female circumcisions. Many agree that a full ban is unlikely without strong support from the country's religious leaders. According to the Population Council study, many Indonesians view circumcision for boys and girls as a religious duty.

Female circumcision in Indonesia is reported to be less extreme than the kind practiced in other parts of the globe — Africa, particularly. The most common form of female genital cutting, representing about 80% of cases around the world, includes the excision of the clitoris and the labia minora. A more extreme version of the practice, known as Pharaonic circumcision or infibulation, accounts for 15% of cases globally and involves the removal of all external genitalia and a stitching up of the vaginal opening.

Studies have shown that in some parts of Indonesia, female circumcision is more ritualistic — a rite of passage meant to purify the genitals and bestow gender identity on a female child — with a practitioner rubbing turmeric on the genitals or pricking the clitoris once with a needle to draw a symbolic drop of blood. In other instances, the procedure is more invasive, involving what WHO classifies as “Type I” female genital mutilation, defined as excision of the clitoral hood, called the prepuce, with or without incision of the clitoris itself. The Population Council's 2003 study said that 82% of Indonesian mothers who witnessed their daughters' circumcision reported that it involved “cutting.” The women most often identified the clitoris as the affected body part.

Any distinction between injuring the clitoris or the clitoral hood is irrelevant, says Laura Guarenti, an obstetrician and WHO's medical officer for child and maternal health in Jakarta. The fact is there is absolutely no medical value in circumcising girls. It is 100 percent the wrong thing to be doing.

The new government in Sierra Leone has vowed to outlaw female circumcision, a common practice in the West African country, the social welfare minister said.

Minister Haja Musu Kandeh said the government has an expressed commitment to ban the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). The practice is a fundamental violation of human rights as some women and girls may not have expressed their consent to undergo the practice.

She did not state when the ban would take effect.

35-40% of women in the country undergo circumcision, she said, traditionally believed to control female sexuality and make girls more "marriageable."

Islamists and conservative clerics are fighting proposed legislation in the Egyptian parliament that would increase penalties for female circumcision and raise the minimum age of when a girl can marry. The Islamists view the bill as an affront to Sharia law.

The legislation drafted by the government-backed National Council for Motherhood and Childhood would impose a prison sentence of as long as two years and a maximum fine of 5,000 Egyptian pounds, or about $1,000. The proposal would raise the minimum age of marriage from 16 to 18. The bill has been met with a storm of anger by a number of delegates from both the majority and the Islamist opposition led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Opponents say the new restrictions are an attempt by the government to impose a Western agenda on an Islamic society. Some clerics, in opposing the bill, state that Islamic Sharia law condones female circumcision and imposes no minimum age of marriage. Religion does not prohibit or criminalize female circumcision, prominent Islamic scholar Mustafa al-Shaka said.

The bill's architects hold that there is a national consensus on the criminalization of female circumcision. Nobody can deny that the Egyptian society resents the negative health effects caused by [female] circumcision, said Moushira Khattab, secretary-general of the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood. Thus, the punishment of those who conduct that practice is a must.

Female circumcision remains a widespread practice in Egypt. About 70% of Egyptian girls are believed to be victims of the practice.

Parliament in Iraq's northern autonomous region of Kurdistan is preparing to outlaw female circumcision, according to a woman MP and doctor who has long battled to halt the widespread practice.

A bill making circumcision illegal will be presented in parliament over the next few days, Dr Hala Suheil told AFP, saying it would impose jail terms and fines on offenders.

Kurdistan health minister Zarian Abdel Rahman said that in the region 60% of girls aged four to fourteen undergo circumcision, despite warnings by ministers against this grievous practice committed in the name of religion and hygiene.

The practice, encouraged by some clerics, does not appear to exist in other parts of Iraq.

The ministry of religious affairs should tell imams to speak out against female circumcision in sermons during Friday prayers so their flocks shun the practice, Abdel Rahman said: The education ministry should also introduce programmes in schools to encourage girls not to submit to their parents' wishes in this regard.

Sheelan Anwar Omer, a shy 7-year-old Kurdish girl, bounded into her neighbor's house with an ear-to-ear smile, looking for the party her mother had promised.

There was no celebration. Instead, a local woman quickly locked a rusty red door behind Sheelan, who looked bewildered when her mother ordered the girl to remove her underpants. Sheelan began to whimper, then tremble, while the women pushed apart her legs and a midwife raised a stainless-steel razor blade in the air. I do this in the name of Allah!she intoned.

As the midwife sliced off part of Sheelan's genitals, the girl let out a high-pitched wail heard throughout the neighborhood. As she carried the sobbing child back home, Sheelan's mother smiled with pride.

This is the practice of the Kurdish people for as long as anyone can remember, said the mother, Aisha Hameed, 30, a housewife in this ethnically mixed town about 100 miles north of Baghdad. We don't know why we do it, but we will never stop because Islam and our elders require it.

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A Danish woman has been convicted of having two of her daughters genitally mutilated in Denmark's first such case to come before a court.

The mother, who is of African origin, was also accused with her husband of planning a trip to Sudan to circumcise another daughter, aged five.

She was given a two-year sentence but freed as she had already spent four months in jail.

A 2003 law makes genital mutilation punishable by up to six years in jail.

The father of the two girls, aged 10 and 12, said he did not know what was happening and was acquitted.

A 19-year-old girl in Gothenburg has been awarded compensation after having been subjected to genital mutilation in Somalia as an 11-year-old.
The girl was awarded 390,000 kronor ($52,000) in damages for abuse and gross violation of integrity, the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority has announced.

Then 11-years-old, the girl was taken on holiday to Somalia in 2001. While there she was subjected to genital mutilation.

She was held down by her mother and two other women while her clitoris and inner labia were removed by a man in return for payment. The girl's vagina was then sewn up down to the opening of her urethra. The whole procedure was conducted without anaesthetic.

The girl's mother later explained in her court trial that the girl was taken to Somalia to be cleansed.

The mother was later convicted for the violation in the Court of Appeal and ordered to pay her daughter 450,000 kronor in compensation.

In its decision to award the damages to the 19-year-old the Crime Victim Compensation and Support Authority wrote that the genital mutilation resembled torture and was intended to limit her possibilities to have a normal sex life.

The authority will also later consider whether the girl is entitled to further damages for pain and suffering.

Four out of ten Somali and Ethiopian women who give birth in the Netherlands have been genitally mutilated. This is relatively few, Health State Secretary Jet Bussemaker said.

The figures were recorded by research organisation TNO after questioning midwives. The number of cases of female circumcision is fairly low, since nine out of ten women in the countries of origin have been circumcised, Bussemaker reasoned.

To obtain a better picture of female circumcision, the state secretary previously announced that midwives would be registering this form of mutilation. They will also be trained in how to discuss circumcision with families.

Some 700 Mali activists, mostly women, have marched in favor of the introduction of laws to ban the practice of female genital mutilation (FMG) in Bamako.

The demonstrators presented the request directly to parliament. The long overdue initiative, organized by the Coordination of women's NGO's in Mali, was repeated in other areas of the country, where more women also staged small gatherings.

The rate of FMG in Mali is very high, reaching some 92% said Nicola Giovannini of the No Peace without Justice NGO to MISNA. Giovannini said that in Mali, there is a strong political consensus for a law to ban the practice, but authorities have so far suggested that Malian society itself is not yet ready to penalize this terrible and very established practice. The participation in anti FMG protests suggests that there is an ever stronger – if long overdue - desire for change.

An Egyptian man has been charged with practicing female circumcision on an 11 year-old girl, reports the website of TV station Al Arabiya.

Ahmed Gad al-Karim, 69 year-old, is the first person to be tried for this type of procedure since an Egyptian law came into effect which treats all types of female genital mutilation as a crime.

The law, which was passed in 2008, was fiercely criticised by the Islamic Brotherhood and by supporters of the Egyptian parliament, who maintained that they supported the practice as conforming to Sharia law (Islamic law) and protecting the chastity of women. However, the Islamic Institution responsible for religious opinion (Dar al-Iftaa) responded by saying that female genital mutilation is not part of the Islamic culture.

Ahmed Gad al-Karim is accused of practicing infibulation after requests by the girl's family. He was paid USD 27, according to investigators, for performing the operation, and used a standard scalpel during the operation. The girl was admitted to the local hospital in Minya, 600 km south of Cairo immediately afterwards, fighting for her life.

On the occasion of the International Action Day against Female Genital Mutilation, a representative empirical study on Female Genital Mutilation in Iraqi-Kurdistan is going to be presented on February 6.

The report summarizes the results of a one-and-a-half year empirical study conducted by the German relief organization WADI. The numbers presented in the report are alarming: A vast majority of women in Iraqi-Kurdistan have undergone FGM with some regions reaching a top ratio of more than 80%.

The study provides comprehensive evidence on the underlying dynamics of FGM and helps understand, why mothers who themselves experienced the horror of mutilation allow FGM to be practiced on their daughters.

A vast majority of women who adhere to the practice believe it to be a religious obligation in Islam. Others refer to tradition and state that it has always been like that.

The study also shows a clear correlation between the level of education and the attitude towards FGM. Still, the FGM rate amongst university graduates is around 30%. But it becomes clear that with an increasing social status, women are more likely to question harmful traditions and alleged religious obligations.

Between 6,000 and 8,000 women in Austria have been forced to undergo genital mutilation, according to Social Democratic MP Petra Bayr.

Bayr, a member of the Austrian Platform against Female Genital Mutilation, said today: Many parents believe they are doing their daughters a favour by forcing them to undergo it.

She said the only way to change such thinking was to engage in awareness-raising and make it clear to parents that genital mutilation was neither called for by religion nor a pre-condition for finding a husband.

Rather, she added, genital mutilation was a violation of human rights that left its victims mentally and physically damaged for the rest of their lives.

Bayr added that her group was working with health personnel, migrant organisations and religious leaders to try to change the situation.

With a shocking nod towards sharia law, the American Academy of Pediatrics is advocating for a lesser form of female genital mutilation.

In hopes of preventing Muslims from taking their daughters out of the U.S. into other nations to get the barbaric procedure done, the AAP advocates for federal and state laws to enable doctors to just go ahead and give girls a ritual nick right in the USA.

International human rights organization Equality Now is stunned by the new policy statement issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics which essentially promotes female genital mutilation and advocates for federal and state laws [to] enable pediatricians to reach out to families by offering a 'ritual nick', such as pricking or minor incisions of girls' clitorises.

The Policy Statement Ritual Genital Cutting of Female Minors, issued by the AAP on April 26, 2010, is a significant set-back to the Academy's own prior statements on the issue of FGM and is antithetical to decades of noteworthy advancement across Africa and around the world in combating this human rights violation against women and girls.

Update: Australia

1st June 2010. Based on article from dailytelegraph.com.au

Australian doctors are considering a controversial form of genital mutilation on baby girls. The practice involving cutting a girl's genitals, sometimes with razors or pieces of glass, could be allowed in a clinical setting to stem illegal backyard procedures which are leaving young girls scarred for life. The Royal Australian New Zealand College of Obstetricians will next month discuss backing ritual nicks, a modified form of genital mutilation.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has reversed its decision last month regarding the practice of female circumcision by immigrants from some African, Middle Eastern and Asian cultures.

The academy had suggested in a policy statement that doctors be given permission to perform a ceremonial nick on girls if it would keep their families from sending them overseas for the full circumcision. The 'nick' involves piercing the clitoris and drawing blood.

Although the nick on a girl's clitoris is illegal in the United States, the academy's bioethics panel had noted it is practiced in some countries.

The policy statement ignited a storm of criticism from opponents of female genital cutting. Dr. Judith S. Palfrey, president of the academy, said: We're saying don't do it. Do everything that you can to support that family in this tough time, but don't be pulled into the procedure.

A significant number of girls and women in Iraqi Kurdistan suffer female genital mutilation (FGM) and its destructive after-effects, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. The Kurdistan Regional Government should take immediate action to end FGM and develop a long term plan for its eradication, including passing a law to ban the practice, Human Rights Watch said.

The 73-page report, 'They Took Me and Told Me Nothing': Female Genital Mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan, documents the experiences of young girls and women who undergo FGM against a backdrop of conflicting messages from some religious leaders and healthcare professionals about the practice's legitimacy and safety. The report describes the pain and fear that girls and young women experience when they are cut, and the terrible toll that it takes on their physical and emotional health. It says the regional government has been unwilling to prohibit FGM, despite its readiness to address other forms of gender-based violence, including domestic violence and so-called honor killings.

The evidence obtained by Human Rights Watch suggests that for many girls and women in Iraqi Kurdistan, FGM is an unavoidable procedure that they undergo sometimes between the ages of 3 and 12. In some cases documented by Human Rights Watch, societal pressures also led adult women to undergo the procedure, sometimes as a precondition of marriage.

The previous regional government took some steps to address FGM, including a 2007 Justice Ministry decree, supposedly binding on all police precincts, that perpetrators of FGM should be arrested and punished. However, the existence of the decree is not widely known, and Human Rights Watch found no evidence that it has ever been enforced.

In 2008, the majority of members of the Kurdistan National Assembly (KNA) supported the introduction of a law banning FGM, but the bill was never enacted into law and its status is unknown. In early 2009, the Health Ministry developed a comprehensive anti-FGM strategy in collaboration with a nongovernmental organization. But the ministry later withdrew its support and halted efforts to combat FGM. A public awareness campaign about FGM and its consequences has also been inexplicably delayed.

The new government, elected in July 2009, has taken no steps to eradicate the practice.

Egypt's Public Prosecutor has referred a physician to the criminal court in Menufiya governorate for the death of a 13-year-old girl during a circumcision procedure.

Investigations indicated the child bled to death after undergoing the procedure. According to the investigations, the girl was buried without a burial license to avoid any suspicion about the cause of death.

The doctor was taken into custody pending trial.

Minister of State for Family and Population Moushira Khattab had filed a complaint demanding that legal measures against whoever was involved in the incident be taken immediately.

In June 2008, the Egyptian parliament made amendments to the Child Law banning FGM and imposing a sentence of a maximum of two years and a fine of a maximum of $1,000 as a penalty for performing it. The law also punishes practitioners, including parents, with between three months and two years in jail.

Egypt's top Islamic and Christian authorities were quick to voice support for the ban, saying the practice had no basis either in the Quran or in the Bible. But conservative Muslim and Christian Egyptian families still have their daughters circumcised as a means to preserve their chastity.

A 2005 government report found that about 90% of Egyptian women had undergone the extremely painful procedure intended to severely mutilate the genitals.

The Imam of Hajji Osman Alaf Mosque in Iraqi Kurdistan's second largest city, Sulaimaniyah, has told his followers that anyone who believes Female Genital Mutilation is not a recommendation from the prophet Mohammed is ignorant.

Imam Mala Yassin Hakim Piskandi said female circumcision was a Sunnah, a term used to refer to the practices carried out or recommended by Mohammed, the prophet of Islam.

He said, the Sunni Shafeyi, a school of jurisprudence which most Kurds follow, took a tougher stance regarding female circumcision, considering it an obligation, but that the other three Sunni schools of jurisprudence regarded it merely as a Sunnah, meaning it was recommended, but not compulsory.

When men and women have intercourse, their sexual organs should be circumcised and clean, he quoted Prophet Mohammed as saying.

He added that practicing a Sunnah act is good, but that not practicing it is not sinful. But in some cultures, including among some Kurds, uncircumcised women are regarded as unclean and are not allowed to cook.

34 well-regarded Mauritanian religious and national leaders have signed a fatwa, banning female genital mutilation (FGM). The fatwa is considered a huge stride toward women's rights in the Islam world.

The law was passed on Jan. 15, 2011, by 34 Mauritanian religious and national figures prohibits the practice of FGM within the country.

According to Magharebia.com, The authors cited the work of Islamic legal expert Ibn al-Hajj as support for their assertion that such practices were not present in the Maghreb countries over the past centuries.

This new law will certainly curb the practice of female genital mutilation in Mauratania.

June 22nd was a good day for women and girls in Iraq . Kurdistan Regional Parliament passed with great majority a bill that bans Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a harmful act. Performing FGM is penalized under the new law.

FGM, of which the practice was denied for decades, is a considerable threat to women's health in Northern Iraq . Studies carried out by WADI since 2007 reveal that a majority of more than 60 of the region's women and girls have been mutilated. The operation, in which parts of the female sexual organ are removed, regularly causes severe physical and psychological consequences. Fear and trauma, lasting pain and infertility are common consequences. The operation itself is usually carried out by laymen in poor hygienic conditions and has cost lives.

The public controversy about FGM in Iraqi-Kurdistan began following the results of the studies conducted by WADI since 2007. While some still deny that FGM is practiced in Kurdistan , a group of women's rights activists and MPs from across the political spectrum introduced an Anti-FGM bill in the parliament. The group work of the was supported by WADI and it was accompanied by a public awareness campaign in the local media.

The new Anti-FGM Law is a long hoped outcome of this work. Still, more effort is needed to fight FGM. At the core of it, the right to self-determination of women and girls must be put on the agenda. The Kurdish Region in Northern Iraq has taken an important step in this direction.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that there is no cultural justification for female genital cutting, a practice that is sometimes referred to as female circumcision.

She said governments and non-governmental organizations are making progress toward ending female genital mutilation, or FGM, by reaching out to those who still practice it. In those societies, it is often justified as a way to protect a girl's purity and cleanliness. Although Clinton said many cultural differences must be respected, this is not one of them:

We cannot excuse this as a cultural tradition. There are many cultural traditions that used to exist in many parts of the world that are no longer acceptable. We cannot excuse it as a private matter because it has very broad public implications. It has no medical benefits. It is, plain and simply, a human rights violation.

At the first State Department event marking the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, Clinton said religious leaders play a big role in stopping the practice in societies that wrongly believe it is a religious imperative or where it is accepted simply because it has been done for generations

Imam Mohamed Magid, the President of the Islamic Society of North America said:

If a person comes to know that violating human rights and the rights of women to lead a normal life is not acceptable, if the congregation will hear that from the Imam in his Friday sermon, that will empower the women and men who stand against this practice.

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Liberian authorities to ensure the safety of journalists who have been repeatedly threatened for exposing the practice of female genital mutilation in the country.

Mae Azango, a reporter for the daily FrontPage Africa and New Narratives, a project supporting independent media in Africa, told CPJ she had gone into hiding after receiving several threats for an article she published about Liberian tribes practicing female genital mutilation on as many as two out of every three girls in the country. They left messages and told people to tell me that they will catch me and cut me so that will make me shut up, Azango said: I have not been sleeping in my house.

Wade Williams, the editor of FrontPage Africa, said that several people around town had confronted her over the article, which was widely discussed on radio programs. Williams also said that the newspaper and its personnel were receiving threatening phone calls: They said that for us putting our mouth into their business, we are to blame for whatever happens to us.

Liberian police must immediately investigate these threats and ensure the safety of Mae Azango and other FrontPage Africa staff, said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita: The people behind these threats seem to be secure that they can act with impunity. Authorities must send a clear message that threats of violence are crimes, and that they will uphold the law.

A Swedish politician has been ludicrously accused of racism and bigotry after she was pictured with a cake art installation meant to highlight the issue of female genital mutilation.

Culture minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth was presented with the cake at World Art Day in Stockholm, where she was invited to give the monstrosity a clitoridectomy, reports the Swedish newspaper Friatider.

The cake was part of an art installation made by Makode Aj Linde whose head was part of the performance presentation to Liljeroth.

In videos from the exhibition, the head of the cake (Linde) screams, as if in pain, while visitors crowd around.

However the artist's intention of highlighting the issue of female circumcision was reprehensibly criticised by trivial claims from the African community in Sweden claiming it to be racist and repulsive.