“A brutal form of violence against girls that has no place in modern society.”
That’s what the Detroit news reported, after two seven-year old Minnesotan girls taken to a doctor in Michigan became the latest victims of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
This shocking, dehumanizing crime happened right here in the United States this past April. What it has revealed is an absence of laws to protect girls from suffering this practice, which continues to victimize girls and women around the world.
That must change. We cannot allow one more girl to become a victim of FGM. Take action now to #LeveltheLaw in the United States and ban Female Genital Mutilation.
FGM is a tradition that has its roots in the belief that cutting a young girls’ genitals is important for her transition to adulthood and marriage, according to the World Health Organization. It can be practiced as a coming-of-age ritual, it can be imbued with the belief that it makes a girl or woman sexually pure or proves her virginity, or it can be perpetuated because of social pressure and stigmatization.
FGM is a global problem. It is estimated that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM, and that includes girls right here in the United States.
The US government passed a federal law banning the practice in 1996 called the Female Genital Mutilation Act, but over the past 20 years, not one case was prosecuted under the law. During that same period, the number of at-risk girls more than doubled. It is now estimated that 500,000 girls are at risk.
We can and must do better. Today on International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, join me in signing our petition to #LeveltheLaw and ensure that all girls have their right to bodily autonomy protected in this country.
For the rights of girls and women,
Leticia and the Global Citizen Team
