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In 2005, reports indicated that in several areas, nearly 60% of Iraqi Kurdish women had been genitally mutilated. Many Iranian Kurdish women have also been cut - the practise is particularly associated with the Shafi'i school of Islam. Although it is often compared with the circumcision of male children, the mutilation of women is much more harmful.
 In the name of tradtion, or religion, very young girls have their clitoris, or parts of their labia, cut off in a process known as FGM (female genital mutilation).
This operation, frequently carried out in unhygenic circumstances and by unskilled people, has no medical benefits and causes nothing but unneccesary pain and trauma, and in some cases can lead to the girl bleeding to death or dying from shock. If the girl survives the operation, negative health effects of FGM can be life-long: - Urinary and genital infections
- Painful scarring, cysts and abscesses
- Painful sex
- Inability to have children
- Difficulties even leading to death in childbirth
- Low libido
- Depression and PTSD
FGM in the UKFGM is illegal in the UK with a sentence of up to 14 years in prison for parents who have their daughters mutilated or who take them abroad to be mutilated. Women or girls who have undergone FGM can have the operation reversed under the NHS. Links:
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