230M women have undergone female genital mutilation, UNICEF reports
March 8 (UPI) -- More than 230 million women and girls alive today have suffered from female genital mutilation, according to a UNICEF report released Thursday.
The report, released in observance of International Women's Day, noted a 15% increase -- about 30 million women -- compared to data from 2016.
More than 144 million cases occurred in African countries, the largest share according to the report. There also have been more than 80 million in Asia and more than six million in the Middle East.
According to UNICEF, the global pace of decline would have to be 27 times faster to end the practice by 2030.
"Female genital mutilation harms girls' bodies, dims their futures and endangers their lives," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement. "We're also seeing a worrying trend that more girls are subjected to the practice at younger ages, many before their fifth birthday. That further reduces the window to intervene. We need to strengthen the efforts of ending this harmful practice."
While FGM is not becoming more common on a global scale, the number of girls born in countries where FGB is common is growing rapidly compared to the rest of the world, according to the report.
Progress in some countries, however, is strong, the report noted. Sierra Leone saw a 34% decline in the practice compared to 30 years ago. Egypt had a 27% decline during that same time period.
The report also found attitudes around FGM are shifting, as two-thirds of people -- around 400 million -- in practicing countries in Africa and the Middle East are opposed to FGM.
A British jury in 2019 convicted a mother for committing female genital mutilation, the first case since the United Kingdom outlawed the practice in 1985.
The mother, originally from Uganda and living in Britain for several years, was found guilty of committing FGM on her 3-year-old daughter. The practice is outlawed in Uganda.
In 2018, a U.S. federal judge in Michigan dismissed charges against Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, who was accused of carrying out the banned procedure on nine girls between the ages of 8 and 13.
U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman ruled that a federal law banning FGM was unconstitutional and that the practice is a "local criminal activity" that should be addressed by the states.
Then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder had declared FGM a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
FGM is a particularly heinous form of child sexual abuse. Committed, often by mothers against their own daughters, in many countries and villages, it is often performed by women in unsterile conditions and without anesthetic. The trauma level must be astounding for a child. This is evil at an inhuman level.
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U.N.: Iran's repression of women and girls
in protests are crimes against humanity
March 8 (UPI) -- A U.N. Human Rights Council fact-finding mission said Friday that Iran's violent repression of peaceful protests and pervasive institutional discrimination against women and girls amount to crimes against humanity.
The mission's first report said that Iran conducted extrajudicial killings as well as unlawful killings and murder, unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, arbitrary deportation of liberty, torture, rape, enforced disappearances and gender persecution all of which "disproportionately impacted" women, children and members of religious minorities in response to the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests.
"Pervasive and deep-rooted structural and institutionalized discrimination against women and girls, permeating all areas of their public and private lives, was both a trigger and an enabler of the widespread serious human rights violations and crimes under international law committed against women and girls in the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as others advocating for equality and human rights, in the context of the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' movement," the report said.
Such is the hatred of women in Islam. Why do Muslims hate women? Because women reveal the astonishing weaknesses of Islamic men.
The mission's report also found Iran arbitrarily executed at least nine young men while dozens of people charged with capital offenses "remain at risk of execution or receiving a death sentence in relation to the protests."
The report revealed disproportionate force including a pattern of extensive injuries to protesters' eyes that blinded scores of women, men and children.
The U.N. Human Rights Council urged Iranian authorities to stop all executions and immediately and unconditionally release all people "arbitrarily arrested and detained in the context of the protests or for non-compliance with or advocacy against the mandatory hijab."
The fact-finding mission also called on Iranian authorities to "provide justice, truth and reparations to victims of human rights violations" in accordance with international human rights standards.
Justice is political in Iran, not just. Truth is a non-starter in an ideology that has no expectation of the truth.
"We urge the Government to immediately halt the repression of those who have engaged in peaceful protests, in particular women and girls," said Sara Hossain, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission in a statement.
The mission report said Iran used arbitrary arrests against people who just chanted, danced, wrote slogans on walls, honked car horns or posted on social media in support of women's rights, equality and accountability.
Iranian women activists, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, staged a hunger strike in January to protest the execution of Mohammad Ghobadlou.
The United States and Western allies sanctioned Iran in January 2023 for the violent repression of protests following the highly publicized death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She died in custody after being arrested for incorrectly wearing her hijab.
More sanctions from Western nations were placed on the Law Enforcement Forces of Iran and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in April 2023 for their roles in protest suppression.
