Female genital mutilation among Egyptian girls aged 15 to 19 has declined by a significant 27 percent in the past 30 years, found the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on FGM. According to the Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Global Concern report, which is the most up-to-date compilation of statistics on FGM ever compiled, FGM among teenage girls in Egypt dropped from 97 percent in 1985 to 70 percent in 2015. Despite what the report called a “fast decline”, UNICEF and UNFPA warned that current progress to tackle FGM in Egypt and across the world remains insufficient. While FGM appears to have declined among younger Egyptian women, potentially indicating a rising trend against the practice, statistics from 2004-2015 indicate that 87 percent of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years in Egypt have undergone FGM. According to the report, half of the girls and women who have been cut across the world live in just three countries: Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia. More promisingly, 14 percent of girls aged between zero and 14 who have undergone female genital mutilation in Egypt. This may either indicate a trend against the practice or a willingness to wait…
Female Genital Mutilation Among Egyptian Teenage Girls Drops By 27 Percent
February 5, 2016
