Somalia works to ban female genital mutilation, procedure that effects 95 percent of country's women

By ALEXIS BENVENISTE

Female genital mutilation is a huge problem in Somalia. In fact, UNICEF reported that 95 percent of the country's females between the ages of 4 and 11 undergo the process.

The history of FGM is a gory and brutal one, with women undergoing surgery that partially or completely removes the external female genitalia -- a practice that was technically officially banned by the UN in 2012. Unfortunately, the procedure is still widely practiced.

The country currently has one of the highest FGM rates in the world, but pretty soon, female genital mutilation could cease to exist in Somalia.

Somali news outlet Horseed Media reported that Somalia's Ministry of Women Affairs and Human Rights recently announced that they will introduce a law that will ban FGM altogether.

The minister of Women Affairs spoke about this at a recent conference, saying:

%shareLinks-quote="Time has come for us to eradicate this bad practice and protect the rights of girls and women in our country." type="quote" author="Sahra Mohammed Ali Samatar" authordesc="minister of Women Affairs" isquoteoftheday="false%

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