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Campaign against female genital mutilation – a road sign near Kapchorwa, Uganda
Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision, is the ritual removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. Typically carried out by a traditional circumciser with a blade or razor, with or without anaesthesia, FGM is practised by ethnic groups in 27 countries in sub-Saharan and north-east Africa, in Yemen and Iraqi Kurdistan, and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Asia and within immigrant communities around the world.
For the 29 countries in which it is concentrated, The age at which it is conducted varies from days after birth to puberty; in half the countries for which national figures were available in 2000–2010, most girls were cut before the age of five. (Full article...)