The UN set a target of eradicating FGM 8️⃣ by the end of this decade, and impressive advances have been made in some countries. But overall, progress has stalled 8️⃣ or reversed. In 2024, 200 million girls and women worldwide had undergone FGM. Since then, 30 million more women have 8️⃣ endured it. Most FGM cases – 144 million – have happened in Africa, with a reported 80 million in Asia 8️⃣ and 6 million in the Middle East. The rate of decrease has been slower than population growth in communities where 8️⃣ the practice persists, and Unicef says that girls are also being cut at a younger age, reducing the opportunities to 8️⃣ intervene.

In Sierra Leone – where FGM remains legal – three girls have died in 8️⃣ cutting ceremonies this year. There are no health benefits to the practice, which involves the partial or total removal of 8️⃣ the external female genitalia. All forms are associated with increased long- and short-term health risks. Alarmingly, MPs in the Gambia 8️⃣ initially approved an attempt to overturn a ban on FGM this summer. Almameh Gibba, the legislator responsible, said he wanted 8️⃣ to "uphold religious loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values". The country would have been the first to reverse protective 8️⃣ legislation, setting an alarming precedent: it took determined activism by campaigners to see off the threat. According to UN estimates, 8️⃣ as many as three-quarters of Gambian women between 15 and 49 have undergone the practice. The rate in Sierra Leone 8️⃣ is believed to be even higher.

The growing concern is that FGM is increasingly being 8️⃣ medicalised in some places – performed by trained staff rather than traditional practitioners, with some communities apparently seeing this as 8️⃣ a safer way to continue the custom despite the risks that exist even in a hospital setting. The mistaken belief 8️⃣ that this is necessarily less severe, and prevents complications, may make parents more willing to go ahead. It is also 8️⃣ less visible, with families and staff often claiming that a girl is undergoing a different procedure. Training healthcare workers about 8️⃣ the damage it causes can help them not only to resist pressure to carry out FGM, and report it, but 8️⃣ to shift attitudes. One study found that clients of antenatal clinics with staff trained to prevent FGM were themselves less 8️⃣ supportive of the practice.

Men as well as women 8️⃣ need to be addressed and involved in anti-FGM activism. Promoting gender equality more broadly is essential, as is engaging with 8️⃣ traditional, political and religious leaders to raise awareness of the harms: even families who disapprove of the practice may still 8️⃣ subject their daughters to it for fear that they will otherwise be stigmatised. Such work is best led by local 8️⃣ campaigners with external support. Survivors also need help in dealing with psychological damage and accessing reconstructive surgery. While several European 8️⃣ countries have specialist clinics, the NHS does not provide it. Though prevention is the priority, those who have endured FGM 8️⃣ need support too.