As one of his last official undertakings, Nigeria’s outgoing president has outlawed Female Genital Mutilation, in a move that has been widely welcomed by campaigners around the world.
Before he stepped down, Goodluck Jonathan signed the ban into law, marking the first time that the barbaric practice has been criminalised across the entire country.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia. The procedure has no health benefits and can cause severe pain, shock, bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, infertility as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
More than 125 million women worldwide have suffered FGM and the practice is most popular in Africa and the Middle East.
In December 2012, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the elimination of FGM, but with three million girls still at risk each year, it is clear that there is more work to do.
A recent study revealed that 91 per cent of married women in Egypt had undergone FGM between the ages of nine and twelve. According to Equality Now, the number of women to have suffered it tops 27.2 million. 30 per cent of Egyptian women agreed the practice should be banned when it was outlawed in 2012, yet it remains widespread for religious reasons.
In this video, made as part of Because I am a Girl, Plan International’s global initiative to educate girls across the developing world, Christiana tell her harrowing story.
