Gender - Women Slow progress stopping FGM in Mali afrol News /
IRIN, 13 February - Mali has one of the highest rates of female
genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa, but organisations working to
stop the practice say they are slowly making headway to change
attitudes. About 92 percent of all Malian girls between the ages
of 15 and 49 have already undergone the harmful procedure,
according to the government. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is
practiced in about 28 African countries as a traditional way of
keeping women chaste and eligible for marriage. It involves
removing part or all of the external labia and clitoris and can
lead to haemorrhage, infection, complications during pregnancy
and long-term psychological scarring, according to the World
Health Organisation (WHO). The most severe form of the practice
involves sewing the opening of the vagina to a hole about the
size of a matchstick for the passage of menstrual blood and
urine. Records of female circumcisions taking place have been
found from thousands