Stop Female Genital Mutilation

Women Wheel continue joining the global movement campaign to eliminate violence against women and girls. As a journalist, I want my colleagues to recognise the importance of the topic and how to address it.

Here are some key points I extracted from the Handbook for Journalist published by the United Nations in 2019.

According to a report from the United Nations from 2020, around 200 million women and girls age 15-49 in 31 countries had undergone female genital mutilation.

Female genital mutilation is practised in several Africa countries, America countries, South West Asia, and North Africa. However, is importan to highlight that also it occurs in Europe and Australia countries where immigrants family practised it to girls (Fact sheets, 2018).

3. “Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

According to resources such as FMG and WHO is clasiffied in four tyeps: clitoridectomy ,excision, infibulation, and all other harfull procedures to the female genitalia”.

Source: Reporting on Violence against Women and Girls, A Handbook for Journalist, 2019

Advice for journalists:

• “Avoid any stigmatization. When articles on FGM/C are disseminated in countries where these practices do not occur, they can reinforce prejudice and convey a negative image of the cultures that perpetuate them.
• Give a voice to respected figures in this field. As a journalist, rather than writing comments on FGM/C yourself (…), it is probably more effective to give a voice to local figures who are respected in the community” (Handbook for Journalists, 2019).

We have seven more type of violence and two pieces of advice for journalists while reporting on the topic will be published. Stay tune in!

Stopviolence #Womenandgirls #25November #Niunamenos #Lasmariposas #Noexcuse