“FGM involves four different types of procedures that remove all or part of a female’s external genitalia and is not medically or religiously mandated” (UNICEF, 2020).
Girls and women may be subjected to Female Genital Mutilation for a variety of reasons:
FGM is not medically or religiously mandated. Most often it is carried out by traditional circumcisers or preachers, using crude, unsanitary tools such as scissors, shards of glass, or razor blades. It is performed without anesthetic — and largely in the outback, on dirt.
FGM involves four different types of procedures that remove all or part of a female’s external genitalia.
Type I – Partial or total removal of the clitoris.
Type II – Partial or total removal of the clitoris and the labia minora (the inner folds of the vulva).
Type III – Often referred to as infibulation. The narrowing of the vaginal orifice and removing the labia minora and/or labia majora. Then stitching the cut areas together for a certain period of time or binding (girls’ legs are bound together from their thighs to their ankles). A small opening is left for urine and menstrual blood to escape.
Type IV – All other harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, such as pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterization.
