How many? FGM - do not read if squeamish

I am genuinely amazed and shocked by this story; I knew that Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) was happening in the UK but had no idea of the scale or the relative openness.

"By conservative estimates, 66,000 women and girls living in Britain have been mutilated. This figure, accepted by the Metropolitan Police, came in a report by a volunteer organisation funded by the Department of Health and carried out with academics from the London School of Tropical Hygiene and the City University.

And thousands more girls are at imminent risk as families club together to fly professional “cutters” from Africa to Britain.

These women “elders” perform the crude operation for up to £40 a time, often on kitchen tables or floors, without anaesthetic, using filthy, blunt knives, razor blades or scalpels."


Of course, the government legislated against FGM, but also of course "Under the 2003 Female Genital Mutilation Act, those involved could be jailed for 14 years. Yet the fact that no one has been prosecuted says much about the problems the police are facing."


If you are unsure as to what FGM is, then this should make it clear - WARNING do not read on if you are squeamish -

FGM "involves removing part or all of the clitoris, the surrounding labia (the outer part of the vagina) and sometimes the sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening for urine and menstrual blood."


Do read the rest of the article and wonder at the state of the UK in 2008.


Draw your own conclusions, I am all but speechless...