BARCELONA, Spain – Up to four million women in parts of northern Iraq controlled by the militant Islamic State (IS) face the risk of undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM), according to United Nations officials in Iraq.
“The militant group is reported to have issued an order requiring women in Mosul to undergo FGM,” said the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, Jacqueline Badcock.
In comments posted by the UN on Thursday, she said the decree was unprecedented, as FGM was not widely practiced in Iraq.
“FGM is not so prevalent in Iraq. There have been documented cases here in the Kurdistan Region. UNFPA (UN Population Fund) estimates that up to 4 million girls and women could be affected by this new fatwa (religious edict),” Badcock was quoted as saying.
“This is not the will of the Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists,” she said.
FGM, also known as female circumcision, is a procedure that involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia and has many health risks. The practice exists in some communities in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
In 2012, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution banning FGM and declaring it a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
The United Nations estimates that over 1.2 million people have been displaced in central and northern Iraq following the recent flare-up of violence.
Militants from the IS, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, have declared a caliphate in the lands they have conquered in Iraq and Syria. They have made Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, their capital.
The Sunni militants have also expelled Christians from Mosul, creating an exodus of thousands of displaced people, most of whom have sought refuge in the northern Kurdistan Region.
Last year, Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani called for stronger policies to combat gender-based violence against women, saying the issue is a “social problem at large.”
In this regard, he criticized religious leaders for propagating anti-women and anti-government measures. These “are neither in line with Islam nor with Kurdistan Regional Government principles,” he said.
Three years ago the Kurdistan Regional Government passed a law banning violence against women including FGM.
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