ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Female genital mutilation (FGM) looms over the Kurdistan Region, including the capital of Erbil, despite an over a decade-old ban of the practice, warned an organization on Sunday. “Last year, we visited many villages, cities, and towns and found that [FGM] circumcision was still ongoing in Kurdistan and many cases were recorded in villages the surrounding neighborhoods and center of Erbil,” Payam Ahmed, a representative from Wadi, a German non-governmental organization combatting gender-based violence, told Rudaw’s Dlnia Rahman during a conference held on the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation in Erbil. The NGO has documented the practice being carried out among 110 of 1,260 girls surveyed below the age of 18 in Erbil and Sulaimani’s Ranya district in 2021. They report 85 of the cases in Erbil province, while the other 25 were in Ranya. FGM is a practice that involves the cutting or complete removal of female genitalia for non-medical purposes. The practice persists to varying degrees, despite the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) banning it under the Domestic Violence Law in 2011. Around 15,000 girls were circumcised in the Kurdistan Region in 2018 alone, according to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). Since 2004, Wadi has pioneered action against FGM in the Kurdistan Region, which is internationally recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women. FGM has been nearly eradicated in Halabja but is seeing an increase in Duhok province, according to activists and members of civil society. Following several visits to different villages in Halabja, FGM cases “have neared zero in Halabja and we can say that Halabja is currently empty of the mutilation,” said Hero Ahmed, an activist and the head of women’s project in the New Organization in Halabja. “The circumcision rate in Duhok was at one percent in 2007 but based on the things we are hearing, it is seeing an increase,” said Chiman Rashid, an activist and the head of Zhinda organization said on Sunday. Women and girls subjected to FGM are often plagued by short and long-term health issues, including severe bleeding, infections, urinary problems, childbirth complications, painful menstruation, and difficulties having sexual intercourse.
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