An estimated 2000 million women have undergone female genital mutilation and millions more are at risk. The practice is carried out mainly for cultural and economic reasons.
Close to 4 million teenage girls are subjected to breast ironing worldwide. This harmful cultural practice, which is most prevalent in West and Central Africa, needs to stop.
Efforts to end female genital mutilation are mostly designed by global and national agencies and risk ignoring change agents like the youth who are against the practice.
Hollywood’s sexual predation scandals are just the tip of the iceberg. One in three women worldwide has been physically or sexually assaulted, and many girls’ first sexual experience is forced.
The international media and her supporters continue to hoist Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf up as the matron of African women’s rights. But she does not deserve this title.
Female genital mutilation is largely hidden in Australia and other high-income countries. But the United Nations says it is a global concern – and our research found it does affect girls here.
In Sudan, female genital cutting is common among many communities. The use of movies that debate this question could change people’s opinions about the practice.
Female genital mutilation have long been carried out by traditional circumcisers in Indonesia. In recent years, the ritual has been increasingly institutionalised into medical practice.