The World Day Against Female Genital Mutilation took place this Friday, February 7, at the Mediterranean University Center in Nice. On this occasion, Maty DIOUF, City Councilor in Nice, accompanied by Dominique ESTROSI-SASSONE, Deputy Mayor in charge of city policy and combating discrimination, recalled the shocking facts of this practice which she described as barbaric.
Practices resulting in the partial or total removal of external female genital organs for unjustified and certainly not medical reasons.
This practice, stemming from family, ethnic, and even social customs, persists over time and has caused significant psychological, physical, and even fatal harm. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, between 130 and 140 million women have undergone some form of genital mutilation.
The operation is generally performed on young girls and often women about to marry, pregnant with their first children, or who have just given birth.
In France, this practice is little known but remains a sensitive subject that has been condemned. A law passed by the assembly in April 2006 allowed for the prosecution of excisions committed abroad against a victim residing in France and a woman to file a complaint up to 20 years after reaching adulthood.
Since then, the practice has diminished in France, but the risk remains for young girls who return “home” for visits, hence the urgency that prompted Maty DIOUF and her collaborators to end this custom.
At the Mediterranean University Center in Nice, Kadidiatou SY, president of the association Generation Women of Africa and Elsewhere, presented a film illustrating the severity of this operation. A woman physiologically wounded who has resigned herself to having reparative surgery on the mutilated part.
Finally, she appeals to Ms. ESTROSI for the creation of a discussion platform that will be used as a means of exchange and a channel for awareness. The path through which she hopes to educate the new generation against this custom which annually imposes on 3 million young girls.
