International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for authorities in the Iraqi region of Kurdistan to ban the practice of female genital mutilation.

According to a HRW report, the practice is widespread in the region and it has a harmful effect on many women and young girls in the area.

Despite a concerted effort to stamp out the practice, female genital mutilation (FGM) is rife in the UK.

According to the Independent on Sunday, the police are facing growing criticism for failing to prosecute a single person for carrying out FGM in the past 25 years.

Female genital mutilation has been officially outlawed in Uganda, it has been reported.

Under the new parliamentary act, individuals who are found to have been involved the cutting of females' reproductive organs face ten years' imprisonment.

In instances where the practice results in the death of a young woman, perpetrators can be given a life sentence.

More than 100 million women in Africa have suffered female genital mutilation, it has been reported.

According to VOA News, the painful and highly dangerous practice involves the removal of all or part of the female genitalia.

The remaining flesh is sometimes stitched closed in a practice called infibulation, the news provider added.

A women's health and rights campaigner has told of her agony at suffering forced circumcision at the age of 14.

Speaking to Voa News, Agnes Pareyio – who helped establish the Kenyan movement to end female genital mutilation (FGM) - said she was labelled a coward for attempting to resist the practice.

Many women and girls are subjected to domestic violence, exploitation, sexual violence, harmful traditional practices and other abuse every day of their lives, it has been claimed.

According to Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, as many as one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way.

As African nations look to ban female circumcision, a new report has indicated that many women in the developed world are in fact paying for such operations.

BJOG reports that patients are ignoring the risks to their health by undergoing treatment for cosmetic reasons.

African nations must do more to rid the continent of female genital mutilation, it has been claimed.

Chantal Compoare, the first lady of Burkina Faso, called on all states to co-operate in a bid to speed up the elimination of the practice, AFP reports.

The government of Uganda has announced plans to criminalise female genital mutilation, it has been reported.

The country's Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development has vowed to eliminate the practice, which involves partial or total removal of women's external genital organs.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has teamed with the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) to fight the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM).

Considered a cultural passage to womanhood in some societies, genital mutilation can lead to immense pain, bleeding, infection, abscesses and even death.