Name the many countries. My wife is a Moslem from the Middle East. She will be very interested in learning this.
There have been no comprehensive global surveys of the prevalence of female genital mutilation. Most of the girls and women who have undergone mutilation live in 28 African countries (Figure 1).It is practised by many ethnic groups, from the east to the west coast of Africa, in the southern parts of the Arabian peninsula and along the Persian Gulf, and increasingly amongst some immigrant populations in Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States of America. It has also been reported to be practised by Daudi Bohra Muslims who live in India and amongst Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia. Infibulation is widespread in Somalia, northern Sudan and Djibouti and has been reported in Ethiopia, Eritrea, northern Kenya, some parts of Mali and northern Nigeria. Introcision has only been documented in some Aboriginal communities of Australia, but is not considered to be a current practice amongst this group.
On the basis of government reports, anecdotal evidence and limited surveys with non-representative samples, the prevalence of mutilation in countries where it is practised is estimated to range from 5% to 98% (Hosken, 1995, Toubia, 1995). Sudan is the only country to have carried out nationwide surveys (El Dareer, 1980, the Sudan Fertility Survey 1979; Sudan Demographic and Health Survey, 1989/1990). They were based on a national sample which excluded the three southern provinces, where the practice is unknown (except by adoption through marriage with members of northern groups where mutilation is practised), and indicated an initial prevalence of 89% which subsequently declined by 8%. A study by the Nigerian Association of Nurses and Nurse-midwives conducted in 1985B1986 using a sample of 400 women and men in each state showed that 13 out of the 21 states had populations practising some form of female genital mutilation, prevalence ranging from 35% to 90%. However, the data could not be extrapolated to give a national picture. Similar surveys exist for Chad, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal.
In 1989-1990, a series of questions on female genital mutilation were incorporated in the Demographic Health Survey (DHS I) in Sudan. The Central African Republic and the Ivory Coast have also incorporated a few questions on the practice in their national Demographic and Health Survey (1994 and 1994-1995 respectively). A full module on female genital mutilation containing 20 questions (DHS III) was field tested in Mali and in Eritrea in 1995, and Egypt integrated 34 questions on female genital mutilation in its national Demographic and Health Survey in the same year. It is hoped that these attempts will generate more reliable incidence and prevalence data in future years.