There is still no global consensus around what some have called a global pandemic. Why is that?
Tag: Female Genital Mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a procedure that removes or injures part or all of external female genital organs. It is more commonly performed on girls under the age of 15 and is currently practiced on every continent except Antarctica—including in the U.S.
Why Young Egyptian Women are Wishing They’d Been Born Decades Ago
“I wish I had been born in my grandmother’s time.” Those words continue to haunt me weeks after my visit to Egypt, where I participated in a U.S. State Department-sponsored […]
Kakenya Ntaiya: Fighting Child Marriage
This March, for Women’s History Month, the Ms. Blog is profiling Wonder Women who have made history—and those who are making history right now. Join us each day as we bring […]
Female Genital Mutilation Isn’t Just an African Problem
In honor of the 20th anniversary of the now-classic gender-equality document, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action [pdf], and of the current meeting of the U.N. Commission on the […]
Family Planning for Adolescents: The Missing Ingredient?
Reprinted from the Thomson Reuters Foundation with permission. This week in London, several hundred advocates and allies, including myself, will join government officials from around the world, led by British […]
U.S. Immigrants Aren’t Safe From Female Genital Mutilation
It turns out that, according to CDC estimates, thousands of girls in the U.S. are at risk of going through female gential mutilation.
U.N. Committee Votes for Ban on Female Genital Mutilation
The United Nations General Assembly’s human rights committee unanimously called for a global ban on female genital mutilation (FGM). Describing the practice as harmful and “a serious threat to the […]
Women’s Rights Key To Effective Global AIDS Response
As the XIX International AIDS Conference proceeds in Washington, D.C., this week, its pertinent to note that a new report by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, an independent body […]
Let Them Eat Cake
On first sight, it’s pretty clear why Afro-Swedish male artist Makode Linde‘s performance art piece “Painful Cake,” which premiered at Sweden’s Moderna Museet for World Art Day last week, struck […]
Senegal’s Feminist Hip-Hop Star
Senegalese rapper Fatou Mandiang Diatta defied her country’s traditional expectations for women in order to succeed in Senegal’s male-dominated hip-hop scene. A new documentary shows how, using her music as a medium, “Sister Fa” campaigns against female genital mutilation, which she herself endured as a child.