Italian
Today, February 6, the world celebrates the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Celebrate: a verb that clashes with the reality of a scourge that affects over 230 million women and girls in at least 90 countries around the world. A phenomenon as vast as it is hidden, a ritual of oppression that does not bend to geographical boundaries or cultural advancements.
The numbers published by UNICEF are frightening: four million girls are at risk of undergoing this practice every year before the age of 15. Europe, often perceived as distant from such atrocities, instead has 600,000 women who have undergone FGM and 190,000 at risk in 17 countries. In Italy, according to the University of Milan-Bicocca, at least 87,600 women have undergone mutilation, including 7,600 minors. Yet, despite the evidence, the phenomenon remains submerged, hidden among shame and silence.
Female genital mutilation is not culture, it’s not tradition, it’s not religion: it’s violence. A violence that deprives millions of women of the right to their physical and psychological integrity. A violence that has nothing to do with medicine, with morals, with faith, but only with control over the female body, with the power to decide the fate of those who cannot defend themselves.
We hear lots of condemnations and indignation, campaigns and conferences are organized, statistics and reports are published, but in the meantime funding to combat FGM is scarce, concrete actions are lacking, and the data remains unreliable or outdated. ActionAid denounces the lack of transparency regarding the funds allocated to this fight, while many NGOs in the field continue to operate under prohibitive conditions.
The battle against FGM is not won with words alone. More effective laws are needed, applied without hesitation. Educational programs in the communities involved are needed, protection for girls at risk is needed, support for survivors is needed. But above all, the courage to break the taboo is needed, to call this practice by its true name: torture.
Female genital mutilation is a crime against humanity, and as such it should be treated. Today, February 6, is not just a day of awareness: it is the day when we must demand that justice and dignity finally prevail over barbarism.
