Raising awareness of a devastating practice
Female Genital Mutilation involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other non-medical injury to the female genital organs. FGM is carried out for cultural and religious traditions, but is internationally recognised as a violation of the human rights of girls and women.
The Eva Organization for Women (EOW) has organised a national conference at the University of Leicester to highlight the impact on victims and to provoke local and international discussion on the issue. Founder and CEO of EOW is Sadiyo Siad, a postgraduate student in our Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation who spearheaded this campaign as part of her volunteering activities at Leicester.
Both the campaign and conference hope to provoke national discussion on a topic that is rarely discussed publicly yet is more common than you think. An estimated 66,000 UK women have undergone FGM and at least 22,000 UK girls are considered as being at risk of enforced FGM.
Read a blog from Sadiyo on Leicester Exchanges, where she explains the issues behind FGM.
The Conference on the human impact of Female Genital Mutilation takes place at University of Leicester on 18 June 2011 from 11.00am to 4.00pm. It will be held in the Peter Williams Lecture Theatre, Fielding Johnson Building South Wing.
