The most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of
women in the world.

Latest items for INFIB-DATA-2

July 23, 2024, 4:58 p.m.
Countries: Sierra Leone
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2, RISW-PRACTICE-1

“A national survey in 2019 found that 83% of women had undergone FGM, a slight drop from 90% in 2013” (6).
July 22, 2024, 9:44 p.m.
Countries: Kenya
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

“According to The Nation newspaper, about 70 girls were rescued by the police, with Viola Cherono, a human rights activist from the region, reporting that as many as 500 girls had been assembling in the forest to undergo the practice” (12). “ ‘Cases of FGM have come down in communities that were strongly for the cut, mainly because girls have come out to say no,’ said [Bernadette] Loloju [CEO of the Anti-FGM Board in Kenya]” (14-15).
July 19, 2024, 9:09 p.m.
Countries: Sierra Leone
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

“The devastating impact of FGM on girls’ and women’s psychological and physical health has been long identified internationally as a human rights violation. In April, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls named it as ‘one of the most pernicious forms of violence committed’, and yet current estimates…in Sierra Leone, it affects 83% of girls and women. Despite decades of campaigning by anti-FGM activists, it remains prevalent – shielded in the belief that to become a woman and be fit for marriage, girls must be cut, must be subordinate, their bodies violated and conditioned that this is the norm” (5).
Jan. 19, 2024, 12:06 p.m.
Countries: Central African Rep
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"Female genital mutilation affects 24 per cent of women and girls aged between 15 and 49" (23). "The practice of levirate and sororate has somewhat decreased in the light of the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS" (32).
Aug. 8, 2023, 12:20 p.m.
Countries: Senegal
Variables: INFIB-PRACTICE-1, INFIB-DATA-2

"Efforts in the field of women’s rights have focused on empowering women and combating sexual and marital violence. The Government has therefore set up gender units within the various ministries in order to develop a culture of women’s rights within the Administration. However, obstacles remain, in the form of cultural, religious and economic pressures, including the following:...Persistent sociocultural and religious constraints that resulted in a slight decrease in the prevalence rate of FGM for girls up to 14 years of age. This rate once again decreased slightly between 2012 (18 percent) and 2017 (14 percent), before stabilizing at 14 percent in the past two years (2016 and 2017); Lack of...more
July 10, 2023, 9:26 p.m.
Countries: Maldives
Variables: INFIB-DATA-1, INFIB-DATA-2

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that in the Maldives, female circumcision mainly falls in to the Type 4 category. This category includes all other (other than clitoridectomy, excision and infibulation) harmful procedures to the female genitalia for non-medical purposes, e.g. pricking, piercing, incising, scraping and cauterizing the genital area (WHO, 2018). 13% of women age 15–49 are circumcised in the Maldives. The prevalence of female circumcision increases steeply with age, from only 1% from women age 15–19 to 38% among women age 45–49. Female circumcision is performed almost exclusively in early childhood. Thus, 83% of circumcised women reported that they were circumcised when they were younger than age 5, with only 2%...more
June 26, 2023, 6:46 p.m.
Countries: Kenya
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

" In Kisii county, medicalisation is standard. Two out of three cases of cutting are performed by health practitioners, in contrast to much of the country, where 70% of FGM cases are performed by traditional practitioners" (para.5). "FGM rates in Kenya have gone down significantly over the past decade. The country passed strong laws in 2011, imposed hefty fines on practitioners, and stepped up surveillance and enforcement. But medicalisation is posing a new challenge for the east African nation, which has a 15% medicalisation rate: one of the highest in Africa" (para.9). "Kenyan president William Ruto backed the country’s chief justice who said that FGM 'should not be a conversation...more
March 18, 2023, 10:20 p.m.
Countries: Ethiopia
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"[E]fforts contributed to the decrease in the rate of FGM from 56 per cent to 23 per cent" (10). "Child marriage and FGM practices in communities [are minimized]" (26).
March 4, 2023, 7:52 a.m.
Countries: Sierra Leone
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"More than 90 percent of women over 30 in Sierra Leone have undergone genital cutting, compared with just 61 percent of those ages 15 to 19, according to the most recent household survey on the subject, conducted by UNICEF in 2019. The practice is normally carried out on girls at the onset of puberty, although there are areas of the country where it is done on girls who are much younger" (Para. 7). "Kadiatu Bangura inherited the role of sowei and estimated that she cut more than 100 girls in the town of Port Loko before her daughter Zeinab, who is now 22, asked her to quit..." (Para. 40).more
March 4, 2023, 7:40 a.m.
Countries: Benin
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"And in the song 'L'excision,' they sing about female genital mutilation, which 9.2% of women between the ages of 15 to 49 have undergone in Benin, according to UNICEF. 'Africa, my Africa, we must stop destroying our women,' they sing" (Para. 10).
Feb. 8, 2023, 1:06 p.m.
Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"Over the last seven years alone, more than 30,000 cases of FGM were newly identified by NHS doctors, despite the practice being illegal since 1985." (para 3). "New data in December revealed that for the first time last year, the number of newly identified cases of FGM has decreased and does not exceed 700 during the four month period from July to September when the data was collected by the NHS. Overall, the number of FGM cases identified by NHS workers has decreased from the start of the data collection in 2015 with 6,000 cases to now, where the number of roughly 3,000 newly identified cases per year has been...more
Feb. 4, 2023, 8:40 a.m.
Countries: Iraq
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"[F]emale genital mutilation [is prevalent] in certain regions of the State party, in particular in rural areas" (6).
Feb. 2, 2023, 1:11 p.m.
Countries: Austria
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"The Committee notes the following with concern:...(c) The lack of reliable statistics on the number of women who have been subjected to... female genital mutilation" (14).
Dec. 19, 2022, 5:54 p.m.
Countries: Malaysia
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"In Malaysia, a 2018 study found that over 99% of female participants surveyed (605 participants) had undergone FGM. Meanwhile, a separate study conducted in 2012 found that number to be 93% (of 1,196 respondents)" (para 10).
Dec. 14, 2022, 2 p.m.
Countries: Sierra Leone
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"More than 90 percent of women over 30 in Sierra Leone have undergone genital cutting, compared with just 61 percent of those ages 15 to 19, according to the most recent household survey on the subject, conducted by UNICEF in 2019. The practice is normally carried out on girls at the onset of puberty, although there are areas of the country where it is done on girls who are much younger" (Para. 7). "Kadiatu Bangura inherited the role of sowei and estimated that she cut more than 100 girls in the town of Port Loko before her daughter Zeinab, who is now 22, asked her to quit..." (Para. 40).more
Oct. 7, 2022, 4:17 p.m.
Countries: Portugal
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"The State Secretariat for Citizenship and Equality reported that some immigrant communities practiced FGM/C on young girls, particularly among Bissau-Guinean immigrants. According to the government’s Healthy Practices Project to prevent and combat FGM/C, the country flagged 101 cases of possible FGM/C in 2020, down from 129 in 2019. Since authorities began collecting FGM/C statistics in 2014, there have been only three confirmed cases of FGM/C performed in the country. The remaining cases were performed in the immigrants’ countries of origin" (12).
Aug. 18, 2022, 5:18 p.m.
Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"The exact number of women and girls in the UK who have undergone FGM is unknown. However, a 2015 study based on 2011 census data estimated that around 60,000 girls aged 0-14 were born in England and Wales to mothers who had undergone FGM." (5) "A 2015 study based on 2011 census data on FGM in the UK found around 103,000 women aged 15-49 and around 24,000 women aged 50 and over who have migrated to England and Wales are living with the consequences of FGM. It also found that around 10,000 girls aged under 15 who have migrated to England and Wales are likely to have undergone FGM. The...more
July 6, 2022, 10:35 a.m.
Countries: Djibouti
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"Lastly, a national survey on violence against women containing a section devoted to female genital mutilation was conducted in 2019. The results of the new survey indicate that there has been a significant decline in the practice of female genital mutilation in recent years, with fewer young and adolescent girls having undergone female genital mutilation than had been subjected to the practice in earlier generations" (13). "A comparison of the 0–10 year old cohorts since 1994 illustrates this substantial decline in the incidence of the practice, which fell from 94.3 per cent among generations born before 1994 to 21.2 per cent among generations born in the last 10 years" (14).more
July 1, 2022, 11:06 a.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"National data from 2013 shows the percentage of girls circumcised aged 0–11 years is 51.2%, with 72.4% being circumcised at the age of 1–5 months (Basic Health Research, 2013)" (19).
April 29, 2022, 5:43 p.m.
Countries: Russia
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"[T]he committee notes with concern:.. female genital mutilation and other forms of gender-based violence against women and the lack of shelters and victims support services, particularly in rural and remote areas" (6-7).
March 19, 2022, 9:15 p.m.
Countries: Liberia
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"Some 58 per cent of Liberian women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice widely used by a secret society called Sande, says the report. Women and girls from poor households are twice likely to experience FGM than those from wealthy ones" (para 4). This shows that the practice of FGM falls in category (1) Frequent or common (ST-CODER COMMENT).
March 9, 2022, 8:57 a.m.
Countries: Italy
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"Italy now holds the sad record of European country with the highest number of female infibulations, mostly among women of Somali or Nigerian origin" (94).
Feb. 24, 2022, 10:11 p.m.
Countries: Colombia
Variables: INFIB-PRACTICE-1, INFIB-LAW-1, INFIB-DATA-2

"The law prohibits FGM/C, but isolated incidents were reported in several indigenous communities in different parts of the country. Two-thirds of women from the Embera community had undergone FGM/C, according to the UN Population Fund" (25).
Feb. 23, 2022, 3:02 p.m.
Countries: Senegal
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"FGM/C was practiced in the country but was not widespread" (15).
Feb. 5, 2022, 9:24 a.m.
Countries: Mozambique
Variables: INFIB-LAW-1, INFIB-DATA-2

"The law prohibits FGM/C. FGM/C existed in the country, but NGOs and the government stated the incidence was low. There were no reliable estimates of the numbers of girls and women subjected to FGM/C…" (15).
Jan. 24, 2022, 1:07 p.m.
Countries: India
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"According to human rights groups and media reports, between 70 and 90 percent of Dawoodi Bohras, a population of approximately one million concentrated in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Delhi, practiced FGM/C" (44).
Jan. 24, 2022, 12:55 p.m.
Countries: Djibouti
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"Significant human rights issues included... violence against women and girls with inadequate government action for prosecution and accountability, including female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C)" (1). "According to a 2012 Ministry of Health survey, 78 percent of girls and women between ages 15 and 49 had undergone FGM/C. Per government officials, new cases of FGM/C were rare in the country’s urban areas, but they also noted a small subsection of the population travels to surrounding countries to have FGM/C performed" (17).
Dec. 20, 2021, 11:23 a.m.
Countries: Cote D'Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea, Somalia
Variables: INFIB-PRACTICE-1, INFIB-DATA-2

In Belgium, “The law prohibits FGM/C for women and girls, and it was not a widespread practice in the country. Reported cases were primarily filed by recent immigrants or asylum seekers. Criminal sanctions apply to persons convicted of FGM/C. According to 2017 estimates, there were more than 17,000 female minor and adult victims of FGM/C in the country, while more than 8,000 were at risk. The vast majority of potential victims were asylum seekers from Guinea, Somalia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Egypt” (9).
Dec. 20, 2021, 11:19 a.m.
Countries: Belgium
Variables: INFIB-PRACTICE-1, INFIB-LAW-1, INFIB-DATA-2

"The law prohibits FGM/C for women and girls, and it was not a widespread practice in the country. Reported cases were primarily filed by recent immigrants or asylum seekers. Criminal sanctions apply to persons convicted of FGM/C. According to 2017 estimates, there were more than 17,000 female minor and adult victims of FGM/C in the country, while more than 8,000 were at risk. The vast majority of potential victims were asylum seekers from Guinea, Somalia, Cote d’Ivoire, and Egypt" (9).
Dec. 17, 2021, 6:27 p.m.
Countries: Cote D'Ivoire
Variables: INFIB-DATA-2

"FGM/C remained a serious problem" (19).