The overall number is up, because a new country is in the mix, but the overall prevalence is down. Which is science for, "Things are getting better."
There are new global figures on female genital mutilation — also known as female genital cutting, or FGM — and at first glance, they're cause for concern.
A girl outside a community meeting on FGM in Somaliland, in northern Somalia.
Nichole Sobecki/AFP / Getty Images
Numbers are a tricky business. UNICEF's new estimates include data from 30 countries where FGM is practiced, and the data re only included if they're good enough to be considered nationally representive. So this is basically a scientifically-backed really, really good guess.
UNICEF's new figures, released today, say that 200 million women and girls have been cut worldwide. That's 70 million more than last year's figures.
Men and women in Somaliland, which has some of the highest rates of FGM in the world, talk about the practice at a community meeting.
Nichole Sobecki/AFP / Getty Images
Those are national figures from various sources, and they don't include estimates by countries like the United Kingdom or the United States. A new report from Plan UK said British doctors reported finding more than 2,000 previously unrecorded cases of FGM among their patients in a five-month period last year.
A half-million girls in the U.S. are at risk for FGM, according to figures released last year, even though it's illegal — especially if their families want to take them back to their home countries to be cut.
And let's be clear about one thing up front: Many of the countries where FGM is practiced have large or majority Muslim populations, but FGM is not a religious practice, and nothing in the Qu'ran sanctions the cutting.
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