According to the World Health Organization (WHO), FGM includes "procedures that, intentionally and for non-medical reasons, alter or injure the female genital organs,"ranging from the total or partial amputation of the clitoris to the removal of the labia major and/or minor. Sometimes the vulva is sewn, leaving a small hole for urine and menstruation to exit, which is cut again when a woman initiates sexual intercourse.

These practices are usually carried out on girls less than 15 years of age in unsanitary conditions and without anesthesia. Short-term complications include, among others,severe pain, infections that can spread and cause fatal sepsis, hemorrhages, which sometimes are life threatening, and difficulties urinating or having a bowel movement.

In the long term, they can present, together with psychological trauma, menstrual pains,kidney infections, pain with intercourse and an absence of desire and sexual satisfaction. Sterility may occur as a result of infection and FGM victims have a higher risk of contracting HIV. If they get pregnant, these women usually present complications during child birth, from vaginal tears to fetal and/or maternal death. It is therefore not amere cultural practice. It is a direaffront to defenseless girls with serious public health implications.

FGM spreads across 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Asia. It is done based on cultural beliefs and is considered a rite of passage from childhood toadulthood and a way of safeguarding a woman’s "purity." Nothing is found in the different religions that practice FGM to justify it. The WHO estimates that more than 200 million women have undergone FGM. Due to migration, it is also present in Western countries. In Spain, it is estimated that approximately 18,400 girls are at risk, according to data from the Wassu-UAB foundation.

Many African countries have laws against FGM, which, although necessary, are insufficient for its prevention because it is still strongly rooted in some ethnic groups. Associations that fight against FGM coincide in pointing out that education of women is the most effective tool in the fight for its eradication (since only women can perform FGM), as well as of families and of healthcare and social service representatives— in short, education of the society as a whole.

A study conducted almost 20 years ago by researchers from the universities of Navarra and Cordoba and the Ain Shams University of Egypt, showed that, among students at the University of Cairo (Allam et al, Public Health 2001), 72% believed that FGM should be banned. Regardless of their religion, those who knew about its consequences were in favor of its abolition. Those who believed, wrongly, that FGM has a religious foundation, that it is synonymous with "virtue," and those who were unaware of its complications were more likely not to wantabolish it. Although religious beliefs may be difficult to change, there are others factors independent of religion that influence in the stand against FGM. This study is another example of how education plays an important role when banishing myths and false beliefs related to practices that put health at risk.

In Spain, there are several initiatives aimed at training personnel that work with immigrant groups, as well as immigrants themselves because they have the most influence in convincing other people in their communities to banish the practice of FGM. Take for example Fatima Djarra Sani, a victim of FGM and a mediator for Navarra’s Doctors of the World chapter. Without giving up her roots, she fights using the weapon of education so that other girls do not suffer the same.

But it is not just women who have to champion this fight. Men are also fundamental in the banishment of false beliefs. An informative talk at Doctors of the World in Bilbao was enough for 8 African men to change their minds about FGM and begin to teach other members in their community in the hopes that they abandon this practice. A Senegalese musician, after attending a session where he received information about the consequences of FGM, now fights against it through his music and theater.

Everyone, men and women, can and must fight against FGM. Everyone will do so in his or her own way, but we all must use our most powerful weapon: education.