Female Mutilation Halted in NSW

NSW Health experts are confident they have stopped female genital mutilation (FGM) being practised on young Moslem girls born in Australia but there are still anecdotal reports of girls being sent home for the banned procedure.

The Government's NSW Education Program on FGM manager Lesley Garton said it was "quite possible" that some Moslem girls of Somalian, Sudanese, Ethiopian, Sierra Leonean, Indonesian or Egyptian origin were being sent by their Moslem parents to those countries to be circumcised.

More than 90 per cent of Somalian women are circumcised - approximately the same proportion of the Somali population that is Moslem!

Female genital mutilation is illegal in Australia under laws introduced in 1995. It is also illegal for an Australian child to be circumcised overseas.

Ms Garton said the reports were only anecdotal. "I have not heard of any girls being circumcised here," she said.

Bilingual community worker Linda Zaki, who works with the Sudanese community in Sydney, said the vast majority of women were adamant they would not circumcise their daughters after participating in the education program. The program outlines the health risks and dispels some of the myths associated with the centuries-old cultural practice.

Each year, Auburn Hospital sees about 40 Moslem women seeking help at its specialist female genital mutilation clinic, which was set up in 1994.

See also: Islam's Hatred of the Clitoris