Around two million girls and women could be additionally affected by genital mutilation over the next ten years due to the coronavirus-related school closings and the interruption of important prevention programs, warned the UN organizations UNICEF and UNFPA in a broadcast today.
Tomorrow is the international day against female genital mutilation, which is why NEOS, FPÖ and SPÖ also made it known in broadcasts.
According to UNICEF and UNFPA, the United Nations Children’s Fund and Population Fund, the goal of ending female genital mutilation by 2030 was an ambitious undertaking before the coronavirus pandemic threatened important advances.
Now the organizations are more determined than ever to protect the four million girls and women who are threatened with genital mutilation every year.
Cooperation and education needed
To achieve this, various stakeholders such as decision-makers, civil society, educators, health workers, religious leaders, and law enforcement and judicial officials would have to work together. Men and boys would also play a decisive role in this.
Girls also needed access to education, health care, sexual and reproductive health services, and decent livelihoods. The same measures would also promote the status and freedom of choice of girls and women. If gender equality were a reality, there would be no female genital mutilation, it was stressed.
According to the organizations, at least 200 million girls and women worldwide are affected by female genital mutilation.
Victims in Austria too
“Unfortunately, female genital mutilation is not just something that happens in distant countries and on other continents. Thousands of victims of this form of gender-based violence also live in Austria, ”said NEOS women’s spokeswoman Henrike Brandstötter. FPÖ women’s spokeswoman Rosa Ecker emphasized that one should not look the other way when it comes to genital mutilation.
The SPÖ MPs Petra Bayr and Carlien Scheele, head of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in Vilnius, called for the fight against female genital mutilation to be continued: “Corona is increasing international cases of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation, ed. ). The reasons for this are the impoverishment of families due to job losses, social isolation and school closings. „
