The United Nations General Assembly has approved a resolution to ban female genital mutilation (FGM) internationally.
The move has been welcomed by medical experts and human rights groups.
However the new resolution has raised questions about whether labiaplasty, another form of genital modification, should also be considered a form of mutilation.
"There's an extension to ask whether or not the genital surgery that's now being done in Western women, where surgery is being done to rearrange the appearance of the labia,” said Associate Professor Sonia Grover, Director of the Department of Gynaecology at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne.
“One would have to say that's being culturally-driven and one would have to ask whether that's also now a female genital surgery."
Female Genital Mutilation, or FGM, refers to procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
“FGM involves a range of procedures that can be done from a very minor nicking or cutting of the skin over the clitoris or it can involve removal of the clitoris,” said Associate Professor Grover.
“It can involve removal of the labia minora, it can involve sewing of the skin together so that there's only a small opening that allows only blood and urine to come out. So it's quite variable in what's being done."
She adds that labiaplasty can pose similar health risks to the FGM procedures being performed overseas.
FGM has been condemned by medical experts, who say the practice poses significant health risks including childbirth complications, painful sex, and potentially life-threatening infections.
The United Nations resolution, which was adopted by consensus, describes the practice of FGM as a serious threat to the psychological, sexual and reproductive health of women and girls.
The resolution calls upon the UN's 193 member states to condemn the practice while simultaneously conducting education programs to teach communities about the risks of the practice.
Australia's Campaigner on Gender at Amnesty International, Ming Yu, says the move represents a positive step towards eliminating the practice.
"Finally the countries of the world have recognised that this harmful practice is basically violence against women, and particularly, girls,” Yu said.
“We're really excited that this resolution will call for the ban of this practice."
FGM is still widely practiced in some communities, with the UN estimating about 70 million girls and women underwent an FGM procedure in 2010.
The World Health Organisation says about 6,000 girls are circumcised every day.
Associate Professor Grover recently completed a study into FGM in Australia.
She says cases of FGM being performed for cultural reasons in Australia are very rare, but that they are still commonly performed in communities including parts of the Horn of Africa and Indonesia.
"The elder women in the communities are doing it to the young girls to ensure that they are marriageable,” she said.
Associate Professor Grover says while the medical risks associated with FGM seem to be less severe than in the past, the dangers still remain.
“There's evidence that many of those procedures are now being done in medical environments. Now that's got positives and negatives, it means that it's a safer procedure and the evidence would suggest that the procedures in that context are milder procedures,” she said.
“At least it's reducing the risks to women if it's being done in that setting. But clearly it would be preferable if it was not happening at all."
Executive Director of the Multicultural Centre for Women's Health, Adele Murdolo says people do not understand the impact FGM has on women forced to undergo the procedure.
She says a combination of education programs and laws to ban FGM are needed to address the issue.
"I think there's not a lot of understanding about exactly what the impact of female circumcision is on girls,” Murdolo told SBS.
“It's not something that's mandated by any religion or by any particular culture. It's a cultural practice that people within communities are working really hard to eliminate.
“I think that it's really important that people know that there are people within those cultural contexts and within those communities who are working against it.”
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