Plenty of studies but little action
Yemen is the only Middle Eastern country, where the prevalence of FGM was detected early on. Already in 2001, the US State Department published a Report on Female Genital Mutilation and Female Genital Cutting which cites several studies conducted by the Yemeni goverment.
According to a 1997 Yemen Demographic Mother and Child Health Survey, 23% of Yemeni women have undergone FGM. In the sparsely populated Red Sea and Aden Coastal regions, this percentage rises to 69 percent, compared with 15 percent in the populated highlands and 5 percent in the plateau and desert regions. Almost all procedures reported (97 percent) occurred during the first month of life. The usual tool is a razor blade, scissors were used 20 percent of the time. According to the medical anthropologist Soheir Stolba, Ph.D., another practice is common in the coastal regions, known locally as al-takmeed. “On the fourth day after a baby girl’s birth, her mother or an older female household member prepares a compress to use on the genitalia. The compress is a soft cotton material inside of which heated salt and/or sand is placed, along with oil and herbs.”
“A mother heats the compress and places it on the infant’s genitalia, pressing repeatedly for about an hour. This continues for a period varying between 40 days and four months. The procedure’s physical effect may affect nerve endings and decrease the sexual excitement of the girl or woman on whom it’s performed.”
Studies by the Ministry of Public Health revealed that over 96 percent of women in Hodeidah, Hadraumaut and Al-Maharah had undergone FGM while Aden and Sana’a city were 82 percent and 45.5 percent, respectively. Trained medical personnel had performed only ten percent of the operations. Women who specialize in ear piercing, birth attendants, rayissas (women skilled in female circumcision) and relatives carry out most of the procedures.
Nearly 48 percent of the Demographic Survey’s respondents believed it should be discontinued. Urban and educated women, despite a higher rate of circumcision among them, were more likely to oppose the practice. With 62 percent of women being illiterate and 30 percent of men, Yemen has the lowest education rate in the Arab world. While one-third of FGM-supporters gave religious obligation as a reason for FGM, one-third of the opponents believe it to be anti-Islamic. A Study of FGM in Yemen by Gender Studies and Researches Center at Sana University found similar prevalence in 2008 and high references to religious beliefs. Findings also hint that complications and even death occure often: “FGM/C leads to bleeding as the genital organs contain many blood vessels. A lot of women said they had lost their daughters during circumcision.”
The Yemeni government has taken some effort to combat FGM during the last decade. Yet, women’s rights activists criticize them to be by far not enough. The Minister of Public Health, and health care providers have publicly decried the practice. In 2001, the Ministry sponsored a two-day seminar on “Female Health” which marked the first time FGM was publicly discussed. A plan of action to reduce the incidence of FGM in Yemen was established at the conference. A ministerial decree effective January 9, 2001 prohibits the practice in both government and private health facilities. Yet, activists say the law is poorly implemented.
Khalil Foud Ba-Matraf, now health coordinator at the WHO, demanded in 2010 as an activist of Y-Peer, the goverment to implement the law against FGM
In 2008, a national plan to reduce FGM to 30% by 2012 was initiated. Yet, the main activity of the government seems to be to call on religious authorities to condemn the practice which some have done, others not. A draft proposal for a Safe Motherhood Law that includes prohibiting FGM was submitted to parliament in 2009, but not approved.
Yet, even though there were only small-scale government measures against FGM attitudes have changed since the goverment acknowledged the problem. Already in 2013 a study by the Medical University of Tokyo shows a small, yet clear decrease in the percentage of girls having undergone FGM from 29.3% in 1997 to 22.4%. In 2003 more women had heared about FGM showing that awareness raising has taken root. The percentage of women supporting the practice had decreased from 41.5 to 32.3%, that of husbands from 29.8% to 21.1%.
Yet, decline is much slower than in other countries. Newer studies still show high prevalence rates and little reduction. A 2023 study found that prevalence in Yemeni coastal areas was 89.0% among women and 79.8% among the youngest daughters in the surveyed families. A report by UNICEF in 2023 on ‘Ending FGM in Yemen’estimated prevalence at approximately 19% with high variations between governorates. This survey found that FGM was higher among women aged 45-49 years (22.8%), compared to the youngest age group of 15–19 years (16.4%).
Further Reading:
UNHCR: Yemen: Report on Female Gentital Mutilation (FGM) or Female Genital Cutting (FGC) (2001)
24 percent of Yemeni women experience genital mutilation, The Yemen Times, 12 February 2007
Yemen: Government body moves to stem female genital mutilation, The New Humanitarian, 1 July, 2008
Yemen Study: 97 percent of Hodeidah girls subjected to genital mutilation, Yemen Post, February 2012
Al-Khulaidi GA, Nakamura K, Seino K, Kizuki M (2013) Decline of Supportive Attitudes among Husbands toward Female Genital Mutilation and Its Association to Those Practices in Yemen. Division of Public Health, Graduate School of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, Japan, Dezember 2013, PLoS ONE 8(12): e83140. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083140
Al-Taj MA, Al-Hadari MH. Prevalence and drivers of female genital mutilation/cutting in three coastal governorates in Yemen. BMC Public Health. 2023
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Ending Female Genital Mutilation in Yemen, Distancing FGM from religious Discourse and Terminology, 2023
FGM/C Research Initiative, Orchid Project: Yemen Key findings
