How 'cutting season' keeps FGM hidden in the UK

Cast your mind back to your childhood summer holidays. School was over and you had 6 weeks of fun ahead. Family holidays, hanging out with friends, and though it seemed to last forever it was over too soon.

But for potentially thousands of girls in the UK the summer holidays mark the arrival of ‘cutting season’, when they are flown abroad to undergo FGM. It’s a practice that is becoming more apparent and one that keeps FGM in the UK under the radar.

What is ‘cutting season’?

During ‘cutting season’ girls are flown abroad, often under the pretence of a holiday visiting relatives. On arrival they are then subjected to mutilation, sometimes at the hands of someone with no medical training, with non-sterile instruments including razor blades, scissors or shards of glass. 

FGM is illegal in the UK so leaving the country helps keep incidence of FGM hidden. The risk of parents being caught and prosecuted is reduced, and it also means that girls have time to physically heal from the cutting, so detection is reduced when they return home.  

The psychological scars may never heal, and the physical impacts extend throughout a girl’s life once the bleeding has stopped. 

FGM in the UK: the facts

Thanks to several high profile campaigns across the media, people are more aware of FGM, and its damaging effects, than ever before. A year ago, the UK government held a landmark global summit on the issue that helped build momentum towards ending the practice. But it’s still perceived as a foreign problem, and while the majority of the estimated 140 million cases of FGM do occur in Africa according to research by the World Health Organisaton, we know that girls are at risk in Western countries too.

As awareness of the threat to girls has risen there have been steps to monitor cases of FGM in the UK. Hospitals across the nation have been recording and reporting on instances of FGM, whether present in women or girls under 18, and the numbers are shocking. This Health & Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) report revealed that there were 578 reported cases of FGM in the UK during March 2015.  

Raise awareness to stop ‘cutting season’

FGM in the UK is real, and as research and campaigning uncovers the true extent of it, we know that something has to be done. Raising awareness of ‘cutting season’ is an important step. It’s a time where many girls are at an increased risk.