A French court has sentenced Hawa Greou of Malia, Africa to eight years for mutilating the genitals of about 50 girls.
The case constituted the first trial to be prompted by a victim’s complaint as well as France’s largest ever genital mutilation case since so-called “female circumcision” was outlawed in 1984. Twenty-six parents of the girls sent to Greou for mutilation were also tried as accomplices and punished with sentences ranging from 2 years in prison to suspended terms.
At least 130 million girls within Africa, the Middle East and Asia have been forced to suffer female genital mutilation (FGM). FGM involves the removal of all or part of a girl’s genitalia from her body, often using crude instruments and without anesthesia. FGM, designed to preserve women’s chastity, destroys women’s potential for sexual pleasure and can cause shock, hemorrhaging, infection, urinary incontinence, painful sexual intercourse, infertility, and childbirth complications.
