Female genital mutilation affects girls and women not only in Africa and Asia, but also in the US, ABC news reports. The article quotes several young women living in the US who have been mutilated either in the United States or were taken abroad to their parents’ countries of origin to undergo the painful and dangerous procedure. “It is worse than anything else in the world”, one of them says.

Female genital mutilation has been officially banned in the US since 1996. Despite being illegal, many groups continue to practice it.

The Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 150.000 to 200.000 girls living in the US are at risk of being taken abroad to be mutilated. In 2010, a suggestion by the American Association of Pediatricians (AAP) caused heated discussion: the organisation had published a proposal to offer a so-called “ritual nick” to parents demanding a mutilation of their daughters. The AAP argued that such a nick, performed by a doctor in the US would be much less dangerous and harmful for the girl child than being taken abroad where a “real” mutilation would be done.

Many women’s rights activists, opposed the proposal, which they felt would promote a continuation of the practice. You can read Waris Dirie’s statement on the proposal here. The AAP withdrew its proposal only weeks after its publication.

But the issue of FGM in the United States remains a pressing one. With the release of the movie Desert Flower, it will receive more attention, Waris Dirie hopes. “I think the movie is a great chance to start a public debate on how to protect young girls in the United States from having to undergo FGM, and on how to help those who already live with the consequences and are unable to address it or seek help. FGM is a taboo in all of the groups that practice it. This is why I think this movie has such an important message. It puts FGM out there for people to openly talk about it.”