Female Genital Mutilation continues to be a problem throughout the United Kingdom. Especially during the summer holidays, many girls are either being taken to their parents’ home countries for the procedure or being mutilated in the UK. According to research conducted in the UK, up to 6000 girls in London are at risk of undergoing FGM. In the UK as a whole, as many as 22.000 are threatened.
“FGM is a crime against a child, a crime against humanity”, says Waris Dirie. “It’s abuse. It’s absolutely criminal and we have to stop it!”
The film “Cut – some wounds never heal” was produced by schoolgirls aged 12 to 15 from the Lilian Baylis Technology School in London who all come from immigrant families from East Africa and are affected by FGM. They were supported by the organisation Kids Task Force and TV Producer Rob White. The movie will be made available to all schools in the UK for educational purposes. The movie was financed by the Metropolitan Police and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The Desert Flower Foundation also supports the project of a group of school girls in Bristol, who produced a short film about the issue themselves. Despite opposition from parts of the immigrant communities, the movie was successfully screened in a cinema in central Bristol last week.
