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Study: Indonesians Embrace FGM as Religious, Traditional Practice

Nurhadi Sucahyo

   YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA - With a knife, a razor blade, scissors or a
   needle, half of Indonesia's girls are circumcised, and a new study
   found that it is a tradition more rooted in family folkways than
   religion.

   "Cultural reproduction occurs in the household," said Sri
   Purwatiningsih, a researcher of Center for Population and Policy
   Studies at Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta. "Circumcised
   grandmothers tend to circumcise their daughter. A mother who was
   circumcised by the grandmothers will most likely circumcise their
   daughter."

   Purwatiningsih presented her findings Thursday, the International Day
   of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, at the university,
   where the center refers to the procedure as female genital mutilation
   or cutting.

   Indonesia ranks third in the world, at 49%, for the rate of prevalence
   of female circumcision, after Mali, at 83%, and Mauritania, at 51%.
   According to an [1]Indonesian Basic Health Research study from 2013,
   51% of the nation's girls up to the age of 11 have been circumcised.
   Among them, 72.4% were circumcised at between 1 and 5 months, 13.9%
   when they were between 1 and 4 years old, and 3.3% were 5 to11 years
   old.

References

   1. https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/FGM-Girls-prevalence-database_Feb-2020.xlsx

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