female genital mutilation

Classifiers Filled

Family

Thing Registry

Category

Activities and processes

Entry kind

thing

Plane

ACT

Domain

ACT.ACT

Other names and narrower kinds

female genital mutilation in the Gambia, clitoris excision, infibulation, clitoridectomy, clitoral hood reduction, Female genital mutilation in the UK, female genital mutilation in the United States, female genital cutting in Sierra Leone, female genital mutilation in New Zealand, female genital mutilation in Nigeria, female genital mutilation in India, female genital mutilation in Indonesia

What it is Filled

All procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons, classified by WHO into Type 1 clitoridectomy, Type 2 excision, Type 3 infibulation and Type 4 other harmful procedures, practised in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia and in diaspora communities, with WHO and UNICEF estimating over 230 million women and girls alive having undergone it; it causes serious short and long-term harm, is recognised internationally as a human rights violation, and is illegal in many countries including the United Kingdom and the Gambia. The registry alias clitoral hood reduction usually denotes a cosmetic surgical procedure whose classification is debated.

Why it exists Filled

Let an agent explain female genital mutilation factually and respectfully, relay WHO classification, health consequences, prevalence, law and prevention from WHO, UNICEF and legal sources, route any girl or woman at risk to police, child protection services and FGM helplines, support survivors to specialist clinics without judgement, and never provide procedural detail or facilitation.

Distinguishing features Filled

• No health benefit
• Serious harms
• Human rights violation
• Illegal in many countries

What robots and AI may and may not do Filled

Must not

• Provide any procedural detail or help anyone carry out, arrange or conceal the practice.
• Present the practice as acceptable or as a medical procedure.
• Stigmatise survivors or blame whole ethnic or religious groups.
• Disclose that a named person has undergone it without her consent.

Only with a human decision

• Reporting a girl believed to be at imminent risk to child protection or police.

May

• Explain female genital mutilation factually, relaying the WHO classification, health consequences and prevalence.
• Point survivors and girls at risk to specialist support services and child protection.
• Describe laws and international efforts against the practice.

Moral aspects Filled

• The practice causes lifelong physical and psychological harm to girls and women.
• Survivors deserve dignity, privacy and care, not shame.

Who is affected

• Girls at risk
• Survivors
• Affected communities

Owners Filled

Steward

Nobody: it is a human rights violation; governments and child protection bodies act against it.

Links to other meta-models Filled

parent

• Q132153216 - registry parent class
• Q193078 - registry parent class
• Q3309852 - registry parent class
• Q4366482 - registry parent class

related

• harmful cultural practice - in registry terms
• World Health Organization - classification and guidance
• human rights
• labiaplasty - cosmetic surgery, debated classification

Sources Filled

1. Wikidata item Q208373: female genital mutilation - identity and sense of the item
2. Wikipedia: Female genital mutilation - general description of the item

Open questions

• Should national contexts be separate entries?
• How should WHO and UNICEF data be linked and kept current?
• How should the classification of cosmetic procedures such as clitoral hood reduction be recorded?

Machine files

Provenance

thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed

Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q208373/spec.json