GENEVA Self styled Caliph of militant group Islamic State has ordered that all women between the ages of 11 and 46 must undergo female genital mutilation, which could affect up to four million women and girls in the war-ravaged country, a top UN official said Thursday.
The fatwa issued by the Abu Bakr Baghdadi would potentially affect 4 million women and girls, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Iraq Jacqueline Badcock told reporters in Geneva by videolink from Arbil.
This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed, she said.
This is not the will of Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists, she added.
Zanun Majid, a citizen in Mosul said: Due to this decision, many girls fear for their lives, not knowing where to flee, otherwise risking severe punishment by staying.
A spokesman for Mosul police, Ahmed Obaydi, said: Baghdadis decision to have all women circumcised is, as he claims, to prevent immorality and promote Islamic attitudes among Muslims. The decision was made by Baghdadi as a gift for people in Mosul.
The Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), took over large swathes of the country last month and has begun imposing its extreme Salafist interpretation of Islam.
FGM, the partial or total removal of external female genitalia, is a tradition practiced widely in many countries and often justified as a means of suppressing a woman’s sexual desire to prevent immoral behavior.
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