Police appeal over genital mutilation
Waris Dirie has leant her support to the Met campaign
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Wednesday, 11, Jul 2007 10:24
The Metropolitan police have launched a new appeal offering a reward of £20,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of people carrying out female genital mutilation.
A campaign called Project Azure has been set up within the Met's child abuse investigation team to deal with a practise which can be fatal.
The scheme has been timed to correlate with the impending school holidays - often seen as the most prevalent time for genital mutilation as the holiday gives children time to recover from the severe physical effects before going back to school.
Female genital mutilation, sometimes called female circumcision, is considered in many cases to have been done for cultural reasons, often due to misguided religious beliefs or false ideas of chastity.
It can range from injury to the clitoris through to the removal of the labia and clitoris which is then crudely sewn up leaving only a small hole for urination and menstruation.
This is often done without consent and instruments used to carry out the practise can vary from pieces of glass to tin-can lids.
Detective chief superintendent Alistair Jeffrey, head of the Met's child abuse investigation command, said that the campaign aimed to raise awareness of this form of child abuse.
"Female genital mutilation has very severe physical, psychological and emotional consequences. We are being told that the illegal practice of FGM is occurring to children in London.
"We take this extremely seriously and that is why we are taking this unusual step of offering a reward, to encourage people not only to help us prevent this happening, but also where it has occurred, bring those responsible to account.
"This is not only about enforcement. It is also about raising awareness within communities that this is an illegal practice and working with partners and communities to raise awareness of this issue and help protect as many children as possible."
Supermodel Waris Dirie was appointed as special ambassador for the elimination of female genital mutilation by the UN in 1997 and her foundation has contributed £10,000 to the Met's reward fund to help the campaing.
Ms Dirie said: "I welcome the initiative by the Metropolitan police in taking this important step in raising the profile of FGM and support this stance wholeheartedly.
"Even though more than 500,000 women in Europe of African and Asian origin have become victims of this crime, and every year, especially now during the holiday time, thousands of girls in Europe are threatened by it, many politicians do not take this cruel ritual performed on small girls seriously enough."