Model Waris Dirie helps to fight child mutilation rite

Published on Sunday 3 July 2011 14:21

A SUPERMODEL is backing the launch of a film highlighting the plight of young girls facing circumcision in the UK.

Waris Dirie is supporting the project together with the Metropolitan Police to highlight the potentially fatal practice of female genital mutilation.

The illegal procedure is often carried out during the summer months because girls are off school and there is time for them to recover.

Girls are rarely given anaesthetic and frequently suffer long-term damage and pain in the genitals.

Dirie, a victim herself, said: "Female genital mutilation targets little girls, baby girls - fragile angels who are helpless, who cannot fight back.

"So it's a crime against a child, a crime against humanity. It's abuse. It's absolutely criminal and we have to stop it."

Known as "cutting" among the communities where it is traditionally carried out for cultural reasons, the procedure is thought to be needed as proof of a girl's "purity" when she marries.

Research suggests that every year up to 6,000 girls in London are at risk of the procedure, and more than 22,000 in the UK as a whole.

The film, Cut - Some Wounds Never Heal, has been produced by schoolgirls in London and will be available as a free download to all schools in the UK.

The film was financed by the Metropolitan Police, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.