FGM · CHILD PROTECTION · PREVENTION
Female genital mutilation
FGM is child abuse and a human-rights violation.
Female genital mutilation, or FGM, involves procedures that intentionally alter or injure female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It has no health benefit and can cause immediate and lifelong physical and psychological harm.
The safeguarding question is simple: is this girl safe?
Culture deserves understanding, but abuse does not deserve exemption. Respecting a community and protecting a child are not competing obligations. Protection must come first.
A child cannot make abuse acceptable by appearing to agree with it.
LISTEN BEFORE A CRISIS
A child may not have the words.
A child who has never been given the language to describe a danger may find it much harder to tell somebody about it. Fear, loyalty, family pressure and uncertainty about what will happen next can also make disclosure difficult.
Safeguarding cannot depend on a child producing a perfect account.
ENGLAND AND WALES
Law, protection and reporting
FGM is illegal in England and Wales under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. The law provides FGM Protection Orders to help protect a girl or woman who is at risk or has already experienced FGM.
Regulated health and social care professionals and teachers have a mandatory duty to report to the police certain known cases of FGM identified in girls under 18 in the course of their professional work. The duty is specific; it is not a substitute for wider safeguarding procedures or professional judgement. Law and reporting duties differ elsewhere.
Prevention is practical
Prevention depends on adults recognising risk, responding safely and refusing to allow discomfort about culture, community or language to delay protection.
Good safeguarding asks what is known, what may happen next, who may be involved and what action is most likely to make the child safer. Where risk is suspected, professionals should follow current safeguarding procedures and specialist guidance.
ANEETA PREM · EDUCATION AND SAFEGUARDING
Opening conversations before harm is hidden.
Aneeta Prem’s work through Freedom Charity has included education, campaigning, safeguarding resources and professional awareness relating to FGM and other forms of coercion and abuse.
Cut Flowers uses fiction to open age-appropriate conversations about FGM, safety, bodily autonomy and speaking up.
From information to action
The Five Freedoms asks whether a person can choose, refuse, leave, learn and be. For a child at risk of FGM, protection begins by noticing when those freedoms are being restricted and taking the risk seriously.
This page provides general public information. It is not individual legal or medical advice and Aneeta.com is not a casework or emergency service.