2,000 girls at risk of female circumcision

There are an estimated 2,000 young girls in Belgium at risk of being genitally mutilated, reports the Gazet van Antwerpen. Most of them live in Brussels, but in Antwerp alone there are hundreds of girls at risk of being circumcised, warns the Group for the Abolition of Sexual Mutilation. According to estimates, the number of women who have been circumcised has increased threefold in Belgium in the past 10 years, from 2,000 to about 6,000. This includes women who were born in Belgium, as well as those genitally mutilated in their country of origin and before emigrating. Parents or grandparents often arrange for them to be circumcised during holidays in their country of origin, but there are also a number of backstreet genital mutilations taking place in Belgium. Female circumcision is illegal in Belgium and carries jail sentences of up to seven years.