SELECTED STATISTICS ON WOMEN’S STATUS

12% of women 20-24 years old were married orin union before age 15

34% of women 20-24 years old were married orin union before age 18

22% of women 20-24 years old havegiven birth by age 18

34%of women 15-49 years old think that ahusband/partner is justified inhitting/beating his wife under certaincircumstances

12% of currently married women 15-49 years old are using any contraceptive method

Source: MICS 2014

Female genital mutilation (FGM) refers to “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.”1 While the exact number of girls and women worldwide who have undergone FGM remains unknown, at least 200 million girls and women have been cut in 31 countries with representative data on prevalence. FGM is a violation of girls’ and women’s human rights and is condemned by many international treaties and conventions, as well as by national legislation in many countries. Yet, where it is practised FGM is performed in line with tradition and social norms to ensure that girls are socially accepted and marriageable, and to uphold their status and honour and that of the entire family. UNICEF works with government and civil society partners towards the elimination of FGM in countries where it is still practised.

1. World Health Organization, Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation: An interagency statement, WHO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNIFEM, OHCHR, UNHCR, UNECA, UNESCO, UNDP, UNAIDS, WHO, Geneva, 2008, p. 4.

STATISTICAL PROFILE ON FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

SUDAN

© UNICEF/UNI73759/Holt

Data and Analytics SectionDIVISION OF DATA, ANALYTICS, PLANNING AND MONITORING

HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE PRACTICE?

Nearly nine out of ten girls and women in Sudan have undergone FGM

WHEN AND HOW IS FGM PERFORMED?

More than three-quarters of girls are cut by health personnel, most commonly a nurse, midwife or other health worker

Notes: The boundaries and the names shown and the designations used on the map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. Only categories with 25 or more unweighted cases are presented. Due to rounding, some of the data presented may not add up to 100 per cent. There is no ethnicity or religion data for Sudan. Prevalence data for girls aged 0 to 14 reflect their current, but not final, FGM status since some girls who have not been cut may still be at risk of experiencing the practice once they reach the customary age for cutting. Therefore, the data on prevalence for girls under age 15 is actually an underestimation of the true extent of the practice. Since age at cutting varies among settings, the amount of underestimation also varies and this should be kept in mind when interpreting all FGM prevalence data for this age group. ‘Health personnel’ includes doctors, nurses, midwives and other health workers; ‘Traditional practitioner’ includes traditional circumcisers, traditional birth attendants and other types of traditional practitioners.

Source for all charts on this page: MICS 2014

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 yearswho have undergone FGM, by state

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have undergone FGM,by residence and household wealth quintile

Percentage of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone FGM (as reported by their mothers), by residence, mother’s education and household wealth quintile

Percentage distribution of girls aged 15 to 19 years who have undergone FGM, by age at which cutting occurred

Percentage distribution of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone FGM (as reported by their mothers), according to the type of person/practitioner performing the procedure

Among daughters of cut girls and women, the percentage of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone FGM (as reported by their mothers),

by mothers’ attitudes about whether the practice should continue

10% - 25% 26% - 50%

51% - 80%

Less than 10%

Above 80%

87 87 859288

0

20

40

60

80

100

Total Rural Urban Richest Poorest

20 40 0 60 80 100

0-4 years

5-9 years

10-14 years

15+ years

Don’t know/Missing

9 66 14

0.1

10

Traditionalpractitioner

Don’t know/Missing

HealthPersonnel

Doctor

Nurse/ midwife/other health workers

0.2

77

77

20

3

30 31 27 31 32 30 29

0

20

40

60

80

100

Total Rural Urban Noeducation

Primary Richest Poorest

25

Secondary or higher

39 35 30

0

20

40

60

80

100

Daughters whosemothers think FGM

should continue

Daughters whose mothers say it

depends/are not sure

Daughters whose mothers think

FGM should stop

WHAT ARE THE PREVAILING ATTITUDES TOWARDS FGM?

Slightly more than half of girls and women are opposed to the continuation of FGM

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard about FGM, by their attitudes about whether the practice should continue

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard about FGM and think the practice should continue, by wealth quintile, education, residence and age

IS THE PRACTICE OF FGM CHANGING?

Fewer adolescent girls have undergone FGM compared to older women

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 who have undergone FGM, by age groups

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have undergone FGM, and percentage of girlsand women aged 15 to 49 years who have heard about FGM and think the practice should continue

0 20 40 80 100

Think FGM should continue Think FGM should stop Say it depends/are not sure

60

541 53 6

41

62

23

55 47

23

47

28

42 39

0

20

40

60

80

100

Total Poorest Richest No education Primary Secondary or higher

Rural Urban 45-49 years 15-19 years

92 91 87 88 88 86 82

0

20

40

60

80

100

45-49 years 40-44 years 35-39 years 30-34 years 25-29 years 20-24 years 15-19 years

Notes: N/A = not available. There is no ethnicity data for Sudan.

Source for all of the above charts: MICS 2014

N/A

8990

0

20

40

60

80

100

MICS 2000 SHHS 2006

Prevalence of FGM Think FGM should continue

SHHS 2010

88

42

MICS 2014

87

4145

SUDAN

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 years who have undergone FGM

Percentage of girls aged 0 to 14 years who have undergone FGM (as reported by their mothers)

Percentage of girls and women aged 15 to 49 who have heard of FGM and think the practice should continue

INTER-COUNTRY STATISTICAL OVERVIEW

Notes: In Liberia, girls and women who have heard of the Sande society were asked whether they were members; this provides indirect information on FGM since it is performed during initiation into the society. Data on girls’ prevalence in Egypt refer to girls aged 6 months to 14 years and in Indonesia refer to girls aged 0 to 11 years. An older source is used to report on the prevalence of FGM among girls and on the percentage of support for FGM in Uganda (DHS 2011) since the latest source did not collect these data. Data on the prevalence among girls refer to an older source in Nigeria (MICS 2016-17) due to an anomaly in the results in the most recent source. MICS data for Ghana (2011) could not be used to report on attitudes towards FGM due to the fact that information is missing for girls and women with no living daughters; data from MICS 2006 are used instead. EDSF/PAPFAM data for Djibouti (2012) could not be used for attitudes towards FGM since the question is different from the standard; data from MICS 2006 are used instead. In Liberia, only cut girls and women were asked about their attitudes towards FGM; since girls and women from practicing communities are more likely to support the practice, the level of support in this country as captured by DHS 2013 is higher than would be expected had all girls and women been asked their opinion. In Egypt and Somalia, the support for FGM was calculated among all girls and women, since respondents were not first asked whether they had heard of the practice. Prevalence data for girls and women aged 15 to 49 years and data on attitudes towards FGM are not available for Indonesia.

Source: DHS, EDSF/PAPFAM, MICS, Health Issues Survey, Population and Health Survey and RISKESDAS, 2004-2018.Updated January 2020

FOR MORE INFORMATIONData and Analytics Section - Division of Data, Analytics, Planning and Monitoring

UNICEF, 3 UN Plaza, New York, 10017Website: data.unicef.org Email: data@unicef.org

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