{"id":15510,"date":"2026-08-19T10:49:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/france-battles-african-genital-mutilation-tradition-with-slogans\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T10:49:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T07:49:53","slug":"france-battles-african-genital-mutilation-tradition-with-slogans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/france-battles-african-genital-mutilation-tradition-with-slogans\/","title":{"rendered":"France battles African genital mutilation tradition with slogans"},"content":{"rendered":"

From June 25 to September 2, 2026, the French government-backed association Excision, parlons-en! has deployed awareness materials across public transit shelters warning that excision must never be part of travel, according to Valeurs Actuelles<\/em>. The campaign serves as a stark reminder that each summer, girls leave France and return with irreversible injuries inflicted beyond the reach of French criminal law.<\/p>\n

Naky Sy Savan\u00e9<\/strong>, an Ivorian actress known for her role in the series Lupin, founded the Union des Femmes du Monde-GAMS Sud association in Marseille and now chairs the Collective of African Women Against Excision and Violence Linked to Traditions. Speaking from the Conception maternity hospital in Marseille, she confirmed that summer departures represent critical moments when young girls face grave danger from family pressure once borders are crossed.<\/p>\n

Shocking Prevalence in French Territories<\/h2>\n

The global scale of female genital mutilation remains staggering. More than 230 million women currently alive have undergone the procedure, with one girl mutilated every 10 seconds worldwide, according to UNICEF’s 2024 report. France counted 139,312 adult women and 10,688 minor girls who had been excised as of 2019, based on data from the Miprof agency.<\/p>\n

The \u00cele-de-France region concentrates a significant portion of affected women. In Seine-Saint-Denis, the association 125 et apr\u00e8s estimates that one woman in ten has been subjected to excision in 2026. A study conducted at the Andr\u00e9-Gr\u00e9goire hospital in Montreuil reached similar conclusions, finding nearly 12 percent of women giving birth at the facility had undergone genital mutilation.<\/p>\n

Cultural Strongholds Thousands of Miles from Paris<\/h2>\n

In countries including Egypt, Sudan, Mali, and Somalia, excision affects nearly all women of certain generations. Demographic and health surveys indicate that 90 percent of Malian women have been victimized by the practice. Savan\u00e9 emphasized that African leaders, customary chiefs, and religious authorities must unite to end the tradition, stating the solution lies among Africans themselves.<\/p>\n

The actress recounted traveling to Dakar in 2024 with approximately one hundred African associations to challenge the Gambian government, which was considering legislation to re-legalize excision.<\/p>\n

Women Perpetuating Their Own Subjugation<\/h2>\n

The practice is almost exclusively carried out by women, transmitted across generations by older women who occupy specific social functions within their communities. Savan\u00e9 explained that in certain societies, refusing excision equates to denying a daughter her place in the community. Mothers fear their uncut daughters will be perceived as prostitutes incapable of finding husbands and therefore lacking social status.<\/p>\n

Behind this social pressure, the activist identified male fears of female pleasure and infidelity as primary drivers. Girls are deprived of control over their own bodies to assuage the insecurities of family patriarchs who seek absolute control over female sexuality.<\/p>\n

AI-Generated Propaganda Promotes Mutilation<\/h2>\n

Despite recent petitions calling for prohibition and gradual awakening of public consciousness, pro-excision discourse remains deeply entrenched in Mali. Artificial intelligence-generated images have made a disturbing appearance on Facebook in recent days, widely disseminated as propaganda featuring powerful men with crossed arms displaying slogans such as “Yes to excision” and “We want to protect them.”<\/p>\n

Medical Reality Contradicts Cultural Justifications<\/h2>\n

The World Health Organization documents immediate complications including severe pain, hemorrhaging, infections, urination difficulties, and shock. Long-term consequences encompass persistent pain, menstrual disorders, obstetric complications, and psychological trauma. Savan\u00e9 noted that some women cannot even wear undergarments because any contact triggers unbearable electric shock-like sensations, observations she has made alongside midwives and physicians at Marseille hospitals.<\/p>\n

Justifications invoking tradition or family honor do nothing to alter the medical reality of a practice that leaves permanent physical and psychological scars on millions of women and girls.<\/p>\n

With information from Valeurs Actuelles<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A French awareness campaign warns that thousands of girls face female genital mutilation during summer travel abroad, with over 139,000 women and girls already affected in France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":15509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[11980,11979,11977,55,8036,11978],"nfg_topic":[135],"class_list":["post-15510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-african-traditions","tag-excision-parlons-en","tag-female-genital-mutilation","tag-france","tag-marseille","tag-naky-sy-savane","nfg_topic-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15510"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=15510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}