Wassu-UAB Foundation - Presenting a study on FGM in Spain

On 13 November, the study on "Female Genital Mutilation in Spain", conducted by the Wassu-UAB Foundation for the Government Delegation against Gender Violence (DGVG), was presented online.

Victoria Rosell, head of the DGVG, and Dr. Adriana Kaplan, director of the foundation and principal investigator of the research, attended the event.

The main objective of the study is to analyze the situation of FGM in Spain in 2019, while offering proposals and recommendations to open the way towards a respectful and effective approach in the care and prevention of FGM in the territory. The study presents the territorial distribution in Spain of the female population with links to countries where FGM is practised, according to the data from the latest Map of FGM in Spain 2016 (Kaplan & López, 2017). On the other hand, the number of girls at risk of suffering the practice is estimated, adapting the formula of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and using population data from 2018, provided by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). According to the study, 3.652 girls under the age of 14 are at risk of undergoing FGM in Spain.

The research is supported by the results of questionnaires carried out on 82 migrant families residing in Catalonia, to understand the relationship of these family groups with the practice. It has also incorporated in-depth interviews of the personnel linked to the care of these migrant families (health workers, social workers, NGOs, lawyers, public and policy makers), to see what difficulties they encountered in preventing and managing Survivors's cases.