Female Genital Mutilation in the Lazio Region. Experiences and knowledge by professionals, women and migrant communities.

ISTAT figures on migrant women per country of origin and Province of residency have been considered, along with data from the Ministry of Education about enrolled students to all type of public schools (from kindergartens to Upper secondary Schools) coming from the same countries and disaggregated by Provinces and Rome's Municipalities in order to identify areas where potential victims may be concentrated: 8 areas were identified from where 420 Health Care and 702 sociocultural professionals + cultural mediators have been selected to answer a questionnaire on their knowledge of FGM and the Law 7/2006 and directly experienced and/or treated cases. 33 opinion leaders from migrants' NGOs and cultural mediators participated in a semi structured interview on persistence of FGM among migrant communities in the Lazio Region.

Data Collection

Author(s)

Giuliana Candia

Year of data collection

2007 (January)

Study population

10.729 women legally residing the Lazio Region coming from countries where FGM are prevalent, 89,9% of which in the Province of Rome

Prevalence data on FGM

30,7% among the interviewed professionals had met women with FGM during their work, mainly in the last 3 years of service, of whom 22% also came in contact with children at risk. The prevalent type of FGM is infibulation. Specialized structures such as Isituto San Gallicano and San Camillo Hospital treat/meet highest numbers of women with FGM: San Gallicano reports an average of 300/400 patients per year, mostly type I and II.

Disaggregated data per country of origin

Table with % of women from each country of origin over the whole population legally residing in the Region from that country.

Other disaggregation

1820 Pupils (m+f) coming from countries where FMG are prevalent in the region, of whom 93,2% in the Rome area