Ancient practices till a threat to Iraqi women

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GERMIAN, Iraq - Set on the arid, pebble-strewn plain southeast of Kirkuk, Hasira looks like a place forsaken by time.

Fat-tailed sheep amble past mud-brick houses and brushwood pens. The odd sickly palm tree provides shade for children's games. There is no electricity.

Germian and 39 other villages in this region of Iraqi Kurds have made their small place in history.

Surveyed by WADI, a German nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in Iraq for more than a decade, the region has provided the first statistical proof of the existence of female genital mutilation in the Middle East.

"We knew Germian was one of the areas most affected by the practice," said WADI director Thomas von der Osten-Sacken. "But the results were a shock."

Of 1,554 women and girls aged 10 or older interviewed by WADI's local medical team, 907 -- more than 60 percent -- said they had undergone the operation.

WADI is raising funds for a survey of the entire Iraqi Kurdish region.

Look up female genital mutilation on the Web, and you'll almost certainly find yourself reading about Africa. In countries such as Egypt, Sudan and Somalia, almost all women have undergone the procedure.

Less well-known is that the practice exists throughout the Middle East, particularly in northern Saudi Arabia, southern Jordan and Iraq. There is circumstantial evidence to suggest it is present in Syria, western Iran and southern Turkey.

The problem, as one United Nations official in Egypt puts it, "is the attitude of the region's governments."