THE AFRICA BAZAAR STAFF

January 6, 2021

United States President Donald J. Trump Tuesday signed a new Executive Order that will impose harsher punishments and penalties on anyone that performs female genital cutting on minors. 

The Executive Order (H.R. 6100,) the “Strengthening the Opposition to Female Genital Mutilation Act of 2020 or the STOP FGM Act of 2020,” increases criminal penalties for performing a female genital mutilation on a minor and expands the scope of punishable offenses.

The FGM, a controversial custom that is performed on girls and young women in developing as well as in some developed countries, including in some places in Africa, Caribbean, Latin America, Middle East and some cities in the U.S., has been denounced as a cruel and inhumane act on girls and as a form of gender-based violence on girls and women. 

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