According to the United Nations, the radical Sunni Islamist group ISIS currently attempting to take over Iraq and Syria has demanded that those women and girls living in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul be genitally mutilated.
Multiples sources report that the command applies to all women between the ages of 11 and 46 and could be applied to 4 million individuals. UN official Jacqueline Badcock released the following statement:
This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed. This is not the will of Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists.
Update: The Independent and other journalists out of the Middle East are reporting that the document the UN received this information from is a fake, “likely spread by one of the many, many groups opposed to Isis.” The UN says they are looking into these claims.
Though female genital mutilation was banned by the UN in 2012, FGM is still a widespread practice in some nations. Just this week, the U.S. Congress announced that they’d be responding to requests to study exactly how many American girls find themselves harmed by this practice when they go overseas to visit relatives in other nations.
Image via AP