Dad forces girl to circumcise
2006-06-07 14:39
Stockholm - A Somali man was indicted on Wednesday in Sweden for allegedly forcing genital mutilation on his daughter, said a prosecutor.
It was the first time such charges had been made in the Scandinavian country. The 41-year-old man, whose name had not been made public, was a Swedish citizen.
He was arrested in March on suspicion of having his daughter, then 13, circumcised during a visit to Mogadishu in January 2005.
Prosecutor Agneta Henrikson said: "He decided that the girl should be circumcised and together with another person kept firm hold of her while a circumciser performed the operation."
Female genital mutilation - often called female circumcision and also known as FGM - had been banned since 1982 in Sweden, but the charges were the first case since the law took effect.
The law also prohibited children from being taken abroad for the procedure. Henrikson said the charges were based on a medical examination as well as statements from the daughter.
According to the UN health agency, an estimated 130 million women had been circumcised, mostly in Africa, the Middle East and some Asian countries, and some three million women and girls underwent female genital mutilation each year.
- AP