Experts Warn of Rise in Medical Professionals Performing Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Asia

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Oct. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Obstetricians, gynecologists, and women's rights advocates are raising concerns over the growing medicalisation of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in South and South East Asia. A new report compiles evidence from Brunei Darussalam, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, with data revealing that younger girls are more likely to be subjected to FGM/C by healthcare practitioners than older generations, and the trend towards medicalisation is higher in urban areas.

Medicalisation of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in South and South East Asia - released jointly by ARROW, the Asia Network to End FGM/C, Equality Now and the Orchid Project - outlines various recommendations to address this growing problem.

Indonesia remains the only country in the region with laws or policies that explicitly ban the performance of FGM/C, including by healthcare practitioners. This significant gap in legal protections leaves women and girls at heightened risk. Governments are urged to enact and fully enforce comprehensive legislation prohibiting FGM/C, with explicit provisions to prevent and prohibit medicalisation.

Governments need to conduct national awareness campaigns outlining FGM/C's harms, mandate training for healthcare professionals, and enforce meaningful sanctions against those conducting the practice. The report recommends establishing mandatory reporting mechanisms and robust whistleblower protections to ensure healthcare practitioners can safely report incidents.

Dr Hannah Nazri from the Asia Network to End FGM/C explains, "Medicalising FGM/C may be intended to reduce harm, but it does not make the practice safe. With medicalisation rising across Asia, healthcare professionals are in a unique position to protect women and girls. They must be supported by clear laws, accountability, and cultural change to end this harmful practice."

Medicalised FGM/C is a serious human rights violation

FGM/C involves the partial or complete removal of external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. In Asia, various terms are used, including 'female circumcision,' 'khatna,' 'khitna,' and 'sunat.' Regardless of the name, FGM/C risks causing immediate and long-term physical and psychological problems, and is rooted in gender discrimination.

Globally, medicalisation of FGM/C is rising, with the World Health Organization (WHO) estimating that 52 million women and girls alive today were subjected to FGM/C performed by a health worker.

FGM/C is internationally recognised as a grave human rights violation, irrespective of who conducts it or in what setting. Medicalisation is condemned under international law, and the WHO and other UN bodies affirm there is no medical justification for FGM/C. Healthcare professionals have legal and ethical duties to abstain from performing it, which is fundamentally incompatible with human rights standards and medical ethics.

FGM/C in South and South East Asia

In Asia, the highest medicalisation rates are in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. In Indonesia, nearly half of all procedures are now done by trained midwives. Malaysia has undergone a similar transition, with the practice gradually shifting from traditional midwives to health professionals. FGM/C is performed primarily by doctors in Malaysia, and a 2020 study found that 85.4% of the doctors interviewed stated that female genital cutting should continue.

In Singapore, FGM/C has been highly medicalised. A 2020 study by End FGC Singapore found 47.3% of respondents who'd undergone FGM/C were cut by doctors. In Sri Lanka, a 2025 study by Women's Action Network revealed it's increasingly being performed by physicians primarily in private clinics, with doctors and hospitals in metropolitan areas offering FGM/C services advertised on social media.

In Thailand, a report by ARROW and the Orchid Project highlights media coverage about a rise in girls undergoing FGM/C in health facilities, with doctors disclosing they perform ten to twenty procedures monthly. Small-scale studies have also documented medicalisation in Brunei, India, and Pakistan, with data indicating a growing trend across the region.

No evidence medicalisation of FGM/C reduces harm

Efforts to end medicalised FGM/C in Asia are hindered by claims that it causes minimal or no harm. Demand is driven by beliefs that it is safer and more hygienic in clinical settings, particularly among parents increasingly aware of the dangers of unsterilised tools used by traditional practitioners. The decline in traditional healers and birth attendants has further shifted the practice towards medical contexts.

FGM/C performed by medical personnel falsely legitimises it as medically acceptable or beneficial. However, medicalisation does not prevent physical, psychological, and emotional damage, and it remains gender-based violence.

The report found no evidence that the medicalisation of FGM/C has led to harm reduction. Instead, some studies in the region found healthcare professionals were more likely to conduct severe forms compared to traditional practitioners, with the involvement of anaesthetics and anatomical knowledge possibly resulting in deeper, more extensive cuts.

Clear guidance from national medical associations is required to prohibit health workers from performing FGM/C. However, many professional bodies remain silent. 

Safiya Riyaz from ARROW states, "Medicalisation of FGM/C does not make the practice safe. On the contrary, it risks embedding it within health systems, undermining medical ethics, and exposing women and girls to long-term physical and psychological harm."

Silence from governments and medical bodies

FGM/C is justified on cultural and religious grounds, with some governments implicitly or explicitly supporting medicalisation.

Advocacy against FGM/C is often met with indifference, dismissal, or resistance, with efforts rejected as a "Western agenda" or portrayed as opposing religion. This framing can harden community resolve to preserve cutting as a cultural or traditional practice, maintained in defiance of perceived Western interference. In Muslim-minority countries like India, Singapore, and Sri Lanka, Islamophobic narratives can further entrench FGM/C.

Divya Srinivasan at Equality Now concludes, "Medicalisation of FGM/C must be urgently addressed through stronger laws, accountability for healthcare providers, and investment in training and awareness.

"No form of FGM/C is safe or acceptable, and embedding it within health systems only deepens harm. Governments, medical authorities, and international partners must work together to adopt zero-tolerance policies and ensure that women and girls throughout Asia are protected from this violation of their rights."

Media Contact:
Tara Carey
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SOURCE Equality Now