MP calls for end to Female Genital Mutilation

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has tabled a parliamentary motion supporting The Guardian's campaign calling for an end to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

An estimated 660,000 women in the UK have suffered from FGM with approximately 20,000 more British girls at risk. Fahma Mohamed, a 17 year old student, has been campaigning alongside The Guardian newspaper to end this with an e-petition which calls on the Department for Education to teach about FGM in schools.

Tim has sponsored the motion, which was co-sponsored by MPs Greg Mulholland and Julian Huppert and calls for the Government, and in particular the Department for Education, to do everything in its power to support the work of Fahma and the countless others who are fighting to end the culture of secrecy and fear around the practice, and to do so swiftly before the 'cutting season' begins during the 2014 school summer holidays.

So far 32 other MPs have signed Tim's motion.

Commenting Tim said: "I really commend the hard work of Fahma Mohamed and others who have been campaigning on this sensitive and distressing issue. The culture of secrecy and fear around FGM needs to stop once and for all in this country. We must work to end this barbaric crime at home and abroad.

"I welcome the announcement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development and the Minister of State for the Home Office of a package of measures designed to combat this harmful practice nationally and internationally, however more needs to be done.

"I sincerely hope that the Department for Education listens to the calls that my colleagues and I have made and that swift action is taken to teach about FGM in schools, in order to raise awareness and educate young girls about this atrocity."