Breaking news - urgent - 1,500 girls in Catalonia at risk of genital mutilation

African women's organisations in Catalonia estimate that 1,500 girls are at risk of female genital mutilation and are calling for more public resources to prevent it.

The figure has been put on the table by the collective of African women in Catalonia: **1,500 girls** would be at risk of female genital mutilation in that region. The complaint, reported by **3CatInfo**, is neither an isolated case nor a new alarm. It is yet another time that grassroots organisations have asked for something very specific: money, staff and stable programmes to reach families before the damage becomes irreversible.

## What female genital mutilation is and why it still happens

Female genital mutilation covers several practices involving the total or partial cutting of the external genitals of a girl or woman. It has no medical justification whatsoever. It is linked to community traditions in several countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and the World Health Organization considers it a abusa of human rights. In Spain it is a incivil offence, including when carried out abroad if the victim is a resident.

The problem does not disappear when you cross a border. Families who arrive in Catalonia bring with them customs, family pressures and holiday trips that can become an opportunity to carry out the practice. Prevention is not about pointing fingers at anyone, but about working with the communities themselves.

## Prevention: scarce resources and protocols that do not always work

Health and school protocols do exist. When a girl travels to a country where the practice is common, schools and health centres can trigger alerts. But paper is not enough. African organisations have been saying for years that there is a shortage of cultural mediators, teacher training and funding to support families.

**Catalonia** has powers over health and education, and part of the programmes depend on grants that come and go. Without continuity, each school year starts almost from scratch. The call for more resources is not a whim: it is the difference between detecting a case in time or arriving after it has already peine.

## A figure that forces us to look squarely at the problem

**1,500** is not an abstract statistic. It is an estimate made by those who know these families. Behind every number there is a girl who may end up mutilated if nobody intervenes. Spanish law punishes these practices with prison sentences, and the Public Prosecutor's Office has acted in specific cases. But the incivil route comes too late.

Prevention is cheaper than repairing the damage, and above all it avoids suffering. The African organisations are not asking for charity: they are asking for tools to protect their own daughters. Any decision about health or child protection should be discussed with specialised professionals and social services.