THE UK'S CRUELEST CUT - TENS OF THOUSANDS OF GIRLS IN THE UK ARE FORCED TO HAVE THEIR GENITALS CUT.

Girls In The UK Are Often Forced To Have Their Genitals Cut, Often Without The Benefit Of Anaesthesia.

Each year, tens of thousands of girls in the UK are forced to have their genitals cut, often with no anaesthesia. But there has never been a conviction for female genital mutilation here - even though in London alone, police have received 166 complaints in the last four years! Now we have a chance to help. Undercover reporters for the Sunday Times recently caught three medics on film offering to mutilate young girls, massively scaling up the pressure on law enforcement to act. We can use this moment to call on Home Secretary Theresa May for real accountability. She is in charge of every police chief in England and Wales - if she takes the issue up personally, the entire police system could be shaken into action.

Avaaz member Ruth Burnett has created a petition calling on her to start prosecuting the people involved with these assaults and already more than 1200 people have signed! If we reach 20,000 signatures, Avaaz will deliver it directly to Home Secretary May and the head of the Metropolitan Police Force - click below to sign the petition and forward to all your family and friends:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/stop_female_genital_mutilation_in_the_uk/?vl

Female Genital Mutilation is a custom widespread in nearly 30 Middle Eastern and African countries. But FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985 and in 2003 the law was tightened to stop girls being taken abroad for the operation - on so called "FGM holidays".

Still, the practise is widespread here in the UK! When the undercover Times reporter explained to Mohammed Sabih, an alternative medicine practitioner in East London that he represented a Ghanaian couple who wanted to have their two daughters - aged 10 and 13 - circumcised, he said "I can do it here," confirming that he would both remove the clitoris and sew up the vagina. "This is my work. I know what I am doing. I am going to do it. I will tell you how (much) to pay (for one): £750."

Home Secretary Therese May -  who oversees women's issues for David Cameron, and hires and fires the police chiefs all across England and Wales - recently admitted that people would be "shocked" by the number of young girls in Britain subjected to FGM. Now we can push her to take concrete action to end FGM in the UK - Please sign the petition. From Iran to Morocco to South Africa, our community has fought back attacks on women;s fundamental rights. In the world we all want, a women would never be forced to suffer the horror, pain and trauma involved with FGM. Today here in Britain, we have a chance to take a giant step closer to making that world a reality. Let us stand with those women and eliminate this practise from our country.

Emma Ruby-Sacks - Avaaz.org