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NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Kenya’s High Court ruling upholding a ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) will give a much needed boost to the fight to end the widely condemned practice in the East African nation, women’s rights groups said on Wednesday.
One in five Kenyan women and girls aged between 15 and 49 have undergone FGM, which usually involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia and can cause a host of serious health problems, says the United Nations.
Kenya outlawed FGM a decade ago with a punishment of three years imprisonment and a US$2,000 fine, but the practice persists as some communities see it is necessary for social acceptance and increasing their daughters’ marriage prospects.
Kenya court ruling gives boost to fight against FGM
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Malala Yousafzai says educate girls to fight climate change
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Widow of Bangladesh shipbreaker pursues test case on worker safety
A Bangladeshi woman whose husband died dismantling an oil tanker in a local shipyard was given the green light this week to keep pursuing a claim for compensation from a UK company linked to the vessel in a test case for the shipbreaking industry.
Britain’s Court of Appeal threw out a request by London-based shipbroker Maran (UK) Ltd for the negligence case to be dismissed, the second appeal the company has lost.
Hamida Begum’s husband, Khalil Mollah, 32, fell to his death in 2018 while breaking up the tanker Ekta in the Bangladesh port of Chattogram, home to one of the world’s largest ship-breaking yards, where vessels are dismantled for scrap metal.