A study by the Reproductive, Educative and Community Health Programme (REACH) has shown that traditionalists in Uganda have now shifted to circumcising married women with the consent of their families, causing the prevalence of FGM to rise drastically in older women.
The NGO REACH interviewed more than 200 youths in the Sebei sub-region of eastern Uganda. The results revealed that while only 24% of girls aged 10 to 14 have experienced some form of genital mutilation, 76% of women between 25 and 35 have undergone the procedure in the region.
REACH executive director Beatrice Chelangat told the Daily Monitor newspaper that this new tactic of imposing the practice on married women is done with the help of their families. Members of the community say an uncircumcised woman is unfit to be married, undeserving of respect and should be shunned. Read MoreÂ