MEPS URGE MEMBER STATES TO OUTLAW PRACTICE OF FEMALE GENITAL MUTILIATION.

• Position: Brief article

All member states should outlaw the practice of female genital mutilation, disbar doctors who perform it and penalise parents who permit it, the European Parliament has said. Moreover, it should be deemed a valid ground for applying for asylum, MEPs say in an own-initiative report on violence against women adopted on February 2. Marital sexual violence should be classified as a crime and men who beat women should not be able to get off lighter by claiming arguing they were drunk, the resolution passed by 545 votes to 13 with 56 abstentions says.

According to the EP, "unequal distribution of gender power lies at the root of all violence against women". It cites German, Swedish and Finnish studies which claim at least 30-35% of women aged 16 to 67 have suffered sexual or physical violence at some point. 65-90% of prostitutes were sexually abused as children or later while 700-900 women are killed each year in Europe by their partner, it adds. Arguing that better data is needed to understand the problem, MEPs call for a...