Wednesday 25 November is the international day for the elimination of violence against women. As a minister in the coalition I spearheaded the government campaign on female genital mutilation and together with campaigners like Nimko Ali we made genuine advances to tackle and begin to end this harmful practice. There is still a long way to go – but nurses, health workers, social workers, police and teachers on the frontline are now armed with knowledge and with a mandated duty to intervene. This is violence against women and girls and child abuse and now the laws and the processes are in place to make our ambition of “ending FGM in a generation” a reality. However, we need our children to know about FGM. The Tories refused to make teaching about FGM, and for that matter violence against women and girls, a mandatory requirement in schools. It should be.
Lynne Featherstone
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
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