10-Year Sentence for 1st US FGM Case

An Ethiopian immigrant was convicted on Nov. 1 for female genital mutilation in what is believed to be the first criminal prosecution of its kind in the United States, the Associated Press reported. In 2001, Khalid Adem circumcised his 2-year-old daughter with a pair of scissors and received a sentence of 10 years in prison for the crime. Since 2001, an estimated 130 million girls and women worldwide have been mutilated according to the U.S. State Department.

The girl, now seven years old, was videotaped during an interview at the age of three and identified her father as the person who cut her genitals.

The child's mother also blames the father. "He said he wanted to preserve her virginity. He said it was the will of God. I became angry in my mind. I thought he was crazy," testified the girl's mother, Fortunate Adem, according to the AP.