INTERNATIONAL: Pope Francis has condemned female genital mutilation and trafficking of women for prostitution on Sunday ,February 6, saying both were humiliating affronts to their dignity and urging officials to do everything possible to put an end to them.
"This practice, which is unfortunately common in various parts of the world, humiliates the dignity of a woman and gravely attacks her physical integrity," Pope Francis has said, speaking on the U.N. International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
According to the U.N., FGM is concentrated in about 30 countries in Africa and the Middle East but is also practised by immigrant populations elsewhere. More than four million girls around the world are at risk of undergoing FGM this year, the U.N. says.
Pope Francis, speaking to pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter's Square for his weekly blessing and address, has noted that the practice was often carried out in conditions that endangered a girl's health.
In a related appeal, Pope Francis has also called for more efforts to stop human trafficking, particularly of women and girls for prostitution.
"This is a deep wound inflicted by the shameful search for gain without any respect for the human person," he has said ahead of the Catholic Church's International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking this Tuesday ,February 8..
"There are so many girls that we see on the streets who are not free. They are slaves of traffickers who send them to work and beat them if they don't return with money. This happens today, in our cities," he said.
Trafficking of women from Africa or Eastern Europe for prostitution is a particular problem in Rome.
Officials say criminal gangs lure the women to Italy with the promise of jobs and then force them into prostitution, threatening to harm their families back home if they go to the police.
Calling both FGM and trafficking of persons, "wounds of humanity," Pope Francis has urged leaders "to act decisively to stop both the exploitation as well as humiliating practices that afflict above all women and girls".
Catholic nuns in Rome are the forefront of fighting trafficking of women. In 2016, the pope has visited a Rome safe house where a charity protects women freed from pimps.
