Female genital mutilation, cutting, or circumcision is a cultural practice that harms women in many parts of the world, mainly in Africa and Asia, but also migrants in diaspora. FGM is not a medical procedure, but it is increasingly performed by health workers of various kinds. To participate in this as a medical person may be considered unethical practice. FGM has a series of harmful effects on women’s health.

Eradication of FGM has sometimes addressed the health effects as a public health rationale for the abolition.

We want to address this issue among OB and GYN practitioners, since they both handle some of the exams and births of mutilated women and repair damage and may be asked to perform the procedure or handle complications of it. We invite papers both from developing and developed countries, and with both qualitative and quantitative methods, but would like the papers to deal with the health issues within this complex cultural phenomenon. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Frequency, decline, and changes in the incidence and prevalence of female circumcision
• Extent of FGM in areas previously not known
• Evaluation of programs and policies that exist for the eradication of FGM or circumcision of women
• Review of approaches that do demonstrate measurable change and causes of change
• Medical complications of FGM or female circumcision
• Evidence of medicalization (FGM being done in hospitals or by doctors and nurses) of the practice and reasons for this
• Cultural and social norms that play a role in the continuation of the practice
• Evidence of the medical challenges and benefits of rehabilitation of victims of FGM
• Mental, psychological, and sexual effects of FGM

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ogi/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/submit/journals/ogi/fgm/ according to the following timetable: