This week a beautiful little blonde and blue-eyed English girl was horrifically sexually mutilated - by her parents. She will be scarred for life both physically and mentally. She could have died in the attack. This was not a lone assault, however. Such ritualistic violence against children happen on average EVERY week among a particular cult in Britain.

After a story trailed in the Sunday Times about a UK Government fund ending FGC, it seemed that the question on everyone's lips was 'how much?' We knew that it was likely to be in the tens of millions, and in the female genital cutting sector that is an unprecedented amount.

FGM is personal, cultural and moral, but it is also something which the state, acting to protect defenceless citizens, has a fundamental duty to stop.

On the 10th 'International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)' it is heartening to look back at the significant progress that has been made recently both in the UK and further afield. 

After working to get female genital mutilation (FGM) onto the child protection agenda for over 20 years in the UK, I am pleased that it is finally being officially considered a key child safeguarding issue

FGM involves the partial or complete removal of female external genitalia and, aside from its potential lifelong physical and psychological risks, is a gross violation of the human rights of the girl child.

It is possible that some women collude in misogyny because they agree with it. They believe themselves inferior and worthy of punishment because that is all they have ever known. Tell people something often enough - especially if it comes, as it so often does, from religion - and many will believe and embrace it.

Despite sustained efforts to discourage it, FGM continues to be practised on girls in the UK. An estimated 24,000 girls in England and Wales alone are at risk of undergoing FGM, but the real number is likely to be significantly higher than this.

All over the world, the infrastructure of justice is failing women. In some cases, it is the laws themselves that legitimise discrimination - whether on property rights, freedom of movement or women's control over their own bodies. In many more societies, however, the problems stem from a justice system which fails to recognise the informal and often unconscious bias against women. I was shocked to read the statistic reported by UN Women that women across the world are three times more likely to report a robbery than a sexual assault. It is equally shocking that female circumcision is still widely practiced in African countries, even where it is illegal.