Female genital mutilation (FGM)concerns 98% of all girls or women in the country according to the World Bank. It is believed to be just or morally accepted to have a woman completely or partially removed of part of her genital organs, which will ensure her purity at the time of marriage and restrain her from sexual intercourse with other men. The issue is not even called into question or reflected upon. A Somali woman working for Care International in a FGM awareness project says it is believed that "if a woman does not circumcise, she becomes sexually very active, and whenever she goes out, she tries even to rape the men, so in order to remove this, we have to remove this kind of organ".

In Somaliland, 90% of mutilated girls went through a Type III mutilation, which is the worst of all: it consists in removing the clitoris, labia minora and labia majora, and stitching and narrowing the vaginal opening, often between the ages of four and eleven, with no anaesthetic whatsoever in which is an incredibly dangerous process for the girl's health in general. Her legs are then tied together for forty days with very little food or water so as to heal.