Declaration of Shame! A militant group named Islamic State has ordered women and girls living in and around the city of Mosul, Iraq to forcibly undergo Female Genital Mutilation. However, there are doubts regarding the order, especially about the basis of this report. A document posted on social networking site Twitter showed that the order was a year old and was issued by Islamic State and Levant (the militant group’s previous name).

Middle East analysts have raised questions to this order, regarding its relation to the cultural traditions of the region. A Fatwa like this, issued by the Sunni Muslims will affect almost 4 millions girls and women in Iraq, said U.N resident and also humanitarian coordinator Jacqueline Badcock in Geneva, via a video link sent from Arbil.

Badcock said, “We have current reports of imposition of a directive that all female girl children and women up to the age of 49 must be circumcised. This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed,”

She further added that this is not the will of the people of Iraq, or their women. Badcock said that there was no immediate response from the Islamic State regarding the fatwa. The militant group works through its tribal leaders and is not connected much with the world body.

Badcock said that she has not much details to provide, until they receive the next information.

FGM is considered a tradition in several Muslim and African countries. Almost 130 million women and girls have already undergone FGM and 700 million women were married when they were children.

The city of Mosul has almost 2 million people with women constituting a majority of the population. There are families headed by women in Mosul and also reports of forced marriage age and rape in the city.

The fatwa has given U.N a major reason of concern for the millions of women and girls residing in and around Mosul.