TERRE DES FEMMES (TDF) is Germany’s largest women rights organisation with more than 2000 members. We have 30 years of experience in awareness raising, campaigning, press and public relations, networking, plus lobbying at national, regional and international level. The latter is fulfilled mainly through various support-methods of network-cooperation projects that are based in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The organisation (TDF) focuses mainly on women and girls’ rights issues in gender violence related areas such as: women trafficking, forced marriages and honour crimes, domestic and sexual violence and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), among others.

In the past 20 years, TDF has worked tirelessly against FGM, because it is a human rights violation and affects the health of women and children. Just like any other gender-based violence, FGM has strong roots mainly in patriarchal societies that enhance male domination with the intention of diminishing female status. The practice is a global issue that does not only affect Africa, but also Asia, USA, Canada, EU and Germany inclusive. In that regard, TDF has worked hard over the last decades/years to:

a) create awareness about FGM

b) calculate and publish the statistics of affected girls and women and those at risk in Germany

c) indulge in numerous petitions to raise awareness about countries that still accept the continuation of FGM (e.g. Egypt and Indonesia), with the intention of increasing political pressure on their representatives.