G.A. Al-Khulaidi, et al., “Decline of Supportive Attitudes among Husbands toward Female Genital Mutilation and Its Association to Those Practices in Yemen,” PLoS ONE 8, no. 12 (December 18, 2013).

URL: www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0083140

Abstract

Objectives: To elucidate the attitudes of women and their husband’s towards female genital mutilation (FGM) and their associations with the continuation of FGM upon their daughters.

Methods: Subjects were 10,345 (in 1997) and 11,252 (in 2003) ever married women aged 15 to 49 years from the Yemen Demographic Health Surveys. Performances of FGM on the most-recently-born daughters were investigated. Attitudes of women and their husbands were assessed by their opinions on the continuation of FGM. The association between the attitudes of women and their husbands and performance of FGM on the most-recently-born daughters were investigated after adjusting for age and education of the women.

Al-Khulaidi et al. explore changes in the attitudes of husbands in Yemen toward female genital mutilation (FGM).  Comparing demographic health surveys from 1997 to those from 2003, the authors found that the percentage of husbands whose wives had undergone FGM who remained supportive of FGM (for daughters or other relatives) declined from 60.1% to 49.5%. The incidence of FGM declines when husbands and fathers are not supportive of the practice.