Genital mutilation...

According to an article in today’s Guardian, two million girls and young women are particularly at risk of being ‘cut’, because they are off school due to Corvid-19. Though the UN has set a deadline of 2030 to end female genital mutilation (FGM), the practice is still widespread, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Somalia, for example, has the world’s highest rate of FGM, with an estimated 98% of women having undergone the procedure.

‘Cutting’ is totally unnecessary, with no medical benefits (and is associated with many medical - and psychological - problems). Though not religiously mandated, FGM is only found in, and adjacent to, Islamic communities. How typical of the faithful to focus so forensically on the genitalia of both girls and boys: the source of so much of their own sexual angst and repression.

Licensed today: the altar of St Mary's Church in the Cumbrian village of Wreay, designed by Sarah Losh...