Female genital mutilation (FGM) affects more than 130 million women. International consensus has been reached that this tradition, which is not bound to one religion, should be banned as soon as possible. Although this has as yet hardly been accomplished as far as can be perceived through Western eyes, more recent studies in Eritrea (F. Asefaw) provide evidence for a change in awareness of the problem, for example in younger men. In contrast to Western cultures, FGM is viewed positively by the ethnic groups that practice it: as a measure to preserve virginity until matrimony and thus improve marriage chances and future prospects, as a initiation ritual, as a prerequisite for social recognition, esteem in the family, and a feeling of belonging, as protection against disease, and as a means to increasing fertility or even to make fecundity possible. The long-term effects of FGM include psychological traumatization, vaginal stenoses, chronic vaginitis, keloid formation, and fertility problems. Besides the acute complications arising during parturition (prolonged expulsion, hemorrhaging, hypovolemic shock), long-term postpartum problems (fistulae, incontinence) occur conspicuously more often in infibulated women.