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| Isis 'orders female genital mutilation' for women in Mosul | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The UN says militant Islamist group Isis has ordered all women and girls in Mosul, northern Iraq, to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). | |
| UN official Jacqueline Badcock said the fatwa, or religious edict, applied to females between the ages of 11 and 46. | |
| She said the unprecedented decree issued by the Islamists in control of the city was of grave concern. | |
| Iraq is facing a radical Isis-led Sunni insurgency, with cities in the north-west under militant control. | |
| The ritual cutting of girls' genitals is practised by some African, Middle Eastern and Asian communities in the belief it prepares them for adulthood or marriage. | |
| The UN General Assembly approved a resolution in December 2012 calling for all member states to ban the practice. | |
| Ms Badcock, the UN's resident and humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said the practice "is something very new for Iraq... and does need to be addressed", addressing reporters via video link from the Kurdish provincial capital of Irbil. | |
| "This is not the will of Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists," she added. | |
| Isis militants seized Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, in June, and have since taken over areas of the north-west and closed in on cities near Baghdad. |