During my summer internship with United Nations Development Program (UNDP), I was assigned to a UNDP/UN Women joint program on FGM Abandonment and Family Empowerment. I've taken advantage of this rare opportunity to collect a myriad of data and primary sources which form the bulk of this essay. Access provided by the program has been invaluable, allowing me to collect information from interviews, community involvement, access of UNDP databases, and various other forms of fieldwork.

This essay aims to provide intensive analysis in search of the underlying reasons FGM is conducted as well providing information on the risks -moral, economic, and health- of FGM. Education, being the primary tool for combating FGM, reflects the necessity of such analyses; demonstrated by successful efforts to reduce support for FGM in younger generations. However FGM continues to persist in Egypt and many other parts of the world, inviting further research and action to be undertaken.