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Woman jailed for handing over three-year-old British girl for FGM while in Kenya

Amina Noor jailed for handing over British girl in Kenya for female genital mutilation.

By Mary Wambui | Friday, February 16, 2024

Amina was born in Somalia but moved to Kenya at the age of 8 during the civil war.

A woman has been sentenced to seven years for handing over a three-year-old British girl for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) during a trip to Kenya.

According to British Press, Amina Noor, 40, took the child, then aged three- to Kenya where she underwent type 1 FGM.

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The incident was discovered years later when the girl, at the age of 16, confided to her English teacher at school and the matter was reported to the police.

Amina was then arrested and convicted in October last year ahead of her sentencing today.

In her defense, she said she also underwent the cut as a child and feared being "disowned and cursed" by community members if she did not take part in the ritualized cutting.

Amina said she took the child, now aged 21, to a private house where the act was committed.

"The defendant described what had been done as "sunnah", meaning "prophetic tradition" in Arabic, and claimed it was a historic, cultural and religious practice," Sky News reported.

However, after hearing about the damage caused to the child, Amina told the court that she thought the procedure was just an injection and that afterwards, the victim was "happy and able to run around and play."

In 2019, however, an examination of the girl revealed her clitoris had been removed.

In her sentencing at the Old Bailey, the judge described the offence as "abhorrent" and "horrific"

As the perpetrator moves to prison, the victim is left with lifelong scars and trauma.

Amina was born in Somalia but moved to Kenya at the age of 8 during the civil war.

She moved to the UK at the age of 16 where she was granted British citizenship.

She is the second person to be found guilty of trafficking someone to another country for FGM, after the 2019 successful conviction of a Ugandan woman from Walthamstow who was jailed for 11 years for subjecting a three-year-old girl to the cut.