Where and when did FGC originate?
Practices involving the cutting of female genitals have been found throughout history in many cultures, but there is no definitive evidence documenting when or why this ritual began. Some theories suggest that FGC might have been practiced in ancient Egypt as a sign of distinction, while others hypothesize origins in ancient Greece, Rome, pre-Islamic Arabia and Tsarist Russia. Up until the mid-20th century, some physicians in the United States wrongly performed clitoridectomies for a variety of clinically unsound reasons.
