Approximately 18% of women surveyed at clinics in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have undergone some form of female genital mutilation (FGM), according to a medical study recently published by the British Medical Journal. 

The results of the study, which surveyed 963 women between the ages of 18 and 75 at clinics over a nine-month period, have surprised human rights advocates.

“We knew women and girls were being cut in Saudi Arabia but not to such a large extent,” Suad Abu-Dayyeh, an expert on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for nonprofit Equality Now, told Global Citizen.