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The education secretary, Michael Gove, has agreed to meet 17-year-old student Fahma Mohamed, following a Guardian-backed petition demanding action to end to female genital mutilation that has attracted 170,000 signatures since launching last week.
Mohamed's petition – supported by the Guardian, Change.org and a coalition of FGM campaigners and activists – calls on the education secretary to write to every teacher in the country before the summer holidays, asking them to train teachers and parents about the horrors of FGM in a bid to help bring an end to the practice.
Mohamed, one of nine girls in a Somali family that came to the UK when she was seven, said that she looking forward to talking to the education secretary about how he could play a vital role in bringing an end to FGM in the UK within a generation. "It's amazing that Michael Gove has agreed to meet with us – he is manning up and that is fantastic. Now finally I hope we can get our point across," she said.