The enactment of legislation banning female genital mutilation has, in some instances, resulted in communities changing from practicing one type of female genital mutilation to another type so as to avoid punishment,9 or in lowering the age of girls subjected to female genital mutilation so as to hide the practice from the authorities more easily or to minimize the resistance of the girls themselves.10 These experiences have reinforced the importance of ensuring that legislation is drafted with all possible risks, backlashes and misuses taken into consideration, and of consistently monitoring the impact of legislation. They are interconnected with each other, as well as with other forms of violence and discrimination against women. Forced marriages result in sexual violence in many cases, particularly since many countries exempt marital rape from being a punishable offence. In a number of countries, victims/survivors of rape are forced to marry the perpetrator of the violence as this is seen to restore the family’s “honour” which was deemed to be tarnished by the woman being considered to have engaged in pre-marital or extra-marital “sexual relations".