A mother has been banned from flying her baby daughter to India for genital mutilation after social workers learnt three other girls in the family had been subjected to it.

A judge at Manchester County and Family Court ruled that the child, who will turn two in the summer, was at risk of the ‘utterly unacceptable’ procedure because religious and cultural pressure had overridden the mother’s ‘maternal instinct’.

Female genital mutilation, formerly known in the UK as ‘female circumcision’, involves ritual intimate cutting, sometimes without anaesthetic, and has been linked to a raft of lifelong health complications.

It is illegal in the UK but continues to happen in secret - usually initiated and carried out by women in communities where it has been seen as a normal and desirable tradition for centuries, fearing their daughters will be ostracised if they don’t have it.

Sometimes children are flown back to their country of origin for it to be done - other times the cutter operates in secret in this country, or is flown in to perform the procedure.

It’s typically done before the age of five, and increasingly women who have been subjected to it as children have been vocal in calling for an end to it.

(Image: Mark Waugh)

Judge Robert Jordan made an ‘FGM protection order’ in Manchester after social services requested he make one in a private family court hearing.

Details of the family concerned have not been released for legal reasons, but it is understood they originate from India.

Social workers said the youngster’s three sisters had previously been taken to India so that FGM could be carried out on them.

The judge made an order after concluding that the little girl was also at risk and needed protecting.

He described FGM as ‘utterly unacceptable’ and a ‘gross abuse of human rights’ and said the little girl’s mother had ‘facilitated’ the mutilation of her three older daughters.

“The effect of the cultural pressure overrode the mother’s maternal instinct,” he said.

“As a consequence of religious and cultural pressure the mother facilitated the mutilation of her children.”

He added: “That cultural pressure still exists in their country of origin - and undoubtedly in this country.”

Social workers told the judge that all four children had been made the subject of separate child protection plans.

FGM protection orders came into force about three years ago and give police and local authorities power to intervene to stop mutilation.

Parents can be barred from taking children abroad and passports can be seized and face prosecution if they breach it.