Maiming a girl for life
Once again, I'm talking about a version of female circumcision that is
equivalent to male circumcision. If you still think it's pure evil, then you should be against circumcision for both sexes.
I am, if that's not clear, and if criminalizing it were effective then I'd be all for it. But as you say,
UK is doing pretty bad at this with no conviction yet.
And even if they were doing well, it would just encourage more parents to seek the procedure elsewhere.
Perhaps regular medical check up on minors (with parents being prosecuted regardless of who actually does the FGM - since it is ultimately their responsibility, even if the girl doesn't testify against them)
Prosecute the parents, sure, but that won't make a dent. It's the practitioners that need to be taken down.
and educating young girls about the consequences of FGM because a lot of them have no idea what they're getting into.
Educating the victims is useless. You make it sound like girls are willingly choosing to do it. Educating the parents may be of some help, but in the case of female circumcision the religious motivation is so strong that I don't think it would be very effective.