Comfort Momoh

Awards In the 2008 New Year Honours, Momoh was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to women's healthcare. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Middlesex University in 2008. She was chosen as 2015 Alumna of the Year by King's College London, and in 2016, she was awarded a fellowship by the Royal College of Midwives.

2017 complaint In September 2017, BBC Newsnight raised questions about the examination of at least five children by Momoh. The programme explored the weight given by British authorities to the physical examination of girls for FGM and an allegation that the examinations caused trauma to children who had not in fact experienced FGM. Families were reportedly fearful of being accused and split up. Since 2012, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has required that child-abuse victims be examined by specialist doctors. Newsnight reported that Momoh had referred to herself as "Dr", although her doctorate is an honorary one, and that during a 2014 court case, the judge, James Munby, had criticized her evidence as unreliable. Momoh responded that she had done nothing wrong and had nothing to hide. Nimco Ali, an anti-FGM activist, told The Times: "Comfort has led work to end FGM for over 30 years and has enriched the lives of countless women and girls. Attempts at character assassination of such a great woman [are] shameful."

Selected works

(2005). Comfort Momoh (ed.) Female Genital Mutilation, Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing, 2005.

(2014). Katherine A. Zakhour and Comfort Momoh. "Female genital mutilation", in Maureen Dalton (ed.). Forensic Gynaecology. Cambridge University Press, 142–147.