The illegal practice, which can result in death, has attracted growing media attention in recent years, with Hollywood A-lister and UN Special Envoy Angelina Jolie leading the campaign to wipe it out.
But despite the widespread coverage, the survey findings show 'ignorance of FGM remains worryingly high'.
Standing barefoot with a viciously sharp blade in her hand this is a cutter woman who performs female genital mutilation (FGM) on young girls as part of a misguided belief it prevents promiscuity and maintains family status in the traditional community.
Half-blind and with just a couple of teeth left in her mouth, Anna-Moora Ndege started cutting girls' sexual organs over 70 years ago.
At first she used a six-inch nail, sharpened on stone to create a crude flat blade. Now she uses a razor blade - bought at the little shop at the end of the dirt track leading from her mud hut in rural Africa.
Some 700,000 victims live in Europe 140,000 in the UK and 100,000 in France. A further 500,000 women in the USA have undergone the brutal operation in the name of tradition.
Ndege, 86, along with Agnes Kerubo, are two of the cutters that can be found in villages, towns and cities in Kenya and across Africa and parts of the Middle East where communities cling on to this barbaric tradition.
(pictured right, with Safa Idriss Nour who was saved from FGM, left), was dragged out of her bed and mutilated with the most basic tools
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The cutter women explained: 'We use a sharp instrument like a knife or a razor blade. I put millet flour over the organs so that is not slippery so I can hold it. And the flour helps to stop the bleeding'
Young girls must suffer FGM otherwise they will become sex-mad wives who will be unfaithful to their husbands and may become lesbians, an African cultural leader has claimed.
Forcing daughters to be 'circumcised' as FGM is commonly known - is the only way for an African family to maintain its culture and be respected among its traditional community if they move to Europe or North America, Dixion Kibagendia a well-respected leader of Kenya's Kisi tribe says.
The YouGov survey was designed to assess the British public's knowledge of the practice, which involves the full or partial removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.
When those surveyed read what FGM amounted to, almost nine in 10 (87 per cent) agreed it was a human rights violation.
'Recognising that FGM is a fundamental abuse of girls' rights is the first step to ending the practice,' said Ms Barron.
Ending FGM is going to take time, but understanding more about it and taking new approaches to change individual and community behaviour will push us towards the tipping point that we need - when communities accept that FGM is no longer necessary or acceptable and individuals (parents and children) have the power to say no.
