At the age of 10, she screams at her mother while throwing her lollipop away. They shake their head away calling her tainted. She touched her vagina bathed in red and said to herself, “I hate lollipop!”.
Female genital mutilation or FGM is widespread in Sierra Leone especially among women outside of the capital Freetown.
“ Some women see the practice as cultural. Others, especially the FGM practitioners, see it as a means of livelihood because they collect money from the parents. So it’s difficult for it to be condemned openly, but women- especially girls are really suffering from the practice”, Conteh said.
The Education Act of Sierra Leone, the law which protects the rights of children to education , is silent about FGM.
The law says “initiating” people below 18 and without their consent is a crime but rights group say the word “initiation” is open to interpretation and wants the government to explicitly ban the practice.
About 200 million women across 31 countries are living with FGM. The mortality rate of women due to this dreadful practice is 11%.
“We have seen many women bleed to death” says the government of Uganda.
At the age of 19, she touched herself bathed in red. Once it narrated the tale of lost innocence, today it narrates the tale of a dead child.
The UN calls FGM an extreme form of discrimination against women and girls, and a violation of their human rights, including the right to be free of torture.
WOMEN’S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
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