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Fouzia was seven when she was cut. ‘As soon as I saw [the cutter] coming, the pain started,’ says the 16-year-old. ‘I thought about escaping, but I couldn’t. So I said to myself, ‘You will not die, so just bear it.’’
She suffered the most severe form of FGM, which entails slicing off the inner and outer labia and stitching up the vulva, leaving only a tiny opening for urine and menstrual blood.
‘It was the worst pain I had ever felt,’ she says
Nimah, five, with her mother, Amina, near their home in westernSomaliland. Amina plans to have Nimah cut next year. Although she will opt for a less severe form of FGM called sunnah, it still involves cutting the clitoris.
‘A girl who has not been circumcised will be called a buuryogab. It’s an insult,’ she says. ‘Maybe by the time I have granddaughters, they won’t need to be cut’
Thorns used in the traditional FGM ceremony. Worldwide, more than 100 million women are estimated to have undergone some form of FGM. Yet in many cultures simply talking about FGM is taboo. Against this backdrop, education programmes highlighting the risks of FGM could save lives.
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Himaya Quasem, for ActionAid