Millions have been traumatized by female genital mutilation. The practice must end

When Jane was 12, she was taken by force by some older women in her village in Guinea to a room outside her home and held down while her genitals were cut. She couldn’t see the instruments they used; she simply felt searing pain.

Her mother was not there, and they had never discussed this procedure performed on young girls in her community called female genital mutilation(FGM). Jane, whose name has been changed for confidentiality, later found out that her family wholeheartedly supported the practice.

While FGM is traditional in some cultures, there are no medical benefits to the procedure, and it violates a girl’s human rights. According to a recent UNICEF report, FGM is practiced in 30 countries, and at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM.

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