This is far afield from any area of expertise that I may have, but I was moved by this story from Women’s eNews this morning about the continuing practice of female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone. Roughly 90 percent of the women in that country have had the procedure, but there are many women who speak out against it, risking emotional and physical harassment as a result. The article features two of them and tells the story of their struggles to get the practice outlawed in the country, as it has been in 15 other African nations.
– David S. Cohen
You may be interested in the story of Papillon, a French woman of Senegalese descent, who suffered FGM at the age of four. She has been recounting her story over the last seven months on her blog which is also translated into English. She decided at the age of 30 to have reconstructive surgery and tells of all her thought processes along the way and her feelings about what happened to her.