Sierra Leone: Female circumcision is a vote winner

/ barbarity / institutionalized /

"When the president's wife sponsors the circumcision of 1,500 young girls to win votes for her husband, you know you've got a problem persuading ordinary people and the government that female genital mutilation (FGM) is a bad idea.

And when the woman who is now Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Women's Affairs, threatens to 'sew up the mouths' of those who preach against FGM, you realise that you are facing a really big uphill struggle."

One woman's struggle against a barbarous custom.