Marthe Bleu is 12 years old, a shy, pretty girl with a heart-shaped face, dressed in flip-flops and a lacy white pinafore trimmed in pink satin. But already her body is taking on the soft, rounded shape of womanhood. And these days she wants more than anything to do what she believes stands between her and being grown up. She wants to have her genitals cut off. In the lament of pubescent girls everywhere, she says that all her friends are getting ahead of her. Their parents have sent them into the woods where village women ''cut what is down there,'' she said, gesturing to her lap. After the rite, the girls are showered with gifts of money, jewelry and cloth. Their families honor them with celebrations where hundreds of relatives and friends feast on goat, cow and chicken.
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Female genital mutilation FGM , also known as female genital cutting and female circumcision , [a] is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. Typically carried out by a traditional circumciser using a blade, FGM is conducted from days after birth to puberty and beyond. In half of the countries for which national figures are available, most girls are cut before the age of five. They include removal of the clitoral hood and clitoral glans ; removal of the inner labia ; and removal of the inner and outer labia and closure of the vulva.
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Women in Africa are women who were born, live, and are from the continent of Africa. The culture, evolution, and history of African women reflect the evolution and history of the African continent itself. Numerous short studies regarding women's history in African nations have been conducted. The status of women in Africa is varied across nations and regions. For example, Rwanda is the only country in the world where women hold more than half the seats in parliament— The study of African women's history emerged as a field relatively soon after African history became a widely respected academic subject.
By Khaleda Rahman for MailOnline. These pictures show frightened girls lined up before villagers in Kenya to be circumcised - even though the brutal practice is now illegal in the country. But in many African tribes, traditions are more important than laws and circumcision is considered a rite of passage that marks their transition into womanhood so they can marry. Reuters photographer Siegfried Modola captured this ceremony in rural Kenya for four teenage girls of the Pokot tribe, in Baringo County. Draped in animal skin and covered in white paint, the girls squat over large stones in the remote village after being circumcised - a life-threatening custom banned in the country three years ago. Tearful: One of the young girls, covered in an animal skin, cries after being circumcised.
