- WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
- MailOnline
visited two female cutters in Kenya ahead of the 'cutting season' when
girls are sent from the West to undergo the brutal operation
- Tribal leader claims girls who aren't mutilated can't 'control their emotions'
- Some
700,000 victims live in Europe – 140,000 in the UK and 100,000 in
France. 500,000 women in the US have suffered or are in danger of FGM
- The
practice is illegal in many parts of Africa but campaigners told
MailOnline there is little hope of western leaders stopping it
- Supermodel
campaigner bravely described the lifelong effects of having her vagina
sewn up and calls the 'sexist' practice 'child abuse'
Published:
06:37 GMT, 2 July 2015
|
Updated:
13:59 GMT, 2 July 20155k
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Standing
barefoot with a viciously sharp blade in her hand this is a cutter
woman who performs female genital mutilation (FGM) on young girls as
part of a misguided belief it prevents promiscuity and maintains family
status in the traditional community.
Half-blind
and with just a couple of teeth left in her mouth, Anna-Moora Ndege
started cutting girls' sexual organs over 70 years ago.
At
first she used a six-inch nail, sharpened on stone to create a crude
flat blade. Now she uses a razor blade - bought at the little shop at
the end of the dirt track leading from her mud hut in rural Africa.
Ndege,
86, along with Agnes Kerubo, are two of the cutters that can be found
in villages, towns and cities in Kenya and across Africa and parts of
the Middle East where communities cling on to this barbaric tradition.
Scroll down for videos
Barbaric: Anna-Moora Ndege shows the
razor blade she uses to perform FGM on girls. She used to use a six-inch
nail with one side sharpened on a stone
Cutting season: Some 700,000 victims
live in Europe – 140,000 in the UK and 100,000 in France. A further
500,000 women in the USA have undergone the brutal operation in the name
of tradition. The summer school holidays is the peak time when families
send their daughters to Africa from the West to undergo FGM
Belief: Ndege and fellow cutter Agnes
Kerubo, left, told MailOnline: 'Girls are cut to ensure they remain
faithful because the sexual organ is not there anymore. When you are cut
you will not be a slut'
She
told MailOnline: 'Girls are cut to ensure they remain faithful because
the sexual organ is not there anymore. When you are cut you will not be a
slut looking for men here and there like a prostitute.
'You are docile, waiting for your husband because after you are cut, sex is for having children not for anything else.'
Although
outlawed across the developed world and many parts of Africa, the
practice continues among tens of thousands of families who fear being
outcast if they do not submit their daughters to this horrific ordeal.
Over one million girls and women living in Europe and North America have been affected by FGM, according to welfare groups.
Some
700,000 victims live in Europe – 140,000 in the UK and 100,000 in
France. A further 500,000 women in the USA have undergone the procedure
or are in danger of being forced into it.
As
one British victim said: 'Everyone thinks it's not the girl in
Manchester, in Cardiff or London being taken away and having FGM but
it's exactly these girls, they are not girls who are immigrants or here
on holiday.'
In the body there is good blood and bad blood. After a girl is cut the bad blood is gone
Cutter woman Agnes Keruba
And
this summer tens of thousands of girls living in Europe and North
America will be brought to Africa by their parents to undergo FGM as
part of a warped bid to maintain their status in the traditional
society. School holidays are known as the 'cutting season'.
It is estimated that there are three million new FGM victims every year across the world.
Speaking
to MailOnline, Keruba told how FGM is a central part of the traditions
of the Kisi tribe, as it is with many tribes and communities across
Africa and the Middle East.
Keruba,
62, said: 'Circumcision is an important festival. It's a celebration
like Christmas. It unites people. There is feasting and drinking and
dancing.
'When
you are cut that's when you can grow healthily into a woman because the
bad blood is not there anymore. In the body there is good blood and bad
blood. After a girl is cut the bad blood is gone.'
Kenyan
anti-FGM campaigner Ester Ogeto said girls and their families - even if
they are now living in Western countries - are put under tremendous
pressure to adhere to this barbaric tradition.
Some communities believe a woman cannot become pregnant unless she has been 'circumcised'.
Ogeto
said: 'Families worry that their girls will be made outcasts and be
shunned if they are not cut. She would be called names – told that she
was smelly, told that her "organ would grow until it touched the floor".
'When
a girl has been cut she is considered to be grown up. Girls are cut to
fit into their community. After that she can get married and become
pregnant.'
Tradition: A young girl from the Pokot
tribe cries after she undergoes 'circumcision', despite the practice
being outlawed in many African nations. The pressures on families
brutalise their daughters is huge
Good wife: Anti-FGM campaigner Ester
Ogeto said that 'cut' girls would get money and a lot of cows for their
marriage dowry, while girls who are not cut get fewer cows, or none at
all
Horror: Victims are left in terrible
pain and suffer life-long consequences. The main aim is to take pleasure
out of sex for women, but there are many other complications associated
with it
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