Female Genital Mutilation In Kenya: Local Girls Fight Back Against The Controversial Rite

April 19, 2011

Huffington Post – Two teenage girls in Kenya have attempted an unprecedented rebellion by refusing one of the most controversial rites of local womanhood: genital mutilation.

As the Guardian is reporting, the procedure has bewildered Westerners, who “find it incomprehensible that a mother would allow her daughter to be so brutally amputated with all the risks of infection, difficult childbirth and deprivation of sexual pleasure.”

However, a new Guardian-produced documentary sheds light on the huge emotional conflict the two Kenyan women experience after challenging their families’ authority by refusing to undergo the risky procedure. With the girls not considered eligible by prospective husbands until they have been “cut,” the risk of family breakdown over the issue is clear.

To watch the video and read the full story, click here.

Screen-shot-2011-04-19-at-2.44.04-PM-300x188