It's a hot and humid day, but the kids are buzzing. As they pile out of a coach bus at a secluded retreat center surrounded by trees and open fields, one girl spins in circles and says, "No FGM, no FGM!"
So it's definitely not your typical camp.
Last Saturday, about 60 girls and boys and some parents and volunteers traveled to the rural town of Sharpsburg, Maryland, for a one-day retreat that teaches kids about the harm caused by female genital mutilation: cutting all or part of a woman's external genitalia, typically when she's under age 15. It's often a rite of passage for girls, though there are also reports of infants being cut.
"We think girls can be initiated [into womanhood] without mutilation," says Djessou Kouyate-Conteh. She's the camp's leader and is the senior project officer at the nonprofit Inter-African Committee USA, the organization that runs the camp.
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ReplyDeleteThe article carefully neglects to mention countries and religions that permit or endorse this. Except for the mention of Guinea. But it occurs many other places from previous reports.
You'd think feminists would be all over this but they are conflicted since it would mean calling a big religion on the carpet.
More muslim BS that whole darn religion should be against the law'
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