90%

Girls can’t “identify” their way out of having their genitals sliced off.

The death of a young woman in Sierra Leone, almost immediately after undergoing female genital mutilation, has sparked outrage and revived calls to end the practice.

The body of 21-year-old Maseray Sei was found on 20 December at Nyandeni village in Bonthe district, southern Sierra Leone, a day after the FGM took place. Sei’s family said that after the procedure the mother of two boys complained of a migraine and was in pain, with complications from FGM thought to be the cause, according to activists working on the case.

Maybe pointless mutilation of genitals isn’t such a good idea after all.

Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world, with nine out of 10 women and girls aged between 15 and 49 affected, according to Unicef. …

Rugiatu Turay, an activist and former deputy minister for gender in Sierra Leone, said the case was another shocking example of the toll of FGM on women.

“It’s a tragic case and, in a way, shows how many more people like her have died or are suffering, because the majority of cases are unreported,” she said.

Turay chairs a coalition of 21 national groups fighting FGM which is now putting pressure on the authorities to carry out the postmortem.

Meanwhile, in the “developed” world, mutilation of genitals is all the rage.

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