'My grandmother subjected my baby to female genital mutilation behind my back'
Warning: This story contains descriptions of the practices involved in female genital mutilation In what activists are calling a milestone, Colombia last week became the
Warning: This story contains descriptions of the practices involved in female genital mutilation In what activists are calling a milestone, Colombia last week became the first country in Latin America where female genital mutilation (FGM) is now illegal. As José Carlos Cueto reports, while the bill was passed unanimously in Colombia's Congress, it follows a long battle to eradicate the dangerous and often secretive procedure.
Carla Quiñonez's daughter was just six months old when the baby's great-grandmother subjected her to female genital mutilation (FGM). Quiñonez (not her real name) says when her grandmother returned the baby to her, she had a fever and was swollen and bleeding. She cried constantly.
"I confronted my grandmother, but she said it was normal and that I could not tell anyone." The nearest health centre was a long journey away, so Quiñonez's mother, a midwife, tried to ease the baby's pain with medicinal plants. She also challenged Quiñonez's grandmother.
But the older woman would not listen. "She said that men make fun of women who have a clitoris."
The BriefWire