Days ago but I reel still

NAFGEM network against female genital mutilation. NGO. Fight for human rights in Kilimanjaro. Founded in 1998. A tradition out of ignorance. When men are going to fight, from tribe to tribe, they can control the sexual drive. The women will be there when they return. Mechanism to control the women. Cure a fungal infection, based on lack of cleanliness and clean water. Common thought that to cure the fungus, remove the clitoris. Equate female and male circumcision. Removing the clitoris is like cutting of the penis. Looking at genitals, even for married people, is taboo. Women and girls demand the practice, because if you don't undergo the practice, your chances of getting married are slim. Women who have not done it are excluded and become isolated. Bring wealth t the family, higher dowry. In tribes, cattle is equal to weath. Cows come in dowry. Pain, excessive blood loss, infection. May result in infertility. Elasticity of the area is diminished, when giving birth incredible pain and tearing. Urethra and vagina become connected, urine infects the vagina. Seen a misfortune when a girl dies. Sex becomes painful. Wives pretend to have abdominal pains, because it hurts. When the men are turned away, the men look for HIV inadvertently. They bring the disease home, and because of the bleeding, transmit to the women. 18% in Tanzania. 35% in Kilimanjaro in 1998. Now dropped down to 21.8%. Prevalent in pockets, especially in tribes. Not related to Islamic religion. Black shirt, thin white tie, he talks to us in a charismatic smooth voice. Three pens in shirt pocket. Manara region, 71%. In some places, one hundred percent. Their simple justification: women who are married are mutilated. And all women are married. Government has enacted a law against mutilation. Now a movement to circumcise babies under five. Less to do to prevent the young children from being mutilated. Need shelters for girls to run away from getting cut. No place for them to go. Three types of mutilation. To make clean, remove the excessive parets. Type one, is Suna. The clitoris is cut. In Islamic, it means clean. type two is removing the labia major and labia minora. Everything is gone. Excision. Type three is sewing it all together. No aesthesia is used, the mother or aunt is holding the girl down. The wedding night is like a hell. If the hole is too small, use a cow horn to enlarge the hole. If still too small, the circumsisioner is called in to remove a few of the stitches so the man can fit. In some places, the clitoris is pulled to elongate it. In some cases, the scar continues to grow, eventually covering the entire vulva. Bloodied head coming out. 
Facts and figured mean nothing. A little girl a little girl, on film. He showed us a short movie, titled, "beliefs and misbeliefs." I saw a girl marked with tribal symbols, blood coming from the scalpel on her stomach. Her legs and arms held down, crying "mommy mommy no no no mommy no mommy no no no mommy mommy no." it was on a side street in Nigeria, done by a local doctor. He then prepared his tools, rubbing the simple knives over a yellow stone to sharpen them, and her legs were spread, and she was circumcised. I saw it, I saw a little girl, old enough to talk and scream and young enough to be held down like I was for my flu shots. Most people ran from the room to go throw up, I stayed and squirmed and covered my eyed but I could hear her for those minutes and the minutes after and I still hear her, screaming and crying. I'm having a hard time reconciling this warm, loving African culture with so much brutality, Lydie says to me. I haven't spoken since. My hands are sweaty.