Abala District, Afar Region, Ethiopia — For more than 30 years, Hawa Abdella carried out female genital mutilation (FGM) on countless number of girls. She does not deny that the girls experienced pain and suffering during the procedure - and especially, when they gave birth. As she also functions as a traditional birth attendant, she was involved in both procedures and saw the effects.
"They were bleeding a lot during childbirth and we [did] not take them to a health facility," Ms. Abdella says. Yet this was considered a cultural obligation that any Afar girl should go through and so she didn't give it much thought, she admits.
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