Hannah s assailants were not members of the country s warring factions. They were friends of her family. She is describing how she was taken by her grandmother to be genitally mutilated with a blunt penknife. Every day, thousands of girls are targeted for mutilation. Its effects can be life-threatening.
Most survivors have to cope with the physical and mental scars for the rest of their lives.
This violence has been inflicted systematically on millions of women and girls for centuries. Governments in the countries concerned have done little or nothing effective to prevent the practice. But while the prohibition of torture has been enshrined in international law since shortly after the Second World War, FGM has only recently found a place on the international human rights agenda. Several factors prevented it from being seen as a human rights issue for many years. FGM is encouraged by parents and family members, who believe it will have beneficial consequences for the child in later life.