Female Genital Mutilation

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a procedure that removes or injures part or all of external female genital organs. It is more commonly performed on girls under the age of 15 and is currently practiced on every continent except Antarctica—including in the U.S.

The Ms. Q&A: Jaha Dukureh’s Fight to End FGM Isn’t Over Yet

PUBLISHED 2/26/2018 by

Jaha Dukureh became a revolutionary when she was forced into marriage at 15—and learned that she had undergone the most severe form of female genital mutilation when she was only a week old. Ms. talked to the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize nominee about her pioneering work, her motivation and what’s next.

The Chimera of Choice

PUBLISHED 5/19/2017 by

How do we determine where to draw the lines of acceptable and unacceptable bodily interventions? Especially troubling is the eerily uncomfortable overlap of female genital construction surgery and what we define as female genital mutilation.

Why Young Egyptian Women are Wishing They’d Been Born Decades Ago

PUBLISHED 4/27/2016 by

“I wish I had been born in my grandmother’s time.” Those words continue to haunt me weeks after my visit to Egypt, where I participated in a U.S. State Department-sponsored professional exchange program for civil society groups working on women’s rights. These 10 words were spoken to me by Mona, a 22-year-old woman living in […]

Kakenya Ntaiya: Fighting Child Marriage

PUBLISHED 3/31/2015 by

This March, for Women’s History Month, the Ms. Blog is profiling Wonder Women who have made history—and those who are making history right now. Join us each day as we bring you the stories of iconic and soon-to-be-famous feminist change-makers. Kakenya Ntaiya has ambition to spare. She told me once, while we hiked together in Northern California, […]