Female genital mutilation was once extremely common in the Kurdish region, but local NGO, the WADI organization, is campaigning against this practice.
In the Sharboty Saghira, a small village east of the regional capital Arbil, usually known for its more progressive stances on on women's rights, females are still facing FGM. Victims are usually between four and five years old but but long suffer afterwards from and for years from bleeding, low sexual sensitivity, childbirth problems and depression.
Rasul, an Iraqi Kurdish activist in WADI, spoke to women and young girls about the harms of FGM in Sharboty Saghira. For many, she is an angel, an Iraqi Kurdish activist on a crusade to eradicate this horrific practice in which a girl or woman's genitals are cut or removed and which was once extremely common in the Kurdish region.
Rasul, who herself was cut at a young age, is helping to eradicate FGM in the village of Sharboty Saghira. She has visited the village 25 times to change attitudes and raise awareness against this practice.
