Female genital mutilation: The woman fighting Sierra Leone s ritual
Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of female genital mutilation in Africa. Despite decades of campaigns, the traditional practice has hardly declined. This doesn t deter Rugiatu Turay from fighting cutting.
Rugiatu Turay has been campaigning against FGM since 2002
Campaigner Rugiatu Turay sets up the film screen and projector in the dusty meeting center of Magbanabon village about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Matotoka Town in the north of Sierra Leone.
She s here to screen a documentary about female genital mutilation (FGM), commonly known as cutting in the region.
As night falls, around a hundred men, women and children from the village seat themselves for the screening under the community center s thatched roof.