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Assignment: Spain: Operation FGM

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Spain: Operation FGM

25/07/2013

BBC World Service - Assignment, Spain: Operation FGM

The doctor offering reconstructive surgery to women scarred by female genital mutilation

What difference will reconstructive surgery make to women who have had female genital mutilation? And, what motivates Dr Barri Soldevila to offer the prodedure free of charge?

***Some listeners may find parts of this programme upsetting and it is sexually explicit***

In Barcelona, a doctor offers reconstructive surgery to women who had female genital mutilation when they were children. Recorded over six months, Linda Pressly hears the stories of Rosa and Wenkune - Spanish women of African origin. FGM has caused them both a good deal of trauma. Will the operation change how they feel about themselves? 

What difference will it make to their intimate relationships? And what motivates Dr Barri Soldevila - a busy surgeon in a private hospital - to prioritise these procedures and offer them free of charge?

(Image: An African woman’s hand on a hospital bed. Credit: Getty Images)

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