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Assignment: Escaping Tanzania's 'cutting season'

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Escaping Tanzania's 'cutting season'

02/04/2015

BBC World Service - Assignment, Escaping Tanzania's 'cutting season'

The story of a Tanzanian safe house – a place where girls find refuge from FGM

The story of a Tanzanian safe house, a place where girls find refuge from female genital mutilation - a bloody and life-threatening rite of passage.

In northern Tanzania there is a tradition of FGM – female genital mutilation. The 'cutting season' lasts for six weeks. Afterwards, the adolescent victims are often expected to marry. But girls in Serengeti District are saying 'no' to FGM. And dozens of them have fled to a new safe house in the town of Mugumu to escape this bloody, life-threatening rite of passage. For Assignment, Linda Pressly travels to Mugumu to meet the girls - and the woman who has given them refuge, Rhobi Samwelly. She listens in as Rhobi engages in delicate and often emotional negotiations with parents intent on mutilating their daughters. Will the girls ever feel safe enough to return home? 

(Photo: Rhobi Samwelly, founder of the FGM safe house in Mugumu. BBC Copyright)

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