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In Kurdish Iraq, women strive to end female genital mutilation

Sharboty Saghira (Iraq): Dark skies were threatening rain over an Iraqi Kurdistan village, but one woman refused to budge from outside a house where two girls were at risk of female genital mutilation.

"I know you're home! I just want to talk," called out Kurdistan Rasul, 35, a pink headscarf forming a sort of halo around her plump features. For many, she is an angel: an Iraqi Kurdish activist with the non-profit WADI on a crusade to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM).

FGM, in which a girl or woman's genitals are cut or removed, was once extremely common in the Kurdish region, but WADI's campaigning has chipped away at the practice.

Rasul, who herself was cut at a young age, is helping to eradicate FGM in the village of Sharboty Saghira, east of regional capital Arbil.

She has visited 25 times, challenging its imam on perceptions FGM is mandated by Islam and warning midwives about infections and emotional trauma.

That morning, she used the mosque's minaret to vaguely invite villagers to discuss their health. When eight women entered the mosque, she patiently described FGM's dangers.

At the end, a thin woman approached Rasul and said her neighbour was planning to mutilate her two toddlers.

That sent Rasul clambering up the muddy pathway to the house, first knocking then frantically demanding to be allowed in.

But the door remained shut. "We are changing people's convictions. That's why it's so hard," Rasul told AFP, reluctantly walking away.

FGM appears to have been practiced for decades in Iraq's Kurdish region, usually known for more progressive stances on women's rights.

Victims are usually between four and five years old but are impacted for years by bleeding, extremely reduced sexual sensitivity, tearing during childbirth, and depression.

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