The agony of female circumcision...

The agony of female circumcision...

In Ethiopia, 70 to 80 per cent of women are circumcised, as are almost all men. Hanna Abera is a young girl of seven. Her mother and grandmother wanted to slice off part of her genitals. But she was saved by an extraordinarily brave intervention from her aunt after a British charity launched a programme of education on the consequences of female circumcision - which is still widely practised throughout parts of Africa and the Middle East.

No one knows how many women are subjected to the procedure but it is thought that over two million procedures are performed every year. Amnesty International estimates that over 130 million women worldwide have been affected by some form of what it calls female genital mutilation.

In Ethiopia, which is where Hanna lives, 70 to 80 per cent of women are circumcised, as are almost all men. But this is not a bad news story. It is about change for the better in the region around the town of Woliso in the central part of the country a remarkable project has brought a revolution in social attitudes.

Unfortunately the link to this story has been withdrawn. It is a disgusting practice that must be stamped out by civilized people. Amnesty International is to be commended for its efforts in bringing world attention to this barbaric genital mutilation.