:00:00. > :00:00.genital mutilation in Gambia. We follow local activists as they try
:00:00. > :00:08.to persuade professional cutters to put an end to the centuries`old
:00:09. > :00:12.tradition. 140 million women worldwide at elite
:00:13. > :00:16.to be suffering from the consequences of having been
:00:17. > :00:25.genitally mutilated. The majority in Africa.
:00:26. > :00:36.In essence, it is about control over women's bodies, control of a
:00:37. > :00:42.pleasure for women. It is often condoned by governments, and
:00:43. > :00:48.encouraged by religious leaders. In Europe, female genital mutilation is
:00:49. > :00:52.illegal, and yet the European government appears reluctant to help
:00:53. > :01:04.those who flee Africa, because they don't want to mutilate young girls.
:01:05. > :01:12.I said to my mind, I will never do it. Why doesn't the outside world do
:01:13. > :01:14.more to help those communities in Africa who want to stop female
:01:15. > :01:51.mutilations? A village in the Gambia celebrates
:01:52. > :02:00.the decision to drop the knife, as they call it here. The songs were
:02:01. > :02:09.written decades ago, to applaud the skill of the cutters and their duty
:02:10. > :02:14.to purify young girls. The women here have been persuaded by local
:02:15. > :02:18.campaigners to abandon the custom. They have changed the lyrics, to
:02:19. > :02:21.rejoice in the chants of sexual fulfilment and freedom from pain,
:02:22. > :02:48.now offered to the next generation. So why, 3000 miles away, is Fatima,
:02:49. > :02:54.a 23 of mother the Gambia, seeking asylum in the UK? She doesn't want
:02:55. > :02:56.to show her face, because she doesn't want the neighbours in the
:02:57. > :03:02.north of England where she lives with her three`year`old daughter, to
:03:03. > :03:11.know that she has been cut. It happened when I was nearly ten, and
:03:12. > :03:19.they would take you, to the bush, . 200 of us were taken, most of us
:03:20. > :03:29.primary school kids. They would just lay you down, holding your legs, two
:03:30. > :03:35.people holding your legs. Then they would just cut it. And then, that is
:03:36. > :03:43.it. And you cry for the rest of the day. Can you describe the pain?The
:03:44. > :03:50.pain was more painful than giving birth, because you have to live with
:03:51. > :03:54.it for the rest of your life. Why are you claiming asylum in this
:03:55. > :04:00.country? Because I think it is not right to be cut, and I fear that my
:04:01. > :04:10.daughter will be cut we go back to Gambia. Why are you so frightened?
:04:11. > :04:16.If we go back to Gambia, might daughter will have no chance to stay
:04:17. > :04:18.there without being cut. Although the threat of female genital
:04:19. > :04:23.mutilation is recognised in the UK as a reason for asylum, Fatima has
:04:24. > :04:38.been rejected. She and her daughter could be deported any day. I go to
:04:39. > :04:45.the Gambia to find out if Fatima is telling the truth about the threat
:04:46. > :04:50.to her daughter. This woman, from a campaign against traditional
:04:51. > :04:54.practices in Gambia, explains that they persuaded about a third of the
:04:55. > :04:58.community here to drop the knife. But, through lack of resources,
:04:59. > :05:06.there are many areas they have not yet reached, including the village
:05:07. > :05:11.where Fatima comes from. It isn't difficult to get to Fatima's
:05:12. > :05:29.village, about one hour's drive from the capital, Banjul. But no British
:05:30. > :05:31.journalist has made the journey. She is in no doubt as to what will
:05:32. > :05:46.happen if her daughter and granddaughter return.
:05:47. > :06:00.If your daughter comes back here and says she does not want her daughter
:06:01. > :06:04.to be cut... And what if they were to come here to Fatima's village, to
:06:05. > :06:10.start a campaign to stop female genital mutilation? Do you think it
:06:11. > :06:14.will work? We can't say, says this woman. It is up to our elders. It is
:06:15. > :06:32.our tradition, says another, we can't change anything.
:06:33. > :06:38.She explains to the man in charge here the avoidable health problems
:06:39. > :06:44.associated with female genital mutilation. Children dying from loss
:06:45. > :06:53.of blood and infection, and death in childbirth, all of which are
:06:54. > :06:57.normally blamed on witchcraft. They listen and tell her she can come
:06:58. > :07:01.again for another meeting. From here it could take four years to arrive
:07:02. > :07:12.at a formal agreement to drop the knife. If it is stopped here, this
:07:13. > :07:19.would be the last batch of girls who would the victims and survivors of
:07:20. > :07:29.female genital mutilation. Gambia is a tiny country that runs along the
:07:30. > :07:34.banks of the River Gambia. The campaign to stop female genital
:07:35. > :07:43.mutilation has had its greatest effect here. This woman explains
:07:44. > :07:46.why. They are left alone in their own corner, doing whatever they were
:07:47. > :07:52.doing, no one exposes them to any information. Luckily, when we
:07:53. > :07:56.intervene, we are able to get information to them, we were able to
:07:57. > :07:59.engage with the information, internalise it, express themselves.
:08:00. > :08:18.Then they realised this was the truth. The stone circles of Gambia
:08:19. > :08:26.tell of a syllable `` civilisation thousands of years old. Despite 20
:08:27. > :08:30.years of campaigning, the organisation believes that 80% of
:08:31. > :08:37.girls in the country are at risk of being cut today. What is the
:08:38. > :08:41.reasoning behind the practice? It is about control over female sexuality.
:08:42. > :08:47.Controlling them from the pressure they get out of the erogenous zones,
:08:48. > :08:52.it is about adjoining sex, the integrity of the woman, something
:08:53. > :08:55.that is very powerful. You will find that the essence is all about
:08:56. > :09:04.control over women's bodies, control over pleasure for women. The
:09:05. > :09:11.organisation invitee to go with them to the northern bank of the river.
:09:12. > :09:20.They want to show me how they try to persuade those who do the cutting to
:09:21. > :09:34.change jobs. We meet with a group of cutters. Some of the thousands
:09:35. > :09:42.employed in the country. This group tell the woman that they enjoy the
:09:43. > :09:48.respect they get in the community. And, were well paid, says one. $3
:09:49. > :09:53.per child, plus a bag of rice and closing. I cut 40 children this
:09:54. > :09:55.year, says another. I cut my granddaughter, and look how well she
:09:56. > :11:08.looks. Cutters admit to cutting girls sent
:11:09. > :11:10.here from abroad to be mutilated, even though that is a crime in the
:11:11. > :11:42.UK. She took me to see the local cutting
:11:43. > :12:02.filled out in the bush. `` cutting field.
:12:03. > :12:12.She showed me a tree with notches, each one a record of a Charles who
:12:13. > :12:23.had been cut. `` a child who had been cut.
:12:24. > :12:29.But if the girls are sitting there waiting, and they hear the girl
:12:30. > :12:41.being cut screaming, why don't they run away?
:12:42. > :12:52.But she no longer comes here to cut. She has been persuaded by a
:12:53. > :12:55.$150 grant from GAMCOTRAP to invest in a bakery which pays enough money
:12:56. > :13:23.to stop working as a cutter. So far, no one in the village has
:13:24. > :13:36.come forward to take place and the girls remain intact. `` take her
:13:37. > :13:42.place. In a nearby village, this woman was also tempted by a similar
:13:43. > :13:50.grant to become a goat herd. How many girls did she cut? `` goat
:13:51. > :14:29.herd. `` goat herder. It is hard to understand why, at the
:14:30. > :14:33.cost of just $150 to persuade a cutter to change jobs, more help is
:14:34. > :14:38.not given to those who are trying to fix the problem before it drives are
:14:39. > :14:46.we meant to ask for a silent in the UK. `` before it drives are women to
:14:47. > :14:53.ask for a silent in the UK. In West London, at a shelter to asylum
:14:54. > :14:59.seekers from all over the world, a 40 `year`old woman from the Gambia
:15:00. > :15:01.has fled her destiny to be eight cutter like a grandmother and her
:15:02. > :15:09.mother who trained her to uphold the family tradition. When I was like,
:15:10. > :15:17.15, I started cutting the girls and seeing what happened. That is when I
:15:18. > :15:22.started training. I was going to school and they had to stop me going
:15:23. > :15:25.to school. I would look after the girls. She told me she too came from
:15:26. > :15:49.a village not far from the capital. The trouble is, we have not any
:15:50. > :15:53.impact here yet. We have had a programme with young people once. We
:15:54. > :16:05.have not had the great support we have had in other regions. I made my
:16:06. > :16:09.way to the village where I found a woman who took me to wear her sister
:16:10. > :16:20.was trained and where the cutting that took place. She opened a box
:16:21. > :16:34.filled with dirty rags. What are these things?
:16:35. > :16:40.The brakes are also used to blindfold the children so they
:16:41. > :16:47.cannot see who is cutting them. `` the rags. They have been used
:16:48. > :16:51.recently by another Carter. The cutting takes place here? It was
:16:52. > :17:04.after my `` this woman was required to hold her five`year`old daughter
:17:05. > :17:14.that she decided to run away. She was screaming and calling, mamma.
:17:15. > :17:23.There is nothing that mum can do. Tears were coming to my eyes. I said
:17:24. > :17:30.to myself, whatever happens, I cannot do this. If I tell it to the
:17:31. > :17:39.people, would not here so I just kept it in my mind this thing... I
:17:40. > :17:48.would never, never do it. I would never do it. And that is when I ``
:17:49. > :17:54.she believes she will be killed when she returns home. Her younger sister
:17:55. > :17:58.is angry with her, complaining that her daughter is waiting to be cut
:17:59. > :18:00.and there are other cousins waiting because in their family, only she
:18:01. > :18:22.can do it. I was taken to meet her children.
:18:23. > :18:28.Five of them who now win with a family friend away from the village
:18:29. > :18:33.and the hostility they are. They have not seen their mother since she
:18:34. > :18:40.fled to the UK four years ago. I met your mum, she sent her love to you
:18:41. > :18:43.and she is thinking about you a lot. She is thinking about you all the
:18:44. > :18:48.time and says that she misses you a lot. Do you understand?They
:18:49. > :18:59.understand. The children are suffering? They are suffering. They
:19:00. > :19:08.are sad. I have to comfort them. I do not know when or if the mother
:19:09. > :19:11.will come. I miss my children a lot. And I know they miss me. If I go
:19:12. > :19:25.home to do the cutting, And I know they miss me. If I go
:19:26. > :19:29.Sometimes I think for my kids, I have to go back and continue the
:19:30. > :19:33.cutting but when I think of that, because of my children, how many
:19:34. > :19:39.girls am I going to cut? How many girls am I going to affect? How many
:19:40. > :19:46.girls might going to put in the where I am in? Then, there are the
:19:47. > :19:48.threats against it should she returned. I asked her older sister
:19:49. > :20:12.what would happen. Your mother decided that the second
:20:13. > :20:15.daughter should be the Carter. Her mother and others in the community
:20:16. > :20:22.confirmed to be that she would be punished if she returned and refuse
:20:23. > :20:27.to cut the UK border agency do not believe her story and have rejected
:20:28. > :20:36.her asylum claim. She now faces deportation from the UK back here to
:20:37. > :20:42.the Gambia. The British government say they do support the fight
:20:43. > :20:48.against FGM in the Gambia but they do not comment on individual asylum
:20:49. > :20:55.cases. But, in rejecting both these women, the UK border agency revealed
:20:56. > :21:02.a woeful ignorance of the situation here. They told of the women to
:21:03. > :21:07.return to the Gambia and simply relocate. They have been advised to
:21:08. > :21:14.go and live in the capital and to socialise our monk educated groups.
:21:15. > :21:21.`` amongst. At either woman is educated and Gambia is a country of
:21:22. > :21:25.just 1.5 million people ` all of whom are identified by their tried
:21:26. > :21:34.and community. Gambia it is a very small country. The government will
:21:35. > :21:40.not look after you when you have to live on your own and me, being
:21:41. > :21:47.somebody who did not go to school that much, the only way can live
:21:48. > :21:53.there is maybe to be a prostitute. As a single mother, they will
:21:54. > :21:58.clarify `` qualify you as a bad woman. Will not be part of society.
:21:59. > :22:05.The border agencies say it is a safer the women to return to the
:22:06. > :22:09.Gambia but FGM is illegal here. The president runs an autocratic style
:22:10. > :22:16.of government and has recently withdrawn from the Commonwealth,
:22:17. > :22:22.accusing it of being neocolonial. He has boasted in the past that he
:22:23. > :22:36.could cure HIV/Aids by the laying of his hand and the FGM is part of the
:22:37. > :22:41.culture. The chief imam creatures that FGM is inscribed in Islamic law
:22:42. > :23:41.and that genital mutilation is good for women. Why?
:23:42. > :23:51.I have had a clitoris to 60 years and it has never happened to me. It
:23:52. > :23:57.would be funny, except that the imam has ordered his community not to
:23:58. > :24:06.attend any meetings organised by GAMCOTRAP. The anti` FGM campaign
:24:07. > :24:10.have argued that cutting is not part of the Muslim religion. They asked
:24:11. > :24:15.the opinion of some of the most respect that religious authorities
:24:16. > :24:23.in the Islamic world. We have got given an imam from Saudi Arabia in
:24:24. > :24:28.2005. He came and he was questioned about it and he said they did not do
:24:29. > :24:34.that in Saudi Arabia and we all look to Saudi Arabia. If it is not a
:24:35. > :24:41.practice done that, I do not see why religion should be the reason. What
:24:42. > :24:52.is happening in Gambia, for me, it is not correct. It is hard not to
:24:53. > :24:59.get caught up in the euphoria when a community does, against all the
:25:00. > :25:04.odds, agreed to drop the knife. But the reality is, it will be a long,
:25:05. > :25:14.hard fight before the campaigners can celebrate the Gambia is an FGM
:25:15. > :25:19.free country. They argue that a more humane to, and lightened approach by
:25:20. > :25:24.the Gambia government, their religious leaders and their former
:25:25. > :25:30.colonisers in the UK, would go a long way to read Gambia of this
:25:31. > :25:37.brutal crack this. `` to read the Gambia.
:25:38. > :26:19.unpretty double. You will have rain, sunshine, wind but the good
:26:20. > :26:22.news is that where the sun does come out, it will feel relatively warm
:26:23. > :26:28.least across the majority of the country. As far as the night is
:26:29. > :26:37.concerned, it is a wet across the UK. Waiters across Scotland. Through
:26:38. > :26:41.the course of Saturday, rain across the west of Scotland but she was
:26:42. > :26:45.around. This band of rain will be crossing of Wales and eventually end
:26:46. > :26:49.up in Northern Ireland by the middle of the afternoon. A good it cracks
:26:50. > :26:50.of thunder but