Dropping the Knife: Kurdistan Our World


Dropping the Knife: Kurdistan

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ban. Others have encouraged women to not join in. Time for Our World. The

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following programme contains graphic accounts of female genital

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mutilation which some people may find upsetting. Kurdistan, the

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safest and most prosperous region . Many have been caught in the name of

:00:19.:00:24.

religion. Few in the outside world knew that female genital mutilation

:00:25.:00:28.

existed here. That is until a charity launched a campaign with the

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help of local campaigners to tell stories. TRANSLATION: I.e. Pick up a

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big rock and threw it at the midwife's had. I am here to find out

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about the fight against FGM. Women talk about the impact of FGM on

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allies. I will ask if enough is being done to stop the practice in

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Kurdistan. Kurdistan, a remote and mountainous region with a sleepy

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pace of life. There have been dramatic changes. This is one

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village in Kurdistan to have banned FGM. Traditionally, watermark was

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the time that girls were circumcised by the village midwife. Now, this is

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nothing more than the start of a school term. Two years ago, they

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agreed to stop cutting women and girls. It is one of seven FGM`free

:02:10.:02:19.

villages in Kurdistan. There is an incentive to uphold the band. The

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Mayor tells me he thinks the government only started paying

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attention providing the village with a school in electricity because of

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the interest generated by banning FGM. TRANSLATION: We believe that

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your body is yours and the cutting part of it as an act of violence. We

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are very proud to be the first to start this campaign. The Mayor and

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his wife seemed to have a genuine commitment to the cause. They

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stopped their youngest daughter from being cut years ago. Her big sister

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was cut in secret by her grandmother while her parents were out of the

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house. TRANSLATION: Venue I wouldn't want to cut hair so they did it when

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I was out. It couldn't be done on done. `` wouldn't be undone. She is

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unhappy. She asks me, why couldn't you stop it? I wanted both of them

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to not be cut. Most of the cutting in villages like this is done by a

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midwife using unsterilised tools. With three hours of it that `` three

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Hours Drive away, none of the girls would have medical assistance they

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needed it. All they have it as a razor blade and some ash to seal of

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the wound. The man has come too late for most of them here. Almost every

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woman and girl spoke to had already had what . They are keen to tell me

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about a subject that was too but when they were growing up. Who here

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has been cut? Everybody here except you? TRANSLATION: I am unhappy that

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I have been cut but bassist hasn't. I feel very sad about it, very sad

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that she has been cut. She would have felt pain like all of the

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others. I wish she wasn't cut, a wish she was like me. Do any of you

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remember it? TRANSLATION: I was very little and I was playing with a

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friend when my mother grabbed me and set the man who sells fruits and

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vegetables is here in the village so we are going to buy you something.

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We were taken to a house and that is when a hat to have it done. You

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didn't know that you were going to be cut? TRANSLATION: No, if I did, I

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wouldn't have gone. Can you tell me what it was like being taken into

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that room? TRANSLATION: It was very painful. Two woman healthily down.

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Our bodies belong to ours. Why did they take something that was mine?

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Why did they cut a piece of me that was mine? Kurdistan has been in

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autonomous from Baghdad since 1991. It is more recently enjoying an oil

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boom that has brought security and foreign investors are known in the

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west of the country. When FGM was uncovered, it sent shock waves

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through society. Too many, it was" that this ancient tradition could be

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going on. It was discovered by chance. In 2004, following the fall

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of Saddam Hussein, a local charity centre teams into the villages to

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provide support. The refugees never arrived but the charity started

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coming back with stories of young girls being cut. People ask them

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about FGM and if they cut, and how they cut. We were quite surprised.

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We knew that it existed but we didn't know that the practice was

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continuing. They reported that 60% of the women they interviewed on

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mutilated or suffer from mutilation. He took his findings to the

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authorities who were shot with the idea that FGM could still be

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happening in Kurdistan. `` who were shocked. At first, it was denied and

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then there was a challenge. We needed to prefer it was existing or

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not. `` needed to prove. In an effort to persuade the government to

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believe it was happening, they started to ask women to document

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their stories. The stories they came back with were

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like nothing hurt before. Heard. TRANSLATION: It is forbidden to

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discuss this. The story that made me to fight FGM was a story of one girl

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who got cut when she was about six. They said, let's go to another

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village, the house and your auntie, don't wear trousers, don't put on

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your underwear, your blouse is enough. Two woman took me away and

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said, you will style your hair. Certainly, both women held my legs.

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One said, hold her leg, come and cut hair. I picked up an eye. I said to

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them, leave me alone or I will stab you. They said, we will cut you. I

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still had the knife in my hand and said, let me go! They let me go and

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I ran away. She is telling her story briefly to the camera of how she was

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fighting. A midwife and her mother wanted to cut hair and nobody was

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there to help her. After a third of the story, it influenced me. I said,

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from now, we will defend these younger girls. TRANSLATION: I picked

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up the big rock and threw it at her head. WADI launched a campaign to

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end FGM. They worked with a filmmaker travelling from village to

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village, filming women's stories and gathering data on the level of FGM.

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The filmmakers gained access to it being practised. They filmed these

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upsetting images of young girls being cut. Women are told to Burma

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FGM involves cutting a young girl's clitoris. Most of them say they felt

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obliged to do it to make them pure. FGM isn't mentioned in the Koran. I

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have asked him and he says it is pure to perform at so we have to

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follow his words. In some regions, WADI found every single woman over

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60 have been cut. For teenagers across the country, it was almost

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half. On average, they found the level of FGM was higher than first

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thought. In the beginning we were surprised because this was hidden.

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For me, I didn't do. I had to check with my family members and they

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started to speak out. We found out it isn't very spread out in our

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family. Then, I found out that everybody is too shy because it is

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related to sex issues and the genitals of women. Nobody is ready

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to talk about it. If e`mail is the maker joint sitting to help find

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women who were willing to talk. TRANSLATION: It is a sensitive and

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frightening term. The hardest thing was finding women who were willing

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to talk on camera. As a woman, a understood their suffering and tried

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to put myself in the position to feel their pain. I wanted to raise

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awareness server next generation of woman doesn't have to go through

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this. She found a few girls who had not been cut and they were

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stigmatised. One of the girls would have been in years six or seven. She

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was one of the few who had not been cut. With friends and relatives she

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said the officer to avoid humiliation. Do you want to be cut?

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No, but I will be teased eBay say a heaven. They will say I will go up

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after boys. They will teased me and say, your clitoris is not cut. Why

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do they say those things to you? I don't know. Does the teasing make

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you want to get cut? No, because now I just tell them that AM cut. ``

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that I am cut. In 2001, things change dramatically. Human Rights

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Watch released a report into the practice in Kurdistan. They

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described and painful detail, the impact on young girls. International

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pressure began to mount for it to be banned. It emerged it was not simply

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a religious obligation. Nobody in the outside world really knew about

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it. That was the real shocker. Some people do it in Kurdistan as part of

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social pressure. My inclination, after speaking to religious leaders

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in Iraqi Kurdistan, is that it really is to control the population.

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They did say to me, in hot climates, something it to be done to control

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women's sexuality. The filmmakers found that it GM was not just

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practised in villages, they found some women to talk about the impact

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of it on their marriage. `` female genital mutilation. The interview

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has never been showed outside Iraq. TRANSLATION: I don't have desire. I

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have no desire for a man. I knew from an early age I was like that.

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Of course, when you are a kid you don't understand that, but when you

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grow older you know the difference. When you are cut, did they remove a

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little or a lot? My husband says, nothing is left of you! So, I don't

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know, but that is what he says. TRANSLATION: The circumcision is

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similar to neutering animals. It is a major problem, there is no

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sensation, and it feels like lying next to a cold fish. With all due

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respect, I often ask her to come to me, but because she gets no pleasure

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from it I had to call her five or six times. If she enjoyed it, I

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could get her to come faster. I didn't know there was such a thing

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as sexual pleasure. I was a young girl, I was 18 when I got engaged,

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and 19 when I got married. Even when I had to make kids, I still didn't

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understand. I thought that marriage is having your own house, coming and

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going as you wish, and having a family. I didn't know what that

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thing was. I wasn't aware of this when I married her, if I had known,

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I swear to god, even if they had paid the $10,000, I wouldn't have

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married her stop because it is a problem for me. But I'm trying to

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tolerate the situation. At the public debate intensifies, the

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filmmakers found women talking openly for the first time about

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whether or not they should cut their daughters. This ambivalence meant

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some children had been cut without their mothers even knowing.

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TRANSLATION: I was away one afternoon, and my mother`in`law took

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my daughters to the neighbours. The woman had come to the neighbourhood

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to cut children. When I came back, she was cut. I have not had hartanah

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done to my younger daughter yet. Some say you have to do it, others

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don't. I can't decide what to do. Just months after filming, the law

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was changed. Female genital mutilation was outlawed, as part of

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a wide`ranging law to improve women's rights. The family violence

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law is all`encompassing. It includes issues like honour killing, domestic

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violence, child labour and female genital mutilation. A mother charged

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with cutting her daughter could face up to three years in prison and a

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fine. This woman was head of the women's rights committee where the

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law was passed, and helped push it through Parliament. TRANSLATION:

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This was difficult for members of Parliament, and even society to

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accept. We were often told by ordinary people that you have

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anything better to work on that female genital mutilation? We knew

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we might face difficulties mentioning it, due to cultural

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sensitivity, so we decided we should put it within a wider proposal for a

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law against domestic violence. The law was a huge milestone, but the

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campaign to end FGM is not over. When the law changed in 2011, some

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warned that banning the practice would simply drive it underground. I

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want to know how effective the new law has been, so I am on my way to a

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village, one of the most conservative areas of Kurdistan.

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Thousands of copies of the law have been printed, and they are

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travelling to the villages telling them that FGM is now illegal. They

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have been to the village twice before, and you get the sense that

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women are keen to say the right thing when asked awkward questions,

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which makes it hard to tell what is really going on. Because it has been

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discussed in the media so much, some people are keen to tell you what you

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want to hear. A woman told me of course not, my children have not

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been cut. But after the conversation, one of her children

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pulled me aside and said, yes years. She did not want to say this on

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camera, though. Eventually, we meet women who are happy to talk more

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candidly. This woman told me she values the old ways of life. You

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have a granddaughter. Do you think she should be cut? TRANSLATION: In

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my opinion, it needs to be done, as it is gods will. In my opinion she

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should be cut because God likes it, nothing else. Were you aware of the

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law that was passed by the government to ban FGM. I heard on TV

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it had been banned. Before, people used to do it and it was normal.

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Now, people don't talk about it because TV said it should be done.

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Although she has heard that the law has changed, it appears this ancient

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tradition is still deeply rooted in some villages. To date, no one has

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been convicted for performing FGM. I want to know of the politicians who

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masterminded the ban, and whether they think it is working. Why is it

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that only one case has gone to court after two years, when you know as

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well as I do that this practice dildos on? TRANSLATION: It is true

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that two years have passed. In the next term, we need to work

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more to understand the problems of this law, and why it isn't being

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implemented. We have to make sure the law will prevent FGM. `` this

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practice does go on. The Kurdistan government has said it is

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investigating the practice of FGM, and that the results should be

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released next year. This is one of the few girls they met, who had not

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been cut. TRANSLATION: They don't call me names now, only my aunt

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calls me names when my mother is in the. She say to you? She calls me

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the uncut vagina, which makes me angry, and I stop talking to her.

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Would you like to be cut? Of course not. Why not? I don't like it. I am

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older now, and it is wrong. You regret cutting your other daughters.

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Yes. Why do you feel sorry? Because they have no desire any more. That

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is why we did it so early. To avoid trouble for them. After almost ten

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years of working and campaigning against FGM, do you believe that

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things are getting better now? First of all, the to`do is broken, it is

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not to do any more. `` taboo. Now, we look with open eyes at it. The

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government is obliged to implement this law. Back in the village,

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lifting it taboo has led to difficult conversations. I am going

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to speak to the older women of the village before I leave. TRANSLATION:

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Of course I regretted, who would want to harm their children? But in

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those days, we were told otherwise. We were told it was a religious

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obligation, that their husbands would send them back in the morning

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if they weren't cut. All five girls were cut, who remembers being told

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she was going to buy sweets. TRANSLATION: There is no need to be

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angry with her mother. It was a widespread prat is, and we should

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not be angry with her. `` practice. We should be angry with the people

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in the region. FGM is now falling in Kurdistan, but from what I have

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seen, the country still scarred this ancient tradition. From grandmothers

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who feel wronged by the change in the law, to girls angry at being

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mutilated. And others, who are neither did what they thought was

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right, and cannot undo the damage done in the name of tradition.

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We wouldn't normally start our look at the weather by jumping nearly 48

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hours ahead, but then the prospects for the late Sunday and Monday are

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quite far from normal for the British

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