201404 Sierra Leone FGM INT WEB

At the age of 16 Christiana* was forced to marry a man older than her father and to take part in a secret FGM ceremony to 'initiate her' into womanhood.
“All the women in our family have been initiated. They were preparing me for marriage. The man who wanted to marry me told my family to initiate me into the secret society. I was not pleased about that because my granny, who raised me, was not around. When we went there I was so afraid. I almost fainted in the process. It was really painful, that was why I was so afraid.”