Mali communities denounce female genital cutting

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — When Dicko Ongoiba was a little girl, female genital cutting was such a tradition that no one in her community discussed it. The 40-year-old didn’t even realize she had been circumcised until she was 10 and saw her younger sisters undergoing the same procedure.

Like her mother did, Ongoiba subjected her first six daughters to what is sometimes referred to as female circumcision. But in recent years she has learned more about ramifications, including more difficult child births, and now she wants to spare her two youngest daughters.