Larry, it is in fact often the women themselves who allow and even perform FGM (female genital mutilation). It's a horrible fact.
The tradition is hard to stamp out since women who haven't been "operated upon" are regarded as unsuitable marriage-partners, so mothers allow their daughters to be mutilated to prevent them from being ostracised. They don't know any better, having undergone the treatment themselves.
I've read a lot about the subject, partly because I work part-time for Amnesty International.
It's good you drew attention to this, and good your country is trying to do something about it, even if I don't know whether it'll work.
BTW, there are many countries on Amnesty's "black list" - including the USA and several European countries. Granted, our transgressions are less bad thn something like FGM, but we shouldn't forget about it. [img]smile.gif[/img]