Female genital mutilation is a common practice in Sierra Leone, and UNICEF estimates that 90 percent of all women in Sierra Leone have undergone circumcision, which is practiced by all ethnic groups in the interior. Only the Krio people shun the practice of FGM.  The Krio people are the detribalized descendants of freed slaves who settled in and around Freetown. (www.irinnews.org)  There is no existing legislation against FGM, and more than 50 percent of women and girls are mutilated annually, (Seager, 2002).  Many of the elderly women continue to want and practice FGM.  It is difficult to fight against it because it is seen by the government as a way to win votes, and women still want to practice this because it is part of tradition.  A small NGO called Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM) formed this group as a result of the complications they have had from FGM and have attempted to persuade traditional midwives to stop cutting by promising other employment.  It has been slightly successful and is still working today.    

This practice in Sierra Leone is performed by powerful women who control secret-societies, and this prepares young girls for adult life, marriage and motherhood.  Again, here, you see the control over women’s sexualization through patriarchy and traditional cultural control.  Women are looked at as if they are still children if they do not submit to circumcision get circumcised and are then outcastes within the communities.     In African culture, opinions of others in your local community use things like shame to create jails without walls.  You are jailed with your own shame and disconnection from those around you. This makes it extremely difficult for those that do not want to have this done because they have no other choice, especially when they are young girls who have been trained to respect authority.        

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