she could not deliver; she was almost completely closed. There was nothing at all left of her external genitalia. She had evidently conceived through a tiny opening.

All the operations are performed on the ground, under septic conditions, with the same knife or tool used on all the girls of a group operation, which is still the custom among many ethnic groups in rural areas. In cases of fatalities, neither the operator nor the operation are ever blamed. Rather, it is claimed that an evil spirit is responsible or the ritual was not performed properly according to the wishes of the ancestors - or the girl herself is at fault because she had sex before she was operated on.

Infibulation or pharaonic circumcision is practiced in the Sudan and adjoiningareas throughout Somalia, parts of Ethiopia, Southern Egypt and Northern Kenya and in some areas of West Africa, for instance, Mali. Infibulation or pharaonic circumcision is the most drastic and damaging operation. It is called "Pharaonic" as the operation, according to historic documents, was already recorded in ancient Egypt more than 2,000 years ago in Pharaonic times.

The term infibulation is derived from fibula, which means clasp or pin in Latin and goes back to the old Romans; a fibula was used to hold together the folds of the toga - the loose garment all Roman men wore. The Romans also fastened together the large lips of slave girls to prevent them from having sexual intercourse as becoming pregnant would hamper their work.

Here is an eyewitness description of an