A teenage girl was dragged from her home to a straw mat under the altar by several strong women. She was blindfolded and stripped of her clothes, and her head and limbs were tightly held down.

Relatives, friends and villagers gathered around, beating drums, singing and dancing.

Amidst the deafening drums and the girl's miserable wails, a young witch doctor called "Geda" held a bright kitchen knife or any sharp tool and cut the girl's clitoris, labia majora, and labia minora.

All the external reproductive organs in the vagina were cut off, and the bloody wounds were sutured together with iron wire and plant thorns, leaving only a small hole as thin as a matchstick outside the vagina.

Then the girl's legs were tied tightly with rope to close the wound.

No anesthesia is used during the entire process.

Soon, the girl's vagina was completely closed except for a small hole.

This cruel and man-made scene is the most barbaric and cruel custom of female circumcision that has been popular in vast areas of Africa since ancient times.

This is actually the most primitive and backward vulvectomy surgery that harms women.

Now, in at least 32 countries in west, north and east Africa, millions of unfortunate girls experience this most tragic torture in the world every year, and from then on they begin their even more miserable lives.

No one knows exactly when female genital mutilation originated.

Archeology has discovered that circumcised women were among the mummies in Egypt thousands of years ago.

Therefore, many people call this cruel practice "Pharaonic circumcision."

In these parts of Africa, female circumcision is considered a mark of true femininity, a certificate of chastity and a social need. It is also an important ceremony for women to enter adulthood and enter society.

In Gambia, more than 80% of girls are circumcised when they are 10-15 years old. In some areas of North Africa, girls as young as 4-8 are circumcised.

For most women in these African countries, the shocking ritual of circumcision is just the first step in their miserable lives.

They will have to go through at least two hardships in their subsequent lives.

The second time is from marriage to pregnancy. Vaginal closure caused by circumcision surgery is an unbearable pain for women's sexual life after marriage. Many people have to undergo vaginal opening surgery.

When you give birth for the third time, you have to undergo another incision.

During the operation, many babies' heads were destroyed and they died.

The infant mortality rate in some areas of Africa is 38%, which is directly related to this custom.

However, for these unfortunate African women, even after giving birth, it does not mean the end of their suffering.

If the husband goes out for a period of time, he can ask his wife to cut and seal the vagina again - the tragic fate and endless suffering will begin again.

For a long time, some people have been calling on women to oppose and boycott this custom. However, sadly, due to backwardness, ignorance and the poison of religion, a large number of African women fanatically defend it.

Although this practice of circumcision is not mentioned at all in the Koran, many women who believe in Islam firmly believe that it is required by Islamic teachings.

In many places, even women who were mutilated believed that uncircumcised women were dirty, condemned, and had no right to marry.

Some people believe that uncircumcised women cannot have children.

Some areas even believe that children born to uncircumcised women will bring disaster to entire villages and tribes.

In 1979, the evil habit of circumcision, which had tortured African women for thousands of years, finally attracted international attention and concern.

In February 1979, the World Health Organization held a conference on traditional medicine and women's health in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.

After hearing a survey report on the issue, representatives from Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the United States passed a resolution calling on African governments to formulate policies to abolish the practice of female genital mutilation, and proposed that efforts should be made to improve medical standards in these areas.

In July 1980, UNICEF publicly announced that it would assist these countries in eliminating the practice of circumcision.

In 1981, the World Health Organization strongly condemned this bad habit of harming women at the United Nations World Conference on Women held in Copenhagen.

In the same year, the International Planned Parenthood Foundation also sent people to work in Africa to publicize the abolition of the evil practice of circumcision.