During President Obama’s visit to Kenya, he delivered a speech condemning traditions that treat women as second-class citizens in the country, including female genital mutilation. Obama said: “Treating women as second-class citizens is a bad tradition: it holds you back. There’s no excuse for sexual assault or domestic violence, there’s no reason that young girls should suffer genital mutilation, there’s no place in a civilised society for the early or forced marriage of children. These traditions may go back centuries; they have no place in the 21st century.”

President Obama Speaks Out on Women’s Rights in Kenya