Martha Daub, a 59-year-old grandmother from Northern Tanzania, is campaigning to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a harmful cultural practise that involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. Martha is well placed to talk about FGM, having been cut at the age of 14 in preparation for her early marriage, and later working as ‘cutter’ performing FGM on many girls in her community.

Sunday, October 15th is International Day of Rural Women and was established by the UN in 1995 to shine a spotlight on rural women like Martha, who make up over a quarter of the world’s population and have a leading role to play in bringing an end to the type of gender violence and discrimination that FGM personifies.

In the Kilimanjaro region of Northern Tanzania where Martha grew up, the cutting ritual has been performed for generations amongst the Maasai people, and as a child Martha never thought to question it.

The grandmother who used to perform FGM & is now fighting against it – London Economic