Do You Like Me?

The Contradictory Worlds of Today's Teen Girls

An estimated three million young girls per year are subjected to a practice called female genital mutilation (FGM).¹ It involves removing, altering, or injuring female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It is a means of social control and is often done to prevent a woman from having any sensations during sex. In certain parts of northern Africa, if a young woman does not have it done as a child, she will have to undergo the procedure before marriage or risk being rejected by her future husband.

The United Nations has condemned the practice both because it is a human rights violation that denies women their inherent dignity and because it poses several physical risks. The UN has launched efforts to eradicate FGM, and...