Imprisoned without offence: the pain-filled, asexual world of genitally-mutilated women

Sunday Salawa may never have sat in a classroom or profited from any formal form of learning. She may not even know the English expression for an act she describes in Yoruba as didabe f’omobinrin, but she does know it is dangerous. She didn’t have to be told by staff or consultants of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) – one of the UN agencies leading advocacy against the practice. Salawa is herself a victim – a convict, so to say. Although she has committed no offence, she bears the burden of a life sentence handed down to her not by a judge but by her very own mother.