'I knew I was causing pain and suffering to thousands.. now I help end this practice' Woman reveals horror of female genital mutilation.

Byline: SARAH STACK

A WOMAN who mutilated the genitals of hundreds of young girls revealed she has surrendered her tools as part of an Irish Aid campaign against the practice.

Rahel Mbalai is one 400 practitioners of female genital mutilation (FGM) who have downed their blunt and dirty implements in Tanzania.

Rahel estimates she carried out female circumcisions on more than 800 women over an eightyear period in the east African state.

But the 45-year-old, who was taught her livelihood by her mother, stopped the practice that haunts her after being educated on the affects of the horrific procedure.

She said: "I knew I was causing excessive bleeding, pain, psychological pain and long-term illness including HIV infection."

Afnet, the anti-female genital mutilation network in Dodoma, has taken tools off women from all over the region.

Irish Aid, the Government's overseas development programme, part-funds the organisation which is also campaigning against genderbased violence, HIV and Aids.

FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons and is common practice in pockets of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Rahel, who underwent FGM as a child, revealed her mother taught her the trade.

But even her own husband forbade her from mutilating their only daughter.

Now the mother of four visits schools, clinics and communities to campaign against the procedure. It is estimated more than 3,000 African women living in Ireland have been subjected to the horrifying practice.

INHUMANE

Experts working with new communities also fear young girls are being brought back to their parents' country of origin during school holidays to be subjected to the inhumane act.

In Tanzania almost a fifth of all women have undergone FGM and while the horrific procedure is illegal few people are prosecuted.

The successful work of Afnet is etched on the faces of women whose lives have been turned around. Volunteers go into rural town lands to help women suffering from fistula, a devastating childbirth injury which leaves them leaking urine, and sometimes faeces, continuously.

Menina Mhanjilwa suffered incontinence for 32 years. Once she started leaking urine she was divorced by her husband, shunned by her community and rejected by her own family.

In 2004 an Afnet worker convinced her to undergo a simple medical procedure which solved the problem.

Menina, 75, said: "I was discriminated against, living a lonely life. Now I communicate with others and participate in life."

400 NUMBER OF PRACTITIONERS WHO HAVE ENDED OPS 

800 NUMBER OF WOMEN RAHEL CLAIMS SHE HAS PRACTISED ON

3,000 NUMBER OF AFRICAN WOMEN LIVING HERE WHO HAVE SUFFERED

CAPTION(S):

HARM Blunt tool used to carry out FGM CAMPAIGN Rahel Mbalai mutilated young girls' genitals before she surrendered tools