Daughters in danger
Some children will suffer terrible mutilation on their summer 'holiday'; teachers are asked to look for signs
Some children will suffer terrible mutilation on their summer 'holiday'; teachers are asked to look for signs
Yasmin is beautiful. She has long black extensions, perfect cheekbones and Bambi eyes. She sits opposite me sipping pineapple juice in blue jeans, her large hoop earrings sparkling. She could be a model, but this 19-year-old is dedicated to her BTec in health and social care.
"I want to become a social worker so I can stop other girls going through what I went through," she says. "Female Genital Mutilation is not taken seriously enough here - people really don't believe that it's going on."
Female Genital Mutilation is not a problem reserved for distant tribes in foreign lands - it affects British girls in UK classrooms. As the summer holidays approach, families are booking international holidays for their unsuspecting daughters, the long stretch providing the perfect opportunity for circumcision.
Brutal lessons
If you watch closely, you realise that Yasmin shuffles as she talks. This is because of the Female Genital Mutilation carried out on her in Sierra Leone when she was 14:
"One morning my uncle just woke me up and took me to the house of a woman I didn't know. They tied my hands, blindfolded me and took off my pants. I was tall and I was fighting, but the woman sat on my