Rugiatu Turay

Due to the civil war, Turay fled from the country in 1997. At the refugee camps of Guinea, she met fellow women that are against genital mutilation. With these women she formed the Amazonian Initiative Movement. In 2003, Turay returned to Sierra Leone to begin the organization's vision in her country.^[4] The Amazonian Initiative Movement, apart from educating and eradicating the deeply ingrained cultural practice of genital mutilation, aims to promote gender equality by providing women education.^[8] The nonprofit organization also addresses other issues regarding women's rights violation, specifically through child marriage,^[4] forced marriage and domestic violence.^[1]

The Amazonian Initiative Movement personally visits villages to educate women regarding female genital mutilation. They also provide other means of income to the designated elders who perform female genital mutilation so as to convince them.^[3] The organization also provides a home for fleeing victims of genital mutilation.^[8]

The organization faced much backlash from authorities. The organization received countless death threats,^[4] causing four activists to resign.^[3] Female genital mutilation had been extremely prevalent in Sierra Leone in comparison to many countries in Africa.^[9] After years of activism, the practice is now illegal in the country, and Turay is campaigning for substitute rites of passage that are safer than female genital mutilation.^[10]

The act of female genital mutilation usually involves the use of razor blades, pen knives and/or broken glass. It is performed by designated elderly women in the village. For well-off families in some other countries, a medical personnel is sought, so as to avoid the repercussions of the brutal and unsanitary procedure.^[3] The practice has religious, sociological, and socioeconomic reasons other than the widely held definition of womanhood — chastity.^[11]