The Guardian: Child marriage: we must urge action to stop girls’ initiation rites
Persilia Muianga, World Vision senior child protection manager

“At a recent international conference in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, a light was shed on to the practice of initiation ceremonies in which girls as young as eight are coerced to attend customary rites that ‘teach’ them to please a man in bed as part of the preparation for womanhood. … Perhaps most disturbingly, the girls are also subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) … We seek to combat the negative aspects of initiation rites in three ways: raising community awareness through training of community leaders, offering technical assistance to government institutions; and providing economic support for girls at risk or who are already married…” (6/9).