New York Times: Leveraging Ebola to Tackle FGM
Liriel Higa, assistant to Nicholas Kristof and Charles Blow at the New York Times

“The outbreak of Ebola [in Guinea] … seems to have led to surprising progress in the movement to curb female genital mutilation [FGM] in the poor West African country. … Melinda Crowley, a foreign service officer at the U.S. Embassy in Conakry during the outbreak, says that Ebola gave Guineans a chance to reflect upon and criticize some of their cultural practices … Although cutting has been illegal under Guinean law for years, loopholes and a lack of enforcement rendered the ban utterly ineffective. However, the human rights forum, which took place just as the Ebola outbreak was starting, proved to be a turning point, Crowley says, kicking off a country-wide campaign to encourage a halt to FGM…” (2/9).