FGM in Latin America: Colombia’s Embera tribe – Al Jazeera

Colombia’s Embera indigenous tribe is one of the few communities in Latin America known to practise female genital mutilation (FGM), which involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.

Known among the members of the 250,000-strong Embera tribe as “curacion”, the origins of FGM in Colombia are the subject of various theories.

Some believe it was adopted from the slaves who were brought to the continent from Africa, others that it was introduced after the birth of a hermaphrodite by midwives who were worried that females could become males.

Read more here: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeracorrespondent/2017/09/fgm-latin-america-colombia-embera-tribe-170919053458243.html