ABSTRACT
I’d like to dedicate this reflection on terminology to heroic African women activists of courage, who often risk their comfort and even their lives to oppose FGM, and to that cohort of my generation who have personally inspired me: the late Efua Dorkenoo, OBE; former director of FORWARD (UK), Comfort Ottah; Comfort Momoh, MBE; Her Excellency Ambassador Fatoumata Siré Diakité; activist-author Awa Thiam; author and the founding president of the EuroNet-FGM and La Palabre, Khady Koïta; former president of FORWARD in Germany, Dr. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana MEP; and Dr. Mariame Racine Sow, present managing director of FORWARD for Women in Germany.
