These pictures show frightened girls lined up before villagers in Kenya to be circumcised - even though the brutal practice is now illegal in the country.
This tribe and other African tribes have held onto this tradition for women which they believe is a rite of passage that marks their transition into womanhood before marriage.
The photos were captured by Siegfried Modola in rural Kenya for four teenage girls of the Pokot tribe, in Baringo County.
The girls are draped in animal skin and covered in white paint and are made to squat over large stones in the remote village after being circumcised - a life-threatening custom banned in the country three years ago.
More than a quarter of Kenyan women have undergone the ordeal, despite government efforts to end the practice in the East African country.
'It's a tradition that has been happening forever,' the father of one of the girls, who asked not to be named fearing reprisal from the authorities, told photographers from the isolated Pokot settlement some 80km from the town of Marigat.
'The girls are circumcised to get married. It's a girl's transition into womanhood,' he said.
Wow!!
More photos after the cut.... Please, pictures are scary
Photo Credit: Daily Mail Online
Really really scary! Can't imagine going through that!!
ReplyDelete