000			03544nam a22002895i 4500
999			_c20534 _d20534
001			21869801
005			20210923144645.0
008			210114s2021 nyu 000 0 eng
010			_a 2021930809
020			_a9780316463355 _q(hardcover)
020			_z9780316267861 _q(ebook)
040			_aDLC _beng _erda _cDLC
042			_apcc
100	1		_aLeng'ete, Nice, _eauthor. _98622
245	1	4	_aThe girls in the wild fig tree : _bhow I fought to save myself, my sister, and thousands of girls worldwide / _cNice Leng'ete.
250			_a1st.
263			_a2109
264		1	_aNew York : _bLittle, Brown and Company, _c2021.
300			_apages cm
336			_atext _btxt _2rdacontent
337			_aunmediated _bn _2rdamedia
338			_avolume _bnc _2rdacarrier
520			_a"Nice Leng`ete was raised in a Maasai village in Kenya by relatively progressive parents. Her father established a wildlife sanctuary, which was managed by the Maasai themselves rather than outside interests, and watching how he created a consensus by meeting people where they are gave Nice a lesson for the rest of her life. In 1998, when Nice was six, her parents both fell sick and died - it took years for her to understand that they had died of AIDS. Nice and Soila were taken in by their father's brother, who had little interest in whether the girls stayed in school. He expected that the sisters would undergo the ritual referred to as "the cut" (female genital mutilation), which would make them acceptable Maasai women and signal their readiness to be married. Fearing the ritual cut, which Nice had witnessed as a painful, bloody, and sometimes deadly procedure, Nice and Soila climbed a tree to hide. Nice hoped they could eventually run away, and delay the cut forever, but Soila knew that their uncle would not let both girls defy the rules. But maybe one of them could escape it, if the other submitted. After Soila chose to undergo the surgery, sparing Nice, who was still only nine, their lives diverged in the ways Nice had predicted. While Soila married, dropped out of school, and had children - all in her teenage years - Nice continued with her education, postponing receiving the cut at each school break, and became the first in her family to attend college. While at boarding school, at around age 16, Nice began training with Amref, an organization working for healthcare advances in Africa, after they had heard that she had been successfully talking to girls in her village about FGM. Even after she departed for Nairobi for college, she continued her outreach and made inroads in improving sexual education and feminine hygiene by conversing with the young girls, using herself as an example for what was possible. Changing the minds of the men was the biggest obstacle - as a rule in Maasai culture, women do not lead discussions with men - but again she started at the base, with the young unmarried men, before bringing her ideas about new, alternative ceremonial rites for girls to the tribe's elders. One by one, families agreed to end FGM. Girls were allowed to forgo the cut and stay in school. Men began marrying women who were whole. Nice's town has since ended FGM entirely, and her goal is to end the practice worldwide. Nice's journey from "heartbroken child and community outcast, to leader of the Maasai" is an inspiration and a reminder that one person can change the world - and every girl is worth saving"--
906			_a0 _bibc _corignew _d2 _eepcn _f20 _gy-gencatlg
942			_2ddc _cBOOK