Headline Books

By the Amref activist Nice Leng'ete, one of the TIME's 100 Most Influential People in 2018, an inspirational story of one girl who changed the minds of her elders, reformed traditions from the inside, and is creating a better future for girls and women throughout Africa. Born in a remote village in Kenya, Nice Leng'ete saw the young girls she grew up with receive the cut, the rite of passage into female adulthood in Masai culture. Every girl got the cut, and once you did, you'd be married off to a man triple your age. You might be his second or third wife. You'd have children in your teens. This is exactly what happened to Nice's sister. To resist the cut meant becoming an outcast in Masai culture. Yet Nice managed to avoid it and stay in school. It was not an easy time. She was shunned. At the age of 21, Nice moved to Nairobi to work for Amref Health Africa, an organisation spearheading the campaign against Female Genital Mutilation. Though she was still considered an outcast in her village - even an entap