The first time I ever heard of this procedure was from a book I read in the late 1960s called "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex But was Afraid to Ask."  I was a newlywed at the time and had thought it was some ancient custom in Africa and no longer practiced.  I couldn't imagine such cruelty.  I began hearing about it again in later years when a beautiful African-American model came out and said this had been done to her.  I have since heard that in some cultures, they not only mutilate the girl, but they stitch her back up, leaving only a tiny area for her to urinate out of.  On the wedding night, the husband has to open her with a knife before taking his husbandly rights.  And some of the cultures restitch her after childbirth.  The reasoning behind this is that sex brings only pain, never pleasure to a female.  How barbaric is this and why does it still exist???  When will womenkind ever be seen as fully human and treated humanely an all levels???