I Survived the Razor Blade

After enduring genital mutilation, a determined young woman finds her voice — in a beauty pageant.

“Girl, do not fear the razor blade.” Hawa Annour will always remember the lyrics of the song her mother and aunts chanted when she was being cut with cold scissors in Chad. She was twelve years old and underwent a feminine genital mutilation, like half of the girls in her country do. Nine years later, she found herself halfway around the world and healing through participating in a beauty pageant.