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"That group has a social media presence, so they started a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and an Instagram account. A month ago we started noticing an increase in the backlash -- that isn't new, but we were experiencing it on a smaller scale. But in the last two weeks, the backlash has just intensified so much more ... I woke up one day, and all of a sudden my cousins and some other people were sending me these images and pictures -- 'SAHIYO is not my voice' -- and then we learned those images were being shared around Instagram ... some of them were saying we were damaging the community, or that we were just looking for fame."

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Mariya's organization started its own Instagram account, because that's how you fight back in this ridiculous year of 2017. "And then, ironically, it was shut down two days later, and we had no idea why, but the automated message we were seeing from Instagram stated that we were violating community standards. We were very confused by that." That happened again, with only one post up. Suspicious. Mariya is featured in a very well-produced video on the subject called A Small Nick Or Cut, They Say, which has an unusually high thumbs-down to thumbs-up ratio. Suspicious.

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Mariya explains: "People who believe in the religious aspect of the practice, or who simply do not like that the Dawoodi Bohras are being attacked over this issue, were sending messages on WhatsApp, urging people to go on YouTube to down-vote these videos and other anti-FGM videos."

And this is how the fight to keep female genital cutting has evolved. Everyone now has to agree that some types of mutilation are bad, but argues that their specific style isn't a big deal. "They're also saying that this type [of FGC], which is one of the least-severe forms, is not mutilation, because they want to separate the more severe forms from what they practice." That's pretty messed up, and more than a little frustrating, but that's what progress looks like. You can't get people to drop their traditions overnight, even if they're stupid and harmful. At the very least, everyone now agreeing that some forms of genital mutilation are bad is a step toward no one believing any type of genital mutilation is good.

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