to stop femamale genital mutilation? an activist from guinea working against a horrific tradition. how to save a unique biotope? locals in colombia have a lot of good ideas, and are doing something about them. but first, killed i. fighterer left families behind. ostracized in society, wherean ththey go? it's a question iraq is tryiyig to answer. the so-called islamic state organization first appeared in

iraq in 2004, and expanded the territory it controlled over the next decade, until it covered a third of the country as well as large parts of syria. after i.s. declared a caliphate in 2014, an international alliance began launching air strikes to drive it back out of occupied areas. in july of 2017, government troops retook the city of mosul, and iraq soon claimed victory over the terrorist organization. thousands of i.s. fighters killed in the fighting, however, left families behind. reporter: winter in iraq is cold and wet. khamaikhalaf hasung the laundry up outside. the blankets take ages to dry. she lives in the hammam -alil camp near r mosul. everyone h here lost theheir hs in iraq's war against the rrrrorist lititia lamic state.

life is a daily struggle f khaml. e looks after her eight childrdren all by hersrself. her husband d was an i.s. . fie whwas s kill in ththe r. thatat's made her r and the chin outcasts herere in the camamp. khamail: we were queuestioned r threree hours. i kekept denying t that my husd wawas an i.s. fifighter becaui was afraraid. we are b broken. we feel likeke we'veeen n bued alive. i feelel like i'm no longer amg the living. reporter: khamail and he ildrdren ud to l le in a neararby village.. now, their home is t tent. mosusul is the sececond-largesty

in iraraq. itit was badly d damaged durine months of fifighting that t wen in the r region. two years after ittotopped, the old totown on the western bankf the tigris is still in ruins. on the opposite bank, meanwhile, the scars leftft by the war re healing. reconstruction efforts are well advanced. former rididents w've e spen the past f few years in n campe startiting to returnrn. the policece and the armrmy me sure that t i.s. is keptpt ouf mosul. there arare checkpointnts on at every street corner, a soldrs p patrol the cicity. but in the countryside, trib dersrs arehe onenes at decidid

who is allowowed to returnr. najim m al-jubouri i is in charf the seserity forces in mosul. k knowshe peoeople inhe area and how ththe families a are be r ththe des of i i.sfightersrs najim: t these camps h have kid many i isis milieses, d it's very dangerous. it's very difficult for these fafamilies to rereturn back toy llllage. and you know, the community in iraq, tribal. some villages accept them, but many villages won't accept them. report: up t t100,000 people throhout i iq are believed t be affected, most of them women d children. dozens of families in hammam allil l sharthe sasa fate. wowomen in iraq can't opposese decicisionmade by thr

husbands. but ev t though ey m mighte blamelesess, they can n end up payi foror their husbabands' imes. goufran ali lives in c camp th her mother, sier, anan dadaughter. goufran n was married d off toe of her cousins at the e e of just 1 14. when the war started, he sbanand and fatherer joined i.. bothth are dead nonow. gogoufran's daugughter rahma s born in i.s. territory, kiking r ofofficily statatess. becacause rahma isisn't registd wiwith the authohorities, she t go to school or use alalthcare seservic. whenen goufran triried to regir rarahma, she wasas harassed bye responsible public offiaial. gogoufran: i wouldldn't do it,t if you allow them to take their pleasure with yoyou, you havea

chance at the i.d. or you bribe them. but you nevever know for s surf you'll get the documents. reporter: women from i.s. falieses aret partrticar riskk of sexual harassme.. offificialare alalso refusing o issue divorce papers to o goufn ali. wiwiout them, according to iraqi lalaw, she notot alled too re-marryry, even thougugh hr huhusband is dead. gogoufran: in order to get marrd agai i h have to get a a divor. but that's not possible. most men will also refuse to acacpt my daughter, because her fafather fought t for i.s. reporter: : at the age o of jus1 ufraran alnow fafacea life with no perspectives. life in the camp is dreary.

1616,000 peopllilive togethehere inlose q quaers. those believed to be family of i.s. fighters are genelly given no d documents frorom the authoritities. they're s stuck. that's made life en n worse r khamaiail alaf's s s omar. he's b blind. his eyes w were severelyly damd by a mine. anan operation in the catal baghdad cocould help, ifif onlyy could get t there. khamail: we cat t leavthis camp. my sons dydyinin front my eyesesmy child is blin 's paying for hifafather sins. rertrter: r thesese tracized famieses, cas like tse are a refuge, and at the same time, a prison. host: female genital mutilation still regularly happens in

around 30 countries, most of them in africa, the middle east, and asia. according to the u.n., around 200 million women and girls worldwide have been subjected to the terrible violation. some are cut as teenagers, others as young children. as awareness of the topic rises, the average age when fgm is carried out sinks. younger girls put up less resistance. female genital mutilation occurs in societies that are christian, islamic, and animist. there's evidence it's been going on in some places for at least 2000 years. where it's common, it's performed on girls and young women from every stratum of society, in both cities and the countryside. and for the rerest of their liv, they suffer from both the physical and psychological consequences. aissata: this is the house where the cutting happened. i remember that day like it was yeststerday.

this house is where i went from being just a normal young girl to being a survivor of fgm. female genital mututilation in guinea is rampant. we are the country with the second highest rate of girls and women who are cut. between 96% and 98% of all women and girls in guinea have been cut. the reason why fighting fgm in the country is so difficult is that it crosses social barriers. educated people are cutting their children, non-educated people are cutting their children, poor people are cutting, rich people are cutting, christians are cutting, muslims are cutting, people who don't believe in any religion and are actually practicing ancient religions are also

cutting. girls are cut from when they are born, to about anywhere between 10, 11. sometimes, if it is later, it is 12, 13, 14. so it's from when they are born, usually from a week old to that age of adodolescence, they cu. there is no limit foundation started in 2008 with my sister mariama, mouninir camara-petrolawicz, and myself. we started it with $18. so with $18 and a dream, we knew that we wanted people to have dignity and to be able to help themselves, so all of our programs are based in communities. we work with locals and we do micro loans. we give women and girls ththe

opportunity to h have economic mobibility, to ownwn their own businesses, to take care of themselves. the project of fgm only started in 2016. to us, it is not just about dropping the rate of fgm, it's about creating a new culture, it's about creating a new tradition and a new norm in our society. without social media, our work wouldn't be the same. i actually use social media to connect with other sister activists around the world that are fighting against fgm. sisters from sudan, from india, from somalia, all working in

their own corner on fgm, and we use social media to re-group, to strategigize, to support one another. do i do? and we help them respond to it. so, social media is critical, it's critical to everything that we do. this is the room that i was living in when i was cut. so, i heard conversations and singing. because it was a celebration to them i panicked. so, i wanted to run away.

but, they come, we walk outside to the courtyard, and then we line up with my cousins and the others, and i will take that long walk. i can't see what they are doing. but then, just this moment where in that movement where i just feel this sharp pain. anand liteterally i could feey clitoris just -- off. and then pain, and then confusion.

did you want me to be mutilated? mafoudia: no. it was your ththree aunts, mat, fatou, anou-mamarie. they decided to circrcumcise y. aissata: how could you allow that to happen to your daughters? mafoudia: it's the parents' duty to the child. aissata: so you think you're doing something good for the children? why? mafoudia: because they say a woman who isn't circumcised isn't clean. thahat she's dirt. that she smells. aissata: i wasn't angry at my mom, i'm not angry at my mom, i'm not angry at my aunts. i was angry at myself.

and i think that is the problem with survivors, it is ththat e sometimes take it too hard on ourselves. so i was mad at myself, i was mad at myself for not hiding well enough, i was mad at myself for not biting their hands. all of these scenarios, it was always me, i did something wrong. what we are doing is to remove the secrecy around the cutting, so we want people to be able to understand it, so that they understand that, one, the cutting is not necessary, so we are doing alternative rites of passage.

what the community showed us was how they used to celebrate the girls, but then it will end with the cutting. and what we are trying to do with them is to teach them that you can still celebrate gigirl, you u could still celebrate yor tradition, but you don't need to do the cutting. when we are doing events, we use social media to o tell people where we are going to be. the young people, they'll post it on social media, tag us to it, and talk about how we are talking about fgm and the fact that they are denouncing it. my dream i is that women will e valued all over the e world, tt it will be okay to be a woman, that we don't have to explain the space that we have to take.

host: this week, our global ideas series takes us to south amamerica. there, ourur reporter tatanja t set out to discover more about a unique aquatic landscape. caused by flooding in northern colombia during the rainy season, it's now in need of protection. and locals are doing what they can to preserve it. reporter: from above, it looks like a lake. but in fact, it's a wetland system known as a ciénega. the landscape is actually hilly. but during the rainy season, overflowing rivers form freshwater meadows, transforming it into a swamp. it's a biotope that's home to an extraordinary variety of plant life, fish, and fauna. the people who live here are

used to a landscape that changes with the seasons. there are some 1900 ciénegas in colombia, of varying sizes. one of the largest, the ciénega de zapatosa, is under threat. omaida rangel is a fisherwoman. she and her seven children live on the island of barrancones. the local fisherfolk are well aware that the ciénega is suffering. omaida: there used to be many, many more fish. huge fish. in general, there was much more wildlife. but lots of species have died out. they've just disappeared. there are species that younger genenerations don't know becaue they don't exist any more. reporter: there are many proboblems besetngng the ciéne. and mostst of them arere causey deforerestation, trerees cut toe waway for palm oilillantation,

and the ensuing aridity. jungle has also been replaced by pastureland for cattlele. anand then therere's the incred frequencofof el niño e events, which dry y out trees and d ree the ciénega's watater levels. nature i is mpletelyly out of kilter. locacals are lookikingr solutions. omaida has joined forces with other fishermen and women and founded an association to protect the biotope with more sustainable fishing practices. they now use smaller nets with a larger mesh to avoid over-fishing, and to ensure stocks can replenish. omaida: we've laid out some ground rules. we agreed that if anyone casts a net in the conservation zone, as they have done here, that we'll pull it out. sometimes wewe burn them. reporter: a furtrther aspect o

local conservation efforts is targeted reforestation. seeds are gathered and cultivated in tree nurseries until they're ready to be planted. many residents have played a role in the deforestation. omaida: lots of people here have destroyed trees to gather firewood. they light bonfires on the water's edge and grill the fish they've caught. or they collect it to take home to their kitchens. repoporter: here in lala mata,e in most other parts of the region, a lot of people live from fishing. in the afternoon, volunteer conservationists hold a meeting. 13 women and four men have come. their aim is to ensure the survival of the ciénega's unique biotope, and with it, their

livelihoods. at the el dividivi tree nursery, seeds and saplings of local plants are cultivated and prepared for planting. they're all useful. gledis: this is an uvita plant. it has to be cultivated from seedlings. its fruit can be cooked and drunk as juice. we're going to reintroduce the plant in the ciénega. reporter: the conservationists make their own fertilizer from cow dung, sand, and banana shrubs. as an incentive, the aid organization tnc pays residents for their plants. the ciénega used to be home to around 3900 species of plant. the fact that so many have died out has wide-reaching consequences. madis: the bocachico fisish hs died out, becaususe there weret

enough trees on the riverbanks. that's why we decided to replant trees. it means the fish stocks will regenerate, too. reporter: trees along the water's edge provide aquatic life with shade and also nutrition. when the fruit is ripe, it falls into the water, and the fish can feed on it. saloá is another village on the ciénega. here in a side street is further example of a local initiative to ensure food security during the dry season. a household garden. the houses here usually have small yards, where owners have planted fruit trees, vegetables, and herbs. some locals are also planning to raise animals for their meat. and ducks and chickens for eggs. libia: the houses used to have huge backyards. people weren't aware that they

could grow useful plants in the yard as a way of economizing. they are now learning to cultivate different types of plants, and about how to use their resources. reporter: neighbors discuss what to grow with a view to trading with each other. that way they maximize the range of produce. this household garden is exemplary. the project is helping locals raise enough to keep themselves fed, even during the dry season. and looming on the horizon is the next el niño, which will mean less rain. the weather pattern is growing more and more frequent, say the fisherfolk, making life even more challenging on the ciénega.

host: this week, our globabal tn comes frfrom an island i in e cariribbean. >> i am a global teen. amelia: my name is amelia cevallos a and i'm 16. i live in the district of san cristóbal in the dominican republic. my father isis an agricultural engineer. he works in barahona at the institute of agricultural and forestry research. my mother is a nurse and a lawyer. she works at a hospital in san cristóbal and in an office. it varies. i think it depends on the

country's economy. i know there are a lot of kids who are fortunate to have financial security, but there are also many that aren't doing so great because their countries are in crisis. the biggest global problem is inequality. in today's world, everyone is pigeonholed and divided into social classes. that's a huge issue around the world. but we'll be back next week with more stories on globalization.

in the meantime, send us your thoughts and comments, global3000@dw.com. see you soon. take care. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute,

03/01/19 03/01/19 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! outeople like me, to come and ask folks this morning on democracy now! to pack the courtroom at 12:30 p.m. today. today is our day to prove that history is on our side and we will be judged by our conduct against a