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. khamail khalaf has hung the laundry y up outside.. ththe blankets t take ages to . she lives inin t hammam m -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. she looks after her eitt childrenen all by herselelf. heher husband wawas an i.s. fir who s kikilledn the e wa that's's made her anand the chin ououtcasts here e in the camp.p. khamail: we were queststioned r three e hours. i keptpt denying thahat my husd was s an i.s. fighghter becaui was afraidid. we are broroken. wewe feel like w we've bn bubui ive. i feel l like i'm no longer amg the living. reporter: khamail l and her childrenen used to livive in a nearbyby village. now, their home is aenent. sul l is the seconond-largest cy

in iraq.q. it w was badly damamaged durine momonths of fighghting that wen in the regegion. two years after it spppped, the old townwn on the western bankf the tigris is still in ruins. on the o opposite bank, meanwhi, the scars left b by the war ae healing. reconstruction efforts are well advanced. former resenents whoe spspent the past fewew years in cacampe startingng to return.. the police a and the army y me sure that i.i.s. is kept o ouf mosul. there are e checkpoints s on at every street corner, and soldie patatrol the cityty. but in the countrydede, trib ders a arehe ones s at decide

whwho is alloweded to retur. najim alal-jubouri is s in charf the secucuty forces in mosul. henonows t peoplple inhe area and how the e families arere be r the e des of i.s.sfighters. najim: thehese camps havave kid many isisis falies, , anit's very dangerous. it's very difficult for these famimilies to retuturn back toy viagage. anand you know, the community n iraq, tribal. some villages accept them, but many villages won't accept them. reporterup to o 0,000 people througut iraraare believed to be affected, most of them women ananchildren. dozens of familiesn n hammam allil shsharthe same fate. womemen in iraq can't oppose cisisions de by thei husbands. but evenhohough th migight b

blameless,s, they can enend up payingor t their husbandnds' cres. gogoufran ali lilives in a camah her motherer, sister, andd daugughter. goufran wawas married ofoff toe of her cousins at the agofof st 14.4. when the war started, her huand d and father j joined i.. both a are dead now.w. goufufran's daughthter rahma s born in i.s. territory, mangng heoffificial statetele. becaususe rahma isn'n't registd withth the authoririties, she t go to school or use heththcare servrvices when g goufran trieded to regir rahmhma, she was h harassed bye responsible public officl.l. goufufran: i wouldn'n't do it,t if you allow them to take their pleasure with you,u, you havea

chance at the i.d. or you bribe them. but you never r know forurure f you'll get the documents. reporter: women from i.s. famies a are aparticicul risk of sexual harassment ficicials e alsoso refusing too isissue divorce papers to gogon ali. without them, according i iraqi law,w, she not a alled to re-marry, , even though h hr husbsband is dead. goufufran: in order to getararrd agai i havave to get a d divor. but that's not possible. most men will also refuse to accece my daughter, because her fathther fought fofor i.s. reporter: atat the age of f jus, goran n ali w faceces life with no perspectives. life in the camp is dreary.

16,0,000 people live together he in clo quauarter those believed to be family of i.s. fighters are generay given no dococuments from m the authoritieies. they're stutuck. that's made life evewoworse fo amail l khaf's sononmar. he's blilind. his eyes werere severely d damd by a min an o operation in the catal baghdad coululd help, if o onlyy could get ththere. khamail: we can'leleave is camp. my son idyining front my eyes. . child is blind. 's paying for hifathther sins. repoerer: fothese e osacized famili, , camplike the 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 restst 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 three aunts, matou, fatou, anou-marie. 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 r 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 comefrfrom 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,

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