in the beginning it was just unthought of, unbelievable, because it was so taboo. >> molly melching found a group called tostan, which means "breakthrough" in the local wolof language, in the early '90s. she had modest goals: to educate people about health and human rights, especially in rural areas and in local languages. tostan's work often begins with an ice-breaker, like an old movie. many in the audience have never watched a film. to overcome the language barrier, the selection is a buster keaton silent movie classic from 1923, and it's a hit. a more serious film followed, on vegetable gardening. it's all part of seminars on nutrition, health, basic human rights, and other issues-in groups, songs, dances and drama. >> she needs to be cut. all girls need that. >> it's proven to be one of the most promising attempts in history to wipe out what melching calls female genital cutting a practice that dates back 2,000 years. each year the world health organization says that up to 3 million girls in african are subjected to genital mutilation, and up to 140 million women live with its conseq

this would have been unthought of 50 years ago. take conservative catholics and evangelicals. and when you add evangelicals and catholics, you got more than 50% of the country, so these are not insignificant. for more than 150 years of our history, these groups were at each other's throats. now they have made common cause on the question of abortion. in fact, activism around that issue has really helped to break down a lot of boundaries between white evangelicals and conservative roman catholics in ways that i have certainly found stunning. you get that orthodox jews to that mix. the fault line there is reconfiguring the way that people lined up on that. even a highly divisive issue like that, still highly divisive for our society, on the religious side has also generated some forms of unity among more conservative oriented groups, regardless of religious traditions, and more liberally oriented groups within those traditions. >> you see this where i live. i spend a lot of my time in washington with the stalemated issue. i got a focus groups and speak and try to get a sense of

devicive issue like that in an interesting sort of way has generated something that would have been unthought of 50 years ago. take conservative catholics and evangelical. by the way, when you add e january jell call and catholics, that's more than 50% of the country. these are not insignificant groups in terms of their size. these are precisely the groups that for 150 years of our history, they were at each other's throats. well, when you look at conservative catholics and e -- eevangelicals, they have came together, and break down boundaries between white evangelicals and conservative roman catholics in ways that, you know, i personally have found stunning, so, you know, you can add orthodox views to ma mix, and in other words the fault line there has not cemented denominational differences, but simply recon figured the way people line up on that. even a highly devicive issue like that, which is still highly diversity veesive for a society on the religious side has, in fact, also generated some forms of unity among more conservatively oriented groups regardless of religious tradition and mo