‘Making history’: The fight to end female genital mutilation in Colombia

Bogota, Colombia – Two women rush onto the floor of Colombia's Senate chamber. The radiating beadwork around their necks and the red and green of their clothing cut through the dark-suited crowd of legislators.

One of the women, Claudia Quiragama, steps behind the wooden podium in the centre of the chamber. She pulls the small, silver microphone close to her mouth. It is a moment to celebrate.

Colombia has just become the first Latin American country to approve nationwide legislation prohibiting female genital mutilation, or FGM.

Quiragama, an Indigenous Embera leader, is from a remote community where the practice is still carried out. She hails the moment as a turning point.

"I’m grateful to all of the legislators," Quiragama told the chamber on Wednesday. "This is what we need — for the needs we face in our territory to be addressed."

Wednesday marked the fourth and final debate for Colombia's Bill 440, known by the slogan "Ninas sin ablacion" or "Girls without mutilation".

After a two-year-long push, the bill was passed unanimously. It now awaits approval from Colombia's president, Gustavo Petro.

Colombia is the only Latin American country where the practice is currently recorded, mostly in Embera communities in the western departments of Choco and Risaralda.

Recognised by the World Health Organisation as a human rights violation, female genital mutilation is defined as the full or partial removal of genitalia for non-medical reasons, through methods like cutting or burning.

But the practice is still widespread. Some 230 million women and girls around the world are estimated to have undergone some form of genital mutilation.

Up until recently, the practice was thought to have disappeared in Latin America. But in 2007, two girls in Colombia died from the procedure after their injuries became infected.

Their deaths marked the first recorded instances of female genital mutilation in Colombia's recent history, and they catapulted the issue back into the spotlight.

In the two decades since, Indigenous leaders and politicians have fought to end the practice. But traditions of secrecy, they warn, still stand their way.