When her final high school exam results arrived, she found out she had earned high enough grades to go to college. It was a thrill for the daughter of a farmer. Ms. Bangura is not planning on going to school. She spends most days sitting on a bench, watching other people.
Ms. Bangura was given a choice by her parents to leave or be initiated in a ceremony centered on genital cutting. The society is a term for the gender-and-ethnicity based groups that control most of the life here.
She said that her mom told her to go if she wouldn't do bondo. She wasn't able to pay for further education or marry because of the choice she made.
There has been a push to end female genital cutting in the developing world for more than 20 years. Only a few countries in Africa have not banned it. Every ethnic group in the country practices cutting. The practice is at the center of a lot of debate.
Conservative forces argue that cutting is an essential part of the culture that is practiced across tribal and religious lines, while progressive groups argue that it is time to ban it.
As that battle plays out in the media and in parliament, more and more girls and young women are taking the issue into their own hands. They are refusing to participate in initiation, telling their mothers and grandmothers they won't join bondo.
More than 90 percent of women over 30 in Sierra Leone have undergone genital cutting, compared with just 61 percent of those under the age of 19, according to the most recent household survey. There are places in the country where it is done on girls who are younger.
The social cost of refusing bondo is very high. Women who have not joined are not allowed to marry, to represent their communities in religious or cultural events, or to serve in parliament.
In most cases, the initiation involves the removal of the clitoris and labia minora with a razor by a senior society member called a sowei, who is believed to be spiritual power. The ceremony is done in women-only camps, which used to be rural but are now in towns.
Laws against cutting have not been uniformly enforced. Rates have fallen in Egypt and Ethiopia. The decline has been insignificant in other places. The number of girls at risk of being cut is growing because countries without laws or enforcement against cutting have large and rapidly growing youth populations.
Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of cutting in the world, but it is also one of the few places where the practice seems to be declining.
Isha and her grandma debate bondo as they get ready for school. It is high time for Ms. Ms. Kamara, who is in her last year of high school, wants to manage a bank one day, but she doesn't want to.
Ms. Kamara has known about the plans for her initiation since she was an orphan. She said she wouldn't join the society after reading about cutting in a magazine and being told that God should stay.
She would have no friends. Her friends were also going to refuse initiation. She was warned by her grandmother that she would die alone and not be taken care of.
Her grandmother tried to get her to buy clothes. Ms. Kamara raised her eyebrows at that one.
On the days when the traditional drums echo through Port Loko for an initiation, the nagging is most intense. Ms. Kamara has offered to do a no-cutting bondo, a practice being promoted by some feminist groups, but her grandmother doesn't think that's a good idea.
One of the counterarguments was that it was a lot of money. A family is required to pay the sowei who leads the rites or contribute to a celebration. She said they could spend it on her studies and not call people to come for a feast.
The views of many girls and young women are being influenced by local activism as women drive the push to end cutting. The message that cutting is dangerous, can cause serious difficulties for women in childbirth, undermines their sexual health, and violates human rights has been spread by radio shows and billboards.
Ms. Bangura, who has been living with the family of her friend Aminata since she left her family home, heard the message that cutting was dangerous from her pastor at church. She said that most of her friends were eager to join bondo, but some of them were hesitant. This is different from the past. It is said to bring the risk of a curse if you discuss what happens in the society.
Social change doesn't happen quickly or neatly.
Kai Samura thinks Ms. Bangura's family is overreacting. She said it was unjust if they abandoned her because she refused.
Ms. Samura told her daughters to wait until they are 18 to decide if they want to be initiated. Her husband is against the practice, but he says the affair is a woman's domain.
She thinks she and her husband are less strict about bondo because they live in a town and social controls are more relaxed.
Getting a daughter initiated is important for the family and the girl's future.
The founder of Purposeful, a feminist advocacy organization in Freetown that works to end cutting, said that people don't hate their kids. They are making decisions that are in the best interest of their children.
The Child Right Act would be amended to make it illegal to perform the procedure on girls under the age of 18. Many opponents want a complete ban. It's not clear how to outlaw the procedure. Powerful individuals and institutions continue to champion the practice because it is a key part of the culture and values of the country. The claim that the anti-cutting movement is a Western import is often made.
Fatima Bio, a powerful political figure with a public profile as high as her husband's, has said publicly that she underwent cutting and that she has seen no evidence that it is harmful, but she agreed to give the issue further study.
David Moinina Sengeh said in an interview that he wasn't aware if education about cutting was part of the national curriculum and that he didn't think it should be taught in schools.
He doesn't control what people do at home.
The position he is in is indicative of the ground being cut. Mr. Moinina Sengeh, who holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is one of the most progressive people in the government. The ban on pregnant girls going to school was ended by him. He won't take a stance on cutting. He said that the curriculum shouldn't say "Get cut or don't get cut."
Naasu Fofanah is a prominent Freetown businessman and deputy chair of the progressive Unity Party. She said that when she was advising a former president, Ernest Bai Koroma, on the issue, she succeeded in persuading most sowei leaders to endorse a ban on cutting children. She said that activists were blocking the move.
Ms. Fofanah remembers the pain and shock of the procedure that she had to undergo at age 15. She stated that it was a positive and affirming ritual.
She recalled her grandmother leading dancers in celebration of her transition into womanhood and being told that nobody would speak to her. You are now a woman.
She was able to reconcile what had been done to her body because she knew her mother, her grandmother and her aunts had also been through it. She said, "So you endure, and you're just like, 'OK, that's done, let's get on with it'"
Ms. Fofanah talked her niece out of initiation because the family had enough money to open it. She didn't think a blanket ban was right.
She asked, "Where do human rights meet my rights as a woman?" Are you saying that I don't have the ability to make an informed decision?
The proportion of women who think cutting should stop is rising, and the opinion was held across education levels. Women who thought cutting should end often said they would send their own daughters to bondo. Women wanted the practice to continue while their husbands wanted it to stop.
Traditional and faith leaders helped promote a ban on the practice when the government temporarily banned it due to the outbreak of the disease. Activists said it made a space for a public conversation about bondo that hadn't existed before, and contributed to a rise in young women resisting.
A number of anti-cutting groups have been trying to build support for an alternative process that does not involve cutting. The advantage of this approach is that it preserves an income stream for soweis.
According to Kadiatu, she cut more than 100 girls in Port Loko before her daughter asked her to stop. She confronted her mother after she heard anti-cutting messages at the church.
The bad side is the cutting, but the good side is there is dancing and celebrating and they follow you. She said that the rites without cutting did not have the same power as the ones that were cut.
In countries where the practice of cutting has prominent proponents, the public conversation about it has evolved, according to a leader in the field. She said that as people get more educated they are challenging the blanket "F.GM." The UNCEF has regrouped. We have to be more specific about what we mean in children. We do not mean in females. There is a right for women to do what they want with their bodies.
She said that girls can find it easier to leave home in countries where cutting is not practiced. Girls who resist cutting can get help from shelters and organizations in the country. There is nothing of the sort in Sierra Leone.
When young women resist the ritual, they rely on charity or turn to commercial sex work as one of the few ways they can earn a living. Ms. Bangura sells nuts and cakes in the market in order to save money for college. She is going to church. She sits and waits for Sierra Leone to catch up to her.
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