- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
- Phasing out teen smoking could save 1.2 mn lives: study
- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
- Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
- Senegal looks to aquaculture as fish stocks dwindle
- Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?
- Climate change, economics muddy West's drive to curb Chinese EVs
- Argentina's Milei vetoes university budget after huge protests
- TotalEnergies plans to grow oil and gas production until 2030
- 2024 Nobels offer glimmer of hope as global crises mount
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong reverses after surge
- Tunisia readies for vote as incumbent Saied eyes victory
- High childcare costs in US weigh on women's employment
- US voters seek help with crushing childcare costs
- Taiwan shuts down for second day as Typhoon Krathon to land
- Supercharged storms: how climate change amplifies cyclones
- Biden official urges talks as US port strike enters second day
CMSC | -0.3% | 24.665 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.33% | 24.808 | $ | |
NGG | -0.85% | 66.405 | $ | |
BCC | -0.2% | 138.02 | $ | |
GSK | 0.45% | 38.545 | $ | |
RIO | -0.26% | 69.65 | $ | |
JRI | -0.18% | 13.276 | $ | |
BTI | 0.4% | 35.25 | $ | |
SCS | 1.98% | 12.875 | $ | |
RBGPF | -3.17% | 58.93 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0% | 6.98 | $ | |
AZN | -0.7% | 77.39 | $ | |
BCE | -0.3% | 33.74 | $ | |
VOD | -0.21% | 9.67 | $ | |
BP | 1.71% | 33.025 | $ | |
RELX | -1.3% | 46.01 | $ |
Scarring for life: traditional practice fades in Sudan
Kholoud Massaed of the Hadaria tribe in Sudan vividly recalls the day her face was scarred with a sharp blade, an ancient practice that was once common.
Now in her 80s, she still carries on each cheek the three lesion lines that have since darkened over time.
"They took me to a man who was known to carry out this practice. He did it with a small knife," Massaed told AFP in her village of Om Maghad, some 66 kilometres (40 miles) south of Khartoum.
"I was seven years old and I cried. They told me I should have these facial marks as it's a sign of beauty."
Tribal scarring, an ancient practice that used to be commonplace in Sudan, involves marking the skin, mainly to identify tribal affiliation or as a symbol of attractiveness.
It was also practised in Sudan, where according to Minority Rights Group roughly 30 percent of the population is believed to belong to African minorities, while the rest are Sudanese Arabs.
The practice has greatly reduced over the years, with many now viewing it as unsanitary, archaic and obsolete.
"People used to sing for it," said Massaed. "It had great value in the past."
For a long time, she struggled to come to terms with her scarring, and now she is grateful that the practice has been dying out.
When her own children came of age, Massaed refused to let them endure the same agonies.
"I didn't take any of my children to be marked," she said. "It's a different time now."
"Only old people still bear these markings, not the younger generations."
Like Massaed, Fatma Ahmed of the Ja'aileen tribe bears similar lines on her face.
"The pain lasted for weeks," she said, adding that she used many traditional healing ointments to ease her suffering.
Communities in remote rural areas of Sudan have long struggled to access proper health care because of poor facilities and infrastructure.
Many men were also marked for life.
For males, these marks often varied from small vertical or horizontal lines on the cheeks to shapes resembling a "T" or "H", according to Babiker Mohammed from the Mahas tribe.
"It was not a choice back then. It was inevitable," said the 72-year-old.
"People just took children to the person known for marking faces, and he would mark the face according to their tribe name," he said.
Mohammed said that he too refused to mark his own children.
"I'm probably from the last generation that had their faces marked" in Sudan, he said.
Idris Moussa Abdelrahman, who is from the Ja'aileen tribe, hopes the practice never returns.
"It's a distortion and harms people for no reason."
T.Morelli--CPN