Scarcely after about 700 delegates gathered in Kenya last month to discuss ways of eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa, a court case in Burkina Faso provided a striking illustration of the gulf between activism and reality in the matter of FGM. On Sep. 21, Adama Barry was sentenced to a maximum jail term of three years for having mutilated sixteen girls on Aug. 15 (FGM is banned in Burkina Faso). Prior to the trial, she had received four other prison sentences of between four and six months for carrying out circumcisions.